Horrid Henry's Christmas Carol

Stave 2 The First Ghost

The hour is struck again by a large street clock and the first spirit appears. It is Brainy Brian.

HENRY:
Brian? Is that you?

BRIAN: No Henry. I'm not the REAL Brian.

HENRY: Then what are you?

BRIAN:
I am your Ghost of Christmas Past.

HENRY:
Why are you here?

BRIAN:
Your welfare. Rise. Walk with me.

Henry:
I'm still alive! I can't go with you!

BRIAN:
My hand. (Henry grasps the spirit's hand tightly, and Brian's bell rings softly. Henry

remembers a scene from his past when he was in detention and everyone has left!

HENRY:
They...they're off for the holidays and going home from school. It's Christmas time...all of the

other kids off home now...No...no, not at all... there was one... (BRIAN motions for HENRY to turn, and he sees a young boy playing with his pet hamster and talking to it.) Yes...I remember.

BRIAN: What, I wonder?

HENRY:
Oh, it was nothing. Fancy, all fancy and make-believe and take-me- away. All of it. Yes,

nonsense.

PAST HENRY: You know Fang. This is really the worst Christmas ever. Can't believe that old Soggy Sid caught me purple handed. 

HENRY: Poor kid. All alone. With no friends.

(Enter Great Aunt Greta)

GRETA: Henrietta!

PAST HENRY: Great Aunt Greta?

GRETA:
I've come to bring you home, home for good and ever. Come with me, come now. (She takes his

hand and they start to run off, but the spirit stops them and signals for the light on them to fade. They look at the spirit, aware of their role in the spirit's "education" of Henry.)

PAST HENRY: Good riddance BLAST-ton Primary! 

HENRY:
Let me watch them go? Let them be happy for a moment! (BRIAN says nothing. Henry turns

away from them and the light goes out.) A delicate, delicate kid. A breath might have withered her.

BRIAN:
She dies a woman and had, as I remember, a nephew in law.

HENRY: One child.

BRIAN: Your dad.

HENRY:
Yes, yes, my dad. (Henry pauses, then tries to bluster through.) Well? Well all of us

have that, haven't we? Childhoods? Sadness? But we grow and we become men, masters of ourselves. (Brian gestures for the music "Fearless Phantom's Party" to begin. It is heard first as from a great distance, then Henry becomes aware of it.) I don't have time for it, Spirit. Music and all your Christmas nonsense. Yes, yes, I've learnt my lesson. (Phantom, Past Henry, and Al appear, busily preparing for the party.)

PHANTOM:
Yo ho, there! Henry! Al!

HENRY:
Phantom! It's old Fearless Phantom that I apprenticed under.

BRIAN: Your acting master?

HENRY:
Oh, yes, and the best that any boy could have. There's Aerobic Al! Bless me. He was very

nice to me.

PHANTOM:
My boys! No more work tonight. Christmas Eve, Al! Christmas, Henry! Let's have fun! (The music continues. Chandeliers are pulled into position, and mistletoe, holly, and ivy are draped over everything by bustling servants. Dancers fill the stage for Phantom's wonderful Christmas party. In the midst of the dancing and the laughter servants pass back and forth through the crowd with huge platters of food. At a pause in the music, young Henry, who is dancing, calls out.)

PAST HENRY:
Mr. Phantom, sir, you're a wonderful master!

HENRY and PAST HENRY: A wonderful master!

HENRY:
(Echoing the phrase) A wonderful master! (The music changes suddenly and the dancers jerk into

distorted postures and then begin to move in slow motion. The celebrants slowly exit, performing a ghoulish dance to the jarring sounds.)

BRIAN:
Just because he gave us a party? It was very small.

HENRY: Small!

BRIAN: There is more Henry that I must show you.

HENRY: Surely it's enough. Haven't you tormented me enough?

(PAST HENRY is seen dancing with Gorgeous Gurinder.)

BRIAN:
Look. Another promise.

HENRY:
Oh. Oh, yes. I had forgotten...her. Don't they dance beautifully? So young, so young. I would

have married her if only...

GURINDER:
Can you love me, Henry? Just me? No? (She pauses, then returns the ring Henry gave her as his pledge.) I release you, Henry, for the love of the man you once were. Will that man win me again, now that he is free?

HENRY:
(Trying to speak to her) If only you had held me to it. You should not have let me go. I was young,

you have chosen. Good-bye. (She runs out. PAST HENRY slowly leaves.)

HENRY: No, no, it was not meant that way...!

BRIAN:
You can't change the past Henry. No one can.

HENRY:
Then go away!

BRIAN:
There is another Christmas, when-

HENRY:
No Spirit! I can't take these anymore!

BRIAN: Don't blame me! These were the shadows that took place in your past. 

HENRY: Shadows? What do you mean? 

BRIAN: Memories, Henry. 

HENRY:
And what about the other spirits?

BRIAN: They will come.

HENRY:
And you? What about you?

BRIAN:
I am always with you. And remember! You fashioned these memories yourself. (Henry numbly heads to bed. Signal the chiming of Henry's bell.

Henry sits upright in bed as he hears the chimes.)

Well, that changed nothing. (goes to sleep)