A Toyland Christmas Carol (Part 2)

Continued...

Bramble walked home, closing his ears to the local nursery children singing Christmas carols around him. He had reluctantly given his clerk, Mr Rufus Dalmation, the day off the next day as it was Christmas - but of course Bramble would have preferred everyone to just work.

He walked through his large, echoing expensive house, without a candle as he did not want to waste money when darkness came for free. He sat by the fire which was barely warm, tiny cinders about to go out. Casting his little hedgehog eyes he suddenly started at an old, antique disused bell on the wall. It had't rung for all the time he'd known it, and Bramble paid it little attention, but as he look at it, it began swining, the chimes, first slowly, then faster, faster, until the whole echoing house was awash with the sound of haunting bells. The bells lasted for scarcely a minute but it seemed like an hour, before stopping as suddenly as they began.

He heard footsteps up the stairs behind him, and tried to ignore them. Footsteps coming closer, closer, until he was forced to turn around. And there stood the icy ghostly figure of Bramley.

Bramble stuttered out a few words, as cold as ever, but frightened too. 'Who are you?' he asked in a deep Birmingham accent. 'And what do you want with me?'

'You know who I am. In life I was your business partner, Burt Bramley.'

'I don't believe you! I don't believe in ghosts!' replied Bramble. 'From the grave? I am just imagining you after my fantastic supper... you are just my imagination playing tricks on me! There is more gravy than grave about you!'. Try as he may, Barry Bramble couldn't cover up the terror he felt in his mean little hedgehog heart.

The ghost uttered a loud, screeching cry, and Bramble gave in. He fell to his knees, his prickles on edge. The ghost of Burt Bramley explained how all the badness he had done in life had made him a wondering spirit after death, forced to roam restlessly until he had paid off his bad deeds. He could offer no comfort to his mean former partner Barry Bramble, the hedgehog he was once so similar to. After some moments, in a deep voice, Bramley's ghost explained why he was present in Bramble's house that Christmas Eve, some seven years after his death.

'You will be visited tonight by three ghosts! Three spirits!' he announced.

In a faltering voice Bramble replied, 'I-I-I'd rather not, to be honest...'

'Without their visits, you will only end up like me! The first will come tomorrow, when the clock strikes one. The second the next night, at the same time. The third will come the next night after that, when the last chime of twelve has struck.'

The ghost of Bramley stepped slowly away, leaving Bramble amazed, and vanished through the closed window. Bramble stumbled to bed and fell asleep on top of the covers, still dressed in his yellow dungarees.

***

Chapter 2.

Bramble woke up some time later, and lay awake sweating, wondering whether it was all a dream or not. He listened to countless hours chime by, until the clock struck a deep, hollow, melancholy One, in the piercing dark of the night. The room suddenly lit up in a flash of light, and appearing immediately in front of his face was a child. A child, of the strangest, radiant quality. Though it was evidently a child, it looked like it had years of wisdom in its brown eyes.

In a squeaky and high pitched voice it announced to him, 'I am the Ghost of Christmas Past. Would you like a blueberry muffin?'

Bramble politely declined, and the Ghost offered out her hand. 'Walk with me.'

It was useless for Bramble to worry about how warm it was in his bed and how it would surely be freezing outside. As the Ghost led him towards the window, Bramble was also concerned that he would fall. Yet in an instant, he found himself led through the wall and into an open country path on Sunshine Avenue, Toyland, the sunshine beaming through the windows, though Bramble was sure just seconds ago he was in the middle of the night.

'But.. but.. this is where I went to school! In Birmingham!'. The sights and smells reminded Bramble instantly of the joy of his youth. He recognised all the passing people - not least all his old school friends. His eyes lit up as all the woodland creatures in their school uniforms holding their brown satchels scampered along, cheering a Merry Christmas to eachother. For once these words actually made Bramble happy, but why? What good had Christmas ever done to him? The schoolchildren all walked past Bramble, not paying him or the Ghost the slightest of attention. They could not be seen in this strange adventure, it seemed, as all the boys and girls passed by on their way home for the holidays.

'The school is not quite empty. There is still one child there, alone, neglected by all his friends.'

Bramble knew it, and it made him sad. They walked to the school, and inside, and down the dreary dusty corridors, past the childrens work on the wall and the empty classrooms, before finding one classroom, where behind row upon row of empty desks, sat one little boy hedgehog reading by the fire. Bramble felt a tear in his eye to see himself as a child. The Ghost tapped in his arm and his spirits were quickly lifted by the sight of all the pantomime characters walking by the windows. Bramble jumped up with laughter naming all of their names. Yet there sat young Barry Bramble.

The Ghost waved its hand thoughtfully and announced, 'Let's look at another Christmas.'

Bramble's former self suddenly grew larger, and the walls of the classroom turned dirtier, and pieces of plaster fell from the ceiling. How this was happening was a mystery to Bramble, and all he knew was it was true. There he sat again, alone in the classroom another Christmas.

The door swung open and another little hedgehog, much younger than Barry, came bounding in and wrapped her arms around the young Bramble. 'Dear, dear brother!' she exclaimed. 'I have come to bring you home!' She clapped her tiny hands and began to laugh. She dragged her brother in childish eagerness out the door. The older Bramble watched his younger self bid farewell to the cruel eyed schoolmaster, Mr Waxcake, and jump into a car outside, which sped off.

'She was a lovely girl with a big heart,' suggested the friendly Ghost.

'She was, she was. And there's no denying that,' replied Bramble sincerely.

(40)

To be continued...