A Christmas Carol; Revised
By: Reiley
The light was dim when she entered the room, no sound was made, no whistling of the wind. Everything was silent.
“Jenny?” Elissa, her two-year-old sister asked, then, when there was no reply, she started crying.
“It’s ok; her mother whispered, she’s in a better place now.”
Back story:
Jenny had been the perfect girl growing up, with short brown hair that turned into her neck at its base. She liked long walks and being in everyone’s life, trying to make that the best moment of that certain person’s day. She liked bright colors like yellows and blues, and she loved to meet anybody new.But something changed in Jenny; she became weak and sad and wouldn’t want to talk to anybody.Especially around the time she turned eleven, she started to get sick, and she would cough and sniffle. She would have enormous, massive headaches reoccurring more than once in a day. Her mother thought she might be catching a cold, or the flu, nothing serious but she took her into the doctor’s office to make her feel better anyway. The doctors found nothing wrong. Time passed on, it progressed and got worse. Again the doctors could find nothing. One day Jenny was coming home from school on her bike and suddenly collapsed. She was out cold, her mother drove wearily to the hospital. It was after dark now, and she had been transferred to the ER.
She had been in the hospital for over two weeks, and many friends and family had come to see her. She was weak and getting worse. Her temperature rose and fell. The doctors did an x-ray scan and found she had a brain tumor; it was pushing against the right side of her skull and her brain. Pretty soon she would not be able to see out of her right eye. Her family did not have the money for the surgery, and so she could not be helped.
The service was short and her friends and family wept for days on end. But one of the people who took it the hardest was her neighbor Clarisse. She was younger and shorter, and had long flowing blonde hair. She liked to wear skirts and ruffled tops.And Jenny had babysat for her when she was little, now and again, and Clarisse had considered her to be one of her best friends. Clarisse always believed that nobody really died, and yet her best friend had. She believed God never really let people go; they just went off and moved somewhere.But there was Jenny, buried six feet under dirt and rubble. Would anyone remember her? Would they forget her underneath all that debris and never think of her as of anything ever again? Clarisse would not let this happen, she wanted revenge.
Years passed and Clarisse could not get over Jenny. Her grandmother, Eleanor, tried to comfort her by saying “Jenny was the sweetest thing, made of gold and shining bright, but as you know, all things gold must go.”
As everyone in the small town knew, Eleanor had always been the wisest; she always wore her Sunday dress; a long, flowing, pink dress with little yellow flowers and white lacy trim.She had secrets like how she died her hair every two years or so; she would dye it blonde and then back to gray again just to convince herself she is still young looking. But few knew Eleanor’s real secrets, like how she was a psychic. Eleanor always tried to help, but you had to listen carefully to understand what she meant by what she said.
Clarisse was too young to understand her words of wisdom, and so she became depressed and longed to make other friends. She had tried a few times to get the other girls in her class to be her friend, but they weren’t interested in her hobbies as Jenny once had been. The friendships hadn’t worked, they had much rather failed. But what Clarisse wanted was for Jenny to be alive again, and be her best friend again. Then again, she had always felt a presence but no one was there with her, or was there?
Jenny had been watching over Clarisse for many years and saw her dig herself deeper and deeper into the pit of depression.And yet she could do nothing, for she was chained with the thoughts of her past.Would she ever get out?
“If I don’t help her, what will happen to her?” But what could she do?
For nights on end she wandered the earth thinking to herself, “What is wrong with me?Is there nothing I can do?”
“Hello, Jenny.”
“What? Who’s there?”
“O’h don’t worry child, it’s only me.”
“O’h, Eleanor? Is that, is that really you?”
“Yes my child, now what is all that rubbish you speak of?”
“What? O’h you mean about Clarisse. Well, I’m worried about her; she seems like the perfect girl on the outside, but inside she crumbling.”
“As you know child, people with crushed golden hearts can always be pieced back together again.”
“Yes, I do suppose so, but how can that help me?”
“That, you’ll have to figure out on your own, I best be off then. Goodbye, my child.”
“Wait, where will you go?”
“O’h don’t worry, I’ll be back sooner than you think.”
Jenny hadn’t realized this, but Clarisse had been failing most of her classes and getting straight D’s otherwise. She got teased at school about being the ‘F’ girl. One night she had a sleepover with one of her best friends, Mary, and Stephanie, who she didn’t prefer but went along with it anyway because she was Mary’s friend. She had fallen asleep early and awoke around 11 pm, later that night.
Mary and Stephanie were still wide awake and blabbing their mouths off, and Stephanie finally said “Why are you friends with the ‘F’ girl?”
This had made Clarisse furious, but before she could say anything Mary cut her off and replied with laughter. Clarisse pretended she hadn’t heard and stayed still as if she were asleep. When the other girls got into their sleeping bags, she silently cried herself to sleep.But something had snapped in her, it crushed, and she wanted revenge over anybody and everybody who stepped in her path.Something turned over, flip-flopped in Clarisse and she was burnt a deep burn unto which no one could heel, as black as night and as cold as ice, was her heart, and it would forever stay that way.
“I’m back.”
“O’h Eleanor!”
“How’s Clarisse doing?”
“I’m not sure, my locators out, haven’t been in contact with her lately.”
“Come see, hurry.”
“O’h no Clarisse!”
“It’s ok my child.”
“What will happen to her?”
“In time you’ll see.”
“What? When?”
“Just remember this, gold may melt, but not burn, liquefy, but not evaporate, for it is always there, you just have to dig deeper and rise it out of the blackened earth beneath.”
“Sure….”
“I’ll be off then.” Jenny thought for a moment, what was Eleanor talking about? How did it involve Clarisse? And what am I supposed to do?
Jenny got back in contact with Clarisse; she would sit and watch her fail all of her classes each and every day. How could she help?
What does Eleanor mean when she says “it’s always there”?
Is there some good left in Clarisse? Jenny thought about this for a while, she knew something was there but she couldn’t do anything about it.
Clarisse started to walk home. Then she saw something that shocked her, Clarisse’s dog, Chichi, came out to greet her and Clarisse kicked Chichi and she went flying!She landed across the lawn, and started whimpering.
“O’h shush up, dog!” Chichi got up and limped into the house.
“Poor Chichi.” She went in after her, about to tell Clarisse that she has done wrong, and Jenny stops dead in her tracks. Clarisse is tormenting her little brother.
“Try to get it back now!”
“Dino!”
“Haha!”
“Dino!!!” Clarisse threw her brother’s dinosaur across the yard and into the deep, cold, snow.Jenny was appalled by this, is this what Clarisse had come to be? Is this the result of something that could have of been avoided? Was it Jenny’s fault? Is it because she died at such a young age and when Clarisse needed help the most? Was it her fault? This is how Jenny took it. She put it in her perspective and this is how she straightened it out. It was her fault for making Clarisse this way. She would have to fix it.
Then she went right in the room and shouted“Hey!”
This made Clarisse jump,“Jenny? Is that you?”
“Yes.”
“No, it can’t be! Don’t come closer! Please!”
“It is, and it is wrong what you’ve been doing!”
“What have I been doing? How would you know anyway? You’re dead!”
“I may be dead but I am watching you, you may not know it but I’ve always been there, watching you.”
“How can I see you now? Why haven’t I seen you before?”
“I am letting you see me, now trust me, what you are doing is wrong!”
“Tell me what have I done that has been so wrong?”
“Kicking Chichi? Throwing Dino into the snow?”
“So? What’s so wrong? That’s what you do when you get my age!”
“No! No, no, no you don’t! I was once your age to! I never did any of those things!”
“Well I’m sorry I don’t live up to your standards! My life was a lot tougher than yours!”Clarisse ran off into the snow, across the street, and into her neighbor Gigi’s house. O’h Clarisse, she thought, what have you done to yourself? Then she thought, what have I done to you?
“Clarisse?”
“Yes, grandmother?”
“You have been very rude in the last couple of years.”
“I know! But I don’t know how I can change!”
“You weren’t always this way, you know.”
“Yah but I haven’t been nice since, well since Jenny died.”
“When you lose someone, you don’t just stop living. You progress and move on. But when the subject can’t be avoided, you embrace it! You don’t run away and hide!”
“Well, I don’t know how to embrace it!”
“Well, I’ll be back later when you do learn how.”
“Ok, bye grandmother!”
“O’h Clarisse!”
“Jenny!”
“Yes it’s me. Do you see these chains?”
“Yes, and may I ask why are they there?”
“I must where these chains and wander the earth for eternity, unless someone helps me unravel the burden of what I had never recognized in my life.”
“And what is that?”
“What I could have avoided!”
“Like what?”
“Like you becoming this way!”
“O’h Jenny! It’s not your fault!”
“Yes it is! If I wouldn’t’ have of died, you wouldn’t be like this!”
“Yes I would’ve, it’ not your fault, it’s mine. I need to learn to get better, but I’ll need help along the way.”
“Well, I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t do much with these chains, you know.”
“Ok Jenny, I guess I’ll see you later.”
“Remember even if you don’t see me, I’ll always be there, watching you.”And with that Jenny faded out into the hazy darkness of the room, not visible for anyone to see.
“Clarisse? I’m back, have you figured it out yet?”
“Yes now tell me what I’m doing wrong so that I can change it.”
“Yes my dear, you are very rude, but there is kindness in you, you’ll have to find it within yourself.”
“What all can I do?”
“That’s not my job to figure out, it is yours. Talk to Jenny, she’ll help you along the way.”
“Yes grandmother.”
“Goodbye, my dear.”
“Goodbye, grandmother.”
“Jenny? Are you there?”
“Here I am.” Clarisse turned around to look at Jenny.
“Well?What all can I do?”
“You’ll figure it out.”
“But---”
“Let me tell you first! Ok this is what you can do first; go apologize to your brother, and to Chichi.”
“Ok, then what?”
“Go do that first.”
“Ok!”
Clarisse comes backafter apologizing. “Jenny?”
“No, it’s me again, sorry if I’m not the face you wanted to see.”
“No, it’s ok, grandmother.”
“Now I would like to know, what is it that I can do in the future to help me change?”
“Well if you embrace Jenny in everything you do; you won’t feel as bad about her dying. You will feel like she’s really there, and she will be, watching over you everywhere you go.”
“Well then what will happen?”
“You may be able to focus more on schoolwork and raise your grades.”
“O’h that will be the day!”
“It may happen! Now, come, sit, I want to tell some more.”
“Yes, grandmother.”
“You can start to treat others nicely, and they’ll be nice back in return!”
“You really think so?”
“I know so!”
“Ok, grandmother! Let’s start now!”
“I’m afraid it’s too late now.”
“What do you mean?!?!?”
“O’h it’s only past your bedtime! You can still change, but start tomorrow, Ok? The chance will still be there in the morning! Think happy thoughts.”
“Ok! Yes! I will grandmother!”
Jenny appears in the mirror. “Jenny!”
“Thank you thank you so much!”
“But what have I done? I haven’t done anything yet!”
“See? Look at me! There Gone!”
“What are gone?”
“My chains! O’h thank you, thank you so much!” Jenny floats into the air and up and up and beyond anyone could ever imagine.
“Thank you…..” she whispers into the night.
Update: Clarisse has started to treat others nicer, and she embraces Jenny. They talk regularly and everything is going alright. Clarisse has apologized to those she’s done wrong; she has been forgiven and lives peacefully once more.