The Last of the Spirits Read Online Free PDF Page B

that went right down to the water,’ he continued. ‘There was ducks there and fish too. You could see pike sometimes hunting in the shadows. There was a vegetable patch where we grew our own food and you and me would hunt for caterpillars on the cabbages and we would take them in a bucket to a place well away and let them go, after making them promise not to come back.’
    He paused there, summoning the courage to conjure up the next image, sun bright, blinding.
    ‘There was a sloping grass bank and Mother used to sing to us there,’ he said, his voice starting to falter. ‘You on her lap and me sat alongside on a blanket. Under a big old willow tree. She’d sing and the little birds would twitter in the trees and bushes and . . .’
    He stopped and closed his eyes.
    ‘Sam?’ said Lizzie.
    He did not reply.
    ‘I’m sorry, Sam,’ said Lizzie. ‘I shouldn’t have made you remember. I know you don’t like to.’
    ‘That’s just it, Liz,’ said Sam. ‘I love to. I love to. But I can’t . . . I ain’t strong enough . . .’
    ‘Sam, I –’
    Lizzie stopped and stared over Sam’s shoulder with a look of utter astonishment on her grimy face. Sam frowned and turned.
    The curtains were open and outside all was darkness. Out of this gloom was appearing, with horrible fluidity, the doom-laden features of Marley’s ghost, floating just outside the windowpane.
    Sam reeled backwards and managed to put a hand over Lizzie’s mouth to stifle the scream. Marley’s ghost loosened the topknot of his scarf and let his jaw flop to his chest.
    ‘What are you doing there?’ he moaned quietly, reaching out a hand towards them. ‘You should not be there!’
    Sam backed away some more, holding on to Lizzie until he collided with the table. But Marley’s ghost did not enter as Sam had assumed he would.
    ‘Wait a minute,’ whispered Sam. ‘You ain’t supposed to be here neither, are you? That’s why you can’t come in.’
    ‘What do you mean?’ said Lizzie. ‘Do you know who that is?’
    ‘He’s called Marley,’ said Sam. ‘He used to work with Scrooge. When he was alive.’
    ‘You . . . must . . . leave!’ hissed the ghost angrily.
    ‘I don’t think we will,’ said Sam. ‘It’s all right for you out there in the cold. You don’t feel nothing. You’re dead, ain’t you?’
    Marley’s eyes narrowed and a curl twisted his upper lip.
    ‘I think you may be colder than I am, by some degrees,’ said Marley.
    ‘I ain’t sentimental, if that’s what you mean,’ said Sam. ‘It’s a luxury, ain’t it? It’s one we can’t afford. So I don’t care about you or your mates out there, all right?’
    ‘You . . . must . . . leave!’ he hissed again.
    Lizzie whimpered.
    ‘I don’t think so,’ said Sam, stepping forward and shutting the curtains.
    Lizzie ran to the other side of the room, staring back towards the window, her skinny legs shaking.
    ‘He can’t get in, Liz,’ said Sam.
    ‘How do you know?’ she said.
    ‘Because if he could, he’d be in by now. He was here to tell Scrooge about them spirits, that’s all. He’s no more meant to be here than we are.’
    ‘How do you know?’ asked Lizzie.
    Sam took a deep breath.
    ‘I might have talked to him in the churchyard,’ he said.
    ‘What? Talked to him about what?’
    ‘He says he’s here to help save Scrooge’s soul,’ said Sam. ‘Three spirits are coming and they’re going to show the old prune the error of his ways.’
    Lizzie stared at him.
    ‘And was you ever going to tell me about it?’
    Sam shrugged. Lizzie scowled.
    ‘But he can go through walls. What’s stopping him?’
    ‘I think he’s scared,’ said Sam.
    ‘Scared? What of?’
    Sam shrugged and ground his teeth nervously before replying.
    ‘I don’t know. Those other spirits, I suppose. The ones who are going to teach the old man.’
    It worried Sam, though he did not show it. It worried him that a phantom such as that would be scared. It