Carol for Another Christmas by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Read Free Book Online

anyone of that race.
    â€œGood day to you, sir,” he said.
    The Asian gentleman, little more than a boy actually, jumped up immediately and ran to the door of his room to call out, “Hey, you guys. That glitch we saw on the screen a few minutes ago! It’s back, and it talks .”
    Scrooge took the opportunity to look about the room. It was a small and quite ordinary room. Well, perhaps not entirely ordinary. A window showed that although it was very gray outside, it was not yet dark. Raindrops splashed against the pane. He saw no fire, nor even a small grate to hold one. The interior was lit, quite brightly, not by candles or oil lamps but by some sort of glowing glass orb that gave off light as steady and bright as sunshine. The door had glass around it, and affixed to this glass were the tattered remnants of many small, paneled drawings. Scrooge tried to examine them, and found he was prevented by a barrier of some sort that would not allow him to fully enter the room. Curious.
    The young man returned, this time with many of the faces Scrooge had first seen, peering over his shoulders.
    â€œWow, look—it is back. Not on my screen yet, Curtis. What did you do to get it to come up again? Phenomenal full-screen video,” a young woman with wild blond curls said.
    â€œSo what do you call it, man?” asked a fellow with a dark beard and hair slicked back into a horse’s tail.
    â€œI dunno, John. It just zapped into the middle of my coding. I hope I didn’t lose everything I’ve done in the last twenty minutes.”
    â€œWell, see if you can get back to what you were working on.” This suggestion came from a portly man the color of strong tea.
    â€œWhat? Have you flipped, Phillip?” the Asian man addressed as Curtis asked. “Make it go away? This is interactive TV, man. Listen to him.”
    â€œA demo date is sacred. Haven’t you been listening to Miz Money talking? Whatever this guy is, he ain’t code. Shut him down,” Phillip said.
    â€œKilljoy. I don’t get to have any fun. But okay. So, nice knowing you, dude. I’m escaping now. Bye,” Curtis said, stabbing at a button.
    But this time, Scrooge resolved not to be put off or have the door slammed in his face. “Here now, you,” Scrooge said in the voice he’d used to strike terror into the hearts of tenants and clerks before his transformation. “I’m tired of this rudeness. You have a few questions to answer before I’m done with you!”
    â€œHey! I hit Alt-4 and nothing happened. That should have closed his program.”
    â€œWhoa!” John said, scratching his beard thoughtfully. “It won’t let you out, huh? So much for today’s work. Okay, I can handle that. Do a hard boot and see what happens.”
    Curtis stabbed a finger again but Scrooge raised his cane and shook it at the fellow, adamant not to be ignored. Peculiar, that they should bury him with his cane. Convenient, however. “You there! Stop, I say!”
    â€œHe’s . . . still . . . there,” the curly headed woman said. “I don’t think we’re in Windows anymore, Toto.”
    â€œWhatever are you talking about, madam? Of course I am still here, and I demand to know where I am, who you are, and just what is going on here.”
    â€œThis is rich!” John cried, slapping his thighs and hooting in a voice entirely too loud for comfort.
    â€œWho thought you up, gramps?” the blonde asked as sweetly as she might ask a lost child what his mother looked like. “How do you work?”
    â€œCould be one of the network guys messing with our heads,” Curtis said doubtfully.
    â€œI bet I know who he is, Melody,” Phillip said. “I’ll bet he’s a present from Wayne—a new Wild Web toy to slow us down and make us wish we’d jumped ship with him. That’s it, isn’t it?” Phillip said, pointing a finger at