Billy B. was fascinated with the Charles Dickens Christmas Classic, A Christmas Carol, and he read the narrative each year. He had memorized large portions of the text and he and Chet would quote paragraph after paragraph to each other during the Holiday Season. Chet said that he had been visited by the Ghost of Christmas Future and the spectre had warned him to beware of this Christmas Season…as it was the harbinger of a dark future if mankind did not change their ways and become renewed in the spirit of the Enlightened Scrooge. He then said something that was somewhat unbelievable…Tiny Tim was missing from the story…and no one knew where he was…

Chet got one of his many copies of A Christmas Carol down from his bookshelf and looked for the numerous accounts of Tiny Tim. Everywhere that Tiny T. was mentioned…like ‘Bob Cratchit carried…. on his shoulder.’ Chet telephoned Billy B. and told him of the mystery of the missing Tiny T. Billy B. responded, ‘Oh he is not really missing…he is eating Malto-Meal with mom at the kitchen table…and does he ever use a bunch of sugar on his cereal.’ Mom said that he came through her Magic Mirror to warn those who would listen to him…that Christmas would soon be forgotten if the human family of 2021 did not stop thinking exclusively of themselves and begin thinking of those who are suffering… Tiny T. noted that he had already been removed from the book and that soon his dad and the entire Cratchit family would be deleted also. Tiny T. went on to say that the Ghost of Christmas Present had lost 200 pounds and had laryngitis. Instead of being dressed in a brilliant green robe…he was clothed in sackcloth and ashes. Now…rather than Want and Ignorance hiding under the skirts of his robe…they were in charge of his broken-down castle and he worked for them…he no longer held a Horn-Of-Plenty…but rather a half bottle of Prune Juice…

Tiny Tim said that he was going to stay with Billy B. for 1 year…and that if they could not make a difference in renewing the Christmas Spirit… Chet suggested that they consult Santa Claus to see if he had any ideas on how to proceed…and off the were all three holding on to the night-shirt of the Ghost of Christmas Future… who was very happy to see…Tiny T.

Santa welcomed the cold crew of Christmas Helpers into his Grand Living Room with a roaring fire in his massive fireplace. When he had heard Tiny T.’s story he opened his copy of A Christmas Carol and saw with dismay that Bob Cratchit’s name had now disappeared from the vivid story. ‘We must act quickly’…said the benevolent old gentleman. Santa said that they must send each child and adult alike…a dream that explains the most certain demise of Christmas…if they do not change…the dream must illustrate what their future will look like without the Christmas Spirit… And so…that night…it happened…billions saw the future that they would awaken to once Christmas no longer existed. There was pain and anguish and suffering and death…and pervasive loneliness…that covered the earth like a dark blanket… The church doors closed and were locked…no one waited for the birth of Jesus…when the rich saw the homeless they laughed a hollow and anguished chuckle…and they saw in their hungry eyes…that they were next…

Loving your neighbor as yourself…was really the message of Christ…