Ok, everyone, ready to explore Scrooge's past? ;)

Micky: You bet! ;)

Lauren: Yeah! :)

Mike: As long as his past ain't as weird as the openin', sure. ;) :P

Peter: I've always loved Fezziwig's party! :D

Davy: Can't wait to dance with all those Colonial lovelies. ;)

(Everyone trots off-stage as the curtain goes down, except for Mike, who opens the curtains and starts bawling orders.)

Mike: Where's Emma? I've gotta talk to her! Peter missed lines! Where's my make-up...and Micky? I wanna talk to Micky about his ab-libbin' tendancies. :p

Katie: MAKE-UP! (She and the twins run out on-stage with a huge powder puff full of powder, hit Mike lightly in the face with it, and run off giggling) ;)

Mike: (Coughs and brushes the powder off his face) Man...darn kids... :p

*There's a sudden shout from the backstage area.* ;)

Mike: Oh, man. Please tell me he isn't doin' what I think he's doin'. :p

*There's a scream next, followed by SOMEONE "flying" across the stage on wires.*

Mike: Yup, he is. Micky, stop playin' with those things and get DOWN here! :p

*Micky screams again off stage, then whoops. He comes on stage moments later, grinning widely and brushing himself off.*

Micky: That was so groovy! :D

Mike: Mick, do you really expect Dave and me to use those things without killin' ourselves? :p

Micky: Yes. I just did! I may have been screaming, but that because I wanted to. *shrugs* For some reason, it just felt like the flight needed some screaming. ;)

Mike: (Looks up) Couldn't we just walk into the past?

Micky: Oh, come on, Mike, where's the fun in that? Besides, Dave already agreed to it. *grins again* ;)

Mike: He did? What did you promise him to get him to do that?

Micky: Let’s just say I talked him into it. ;)

Mike: Threatened to tell Daphne EVERYTHING he did while we were on tour? ;)

Micky: Yes. ;) >:)

Mike: You're evil. You sure you didn't get rid of that entirely when Shelia cloned you? ;)

Micky: *looks innocent* You have to ask me that, Michael? I'm shocked! You oughta know me well enough to know that I've always been evil like that. I have three younger sisters. I HAVE to be! ;)

Mike: (Looks at the curtain) Well, you'd better head out, Mick. They're gonna be starting any minute. (Pauses; as Micky turns to leave) Mick, have you seen Em around?

Micky: *over his shoulder* Nope, sorry, Mike. *waves as he goes off stage*

Mike: Damn it. I've gotta talk to her. (Sighs and gets back into bed as the lights flash in the house and someone announces that Act 2 is starting)

*The curtain opens, revealing the bedroom set.*

Micky: *comes out stage right again; clasps his hands* We return to Scrooge's bedroom. It is sometime later in the night when Scrooge awakens. We hear the chimes of a neighboring chucrch strike twelve *the chimes go off on cue* and Scrooge counts the number of tolls on his fingers. *slight pause* Though one has to wonder why he needed to count them on his fingers. ;)

Mike: (Glares at Micky as he exits, then frowns) Twelve o'clock. How could it be twelve o'clock? It was past two when I went to bed! (Looks out the window) Someone at the church must have icicles in his brain. It isn't possible that I've slept through a whole day and into the night! It isn't possible that this is noon, and something happened to the sun!

(Mike goes to the window, rubs off the frost, checks to make sure it's still dark, which it is, and flops back into bed again.)

Mike: Oh, humbug. Just wanna...sleep... (he closes his eyes and pulls the curtains again)

Micky: Unfortunately, old Scroogey couldn't sleep. He tossed an turned for an hour, until the chimes toll one. *steps off stage again* ;)

Mike: (Mutters) Scroogey? (From in the curtains) Oh, this is crazy. Marley said the ghost would be here at one! I knew he was just a figment of my imagination! Humbug, I say! :p

*A haze starts into the "room" and a figure appears, arms folded.*

Davy: Just because my watch is a few seconds slow... :P ;)

*The haze dissipates, revealing Davy as the Ghost Of Christmas Past. He wears a white tunic, belt, leggings, and a "crown" of flowers and leaves. He also has a distinct smirk on his face.* ;)

Mike: (Pokes his head out of the curtains; his eyes widen) Oh, man...I mean, are you the ghost whose coming was foretold to me?

Davy: *nods once* I am.

Mike: Who, and what, are you?

Davy: I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Mike: Long past?

Davy: *shakes his head* No. Your past.

Mike: What business brings you here?

Davy: Your welfare.

Mike: (Scowls) A night's unbroken rest would aid my welfare! :p

Davy: Your salvation, then.

Mike: Couldn't I just sleep, then be saved? :p

Davy: *puts a hand out* Come with me.

Mike: (As Davy moves to the window) Where are we going?

Davy: Into your past. Take my hand.

Mike: (Gets up tentatively, but shakes his head) But I'm mortal, and likely to fall!

Davy: Just take my hand and you'll be upheld in more than this!

Mike: (Mutters) Man, how do I let myself get talked into these things? (Takes Davy's hand)

Davy: *also mutters* I'd wonder that myself, but I KNOW how I got talked into this. :P ;)

Mike: Well, if you'd kept your libido to yourself when we were on tour... ;) :p

Davy: *as they go off stage briefly* How was I supposed to know that he wasn't actually sleeping? I didn't think I had an audience. :P

*The setting changes to a country road while the two are off stage. It's a few moments before we see Davy and Mike "fly" with the wires over the road and offstage on the opposite side. They walk onstage a few minutes later, looking a little shook up.* ;)

Mike: (Mutters as the two are dropped rather raggedly to their feet) That's the LAST time we let Micky handle the special effects. :p

Davy: *muttes* Unless blackmail is involved again. :P

Mike: (Looks around as little boys run past them) Good heavens! I KNOW this place! I was a boy here! :D

Davy: *slight smirk* Your lip is trembling. And what is that upon your cheek? ;)

Mike: (Wipes furiously at his cheek, slightly smearing his make-up) I was just thinking of a boy who sang a carol at my door this afternoon. I would have liked to have given him something, that's all. (Waves to the boys) Hello, Edgar! Hello, James, and Daniel, my best friend! (The boys ignore the old man and the ghost)

Davy: These are but shadows of the things that have been. They have no consciousness of us.

Mike: (Walks along a country path) My, how I remember this road! I could walk it blindfolded! :)

(They walk right up to the front of a large old manor house...which opens to reveal a schoolroom, in which a slender young boy who actually does look a great deal like Mike sits, reading.)

Davy: The school is not quite deserted. A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still.

Mike: (Goes to the small boy and gulps back tears) I...know. It's...it's me. I spent many a Christmas alone in this room, reading books and catching up on my schoolwork. (Turns to the ghost with a slight smile) It wasn't all bad. Not many schoolboys can say they spent the holidays with Robinson Crusoe and his parrot and Friday, or Ali Baba and the Forty Theives! I used to have quite an imagination. :)

Davy: And, sadly, that imagination seems to have gone by the way-side. :P ;)

Mike: I don't often have the chance to use it these days. (Looks up with glee as Lauren runs into the room and embraces his younger self) Oh, Fan, my dear older sister! Dear little Fan! (His eyes gleam; he almost seems to brighten) :D

Lauren: Ebenezer! :)

Little Scrooge: Fannie! (Runs and hugs her) I'm so glad to see you! What are you doing here? I thought Father (sadder) didn't want me to come home for the holidays anymore.

Lauren: I have come to bring you home, dear brother! :)

Little Scrooge: Really? Fan, that's wonderful! I've been wanting to see you again! (Shows her the book) You must read this one! "Robinson Crusoe" is ever so much fun, especially the parrot! :)

Lauren: Oh, yes, I would very much like to read this! *pauses, nods* Home, for good and all.Home, for ever and ever. Father is so much kinder than he used to be, that home's like Heaven!

Little Scrooge: That's the best possible news! You're quite a woman, little Fan! :D

(Two people in rather severe late Colonial dress enter; it's Millie and Larry. Millie holds a basket; Larry has something behind his back. Marcus and Danny carry a large trunk behind them.)

Little Scrooge: (Gulps) Schoolmaster! :o

Larry: Hello, my boy. Going home for the holidays, are you? Well, I've got a few things to say to you before you leave, young man!

Millie: My husband loves to scare his pupils. (Nudges Larry) Just give them the surprise, before the poor cherubs pass out! ;) :p

Larry: (Pulls out a bottle of sparkling juice from behind his back) Ok, children, who's thirsty? ;)

Millie: (Pulls a cheesecake out of the basket) And hungry? ;)

Lauren: Oh, that looks wonderful! :)

Little Scrooge: (A bit jumpy, as Larry is shaking his hand eaglerly) Oh thank you, Schoolmaster, (nods at Millie) Mrs. Schoolmaster. Thank you ever so much!

Millie: Larry, let the kid go, before his insides are too shaken to eat. ;)

Larry: Eat as much as you'd like, children.

Millie: This is Christmas, after all, and we wanted to share it with you before you left. :)

Mike: (As the school set slowly moves, he watches Fan) Dear, dear Fannie. She was such a delicate girl, a large breath would have withered her.

Davy: But she died a woman. And had, as I think, children.

Mike: She had a large heart, though, the largest I ever knew. (Quietly) And so does her son, my nephew, Fred.

*Davy merely nods.* :)

(Mike darts backstage to change into the young Scrooge's costume as the small schoolroom set moves out and the huge Fezziwig's set moves in. Davy and Mike's next lines are heard in voice-over. We see people bustling around in late Colonial/early Victorian costume. Larry hurries on, now dressed in a more colorful, less severe suit and a wig. John, the head of the Four Martians, sits at one side of a double-desk. Mike hurries out and sits at the other as the lights come back up.)

Mike: (Pre-recorded voice-over as older Scrooge) Oh, my...I know this place! :D

Davy: *voice-over* You do?

Mike: Was I ever apprenticed here? This is Fezziwig's old Bakery! There's Dick Wilkins! (Points at John) He was very fond of me, was dear old Dick. We courted ladies together, found the newest books together, made jokes about Fezziwig's long speeches behind his back together... (sighs fondly) ;)

Fezziwig: (Stands up from his podium) No more work tonight, my good clerks, bakers, and decorators! Tonight, we're going to have the Christmas balls to end all Christmas balls! :D

John: Really? Will there be young ladies there? ;)

Mike: (Grins) Oh, Dick, get your mind off girls for once! ;)

Fezziwig: Now, young Master Scrooge, I see no problems with Master Dick's interest in a pretty leg or two. (Sweeps his arms to indicate the room) Yo ho, people, let's get this room decorated, before you can say "peppermint cheesecake!" ;)

(And everyone - including costumed stagehands - do so, bringing out tables full of Millie's best goodies. A band plays "Good Christian Men Rejoice" as almost the entire cast, including the Angellettes, the remaining Martians, Nyles, Jack, the Dolenz sisters, Micky, the twins, Emma, and a few Starlight orphans troop out in ones and twos and groups.)

Mike: (As the older Scrooge in voice-over) Oh, how I remember it all! It was a wonderful party, the very best ever! (As Millie and the four Abbies enter, all in elaborate late-Colonial gowns) Look, there's Mrs. Fezziwig and all of the young Miss Fezziwigs, in their best gowns! They loved chasing after all the young men in the bakery, even if their papa didn't always approve of their choices. ;)

(Mr. Fezziwig gets up on a podium with a piece of parchment as the music winds down.)

Larry: Ok, people, it's traditional for me at this time every year to give a little speech. :D

Mike: (Calls from the back) And it's traditional for US to take a little nap! ;)

Larry: (Ignores Mike and John, who burst out laughing) Ok, here's this year's speech. (Reads the parchment) Thank you, and Merry Christmas to all.

Mike: (Shrugs) Hey, it was...short. ;)

John: (Claps) Ok, everybody, let's all give it up for ol' Fezziwig, the world's best speechgiver! ;)

Millie: Hey, give something up for his wife, too! I wrote that! ;)

Kimberly: (Laughs) They wouldn't let Papa write it after last year's speech clocked in at more than an hour! ;)

Larry: (Sighs as everyone laughs) If you're all quite done, (puts an arm on Millie) here's my wonderful Millicent Fezziwig to start off the festivities! :D

Millie: (Nods) Thanks, Lawrence. (To the musicians) Enough with speeches! Let's dance! (She starts the vocal for "December the 25th," and everyone but Mike joins in. Mike wanders off to a corner and sits on a chair there, looking a bit flustered and shy. Emma dances over to the corner as "December the 25th" winds down.)

Emma: Ebeneezer? (Smiles and flutters her fan) Ebeneezer?

Mike: (Looks up and blushes) Yes, Miss Westerly?

Emma: Don't be so formal! You know my name is Belle. (Takes his hands) Do you know what we're standing under?

Mike: (Looks up at the mistletoe) Asparagus and a red shoelace? ;)

Emma: (Sighs) No, but... (gives him a quick kiss on the cheek before she ends up blushing) :">

Mike: (He's also blushing) I...oh Belle, you really...

Emma: (Nods) Um-hmm. (Smiles) Would you...like to dance?

Mike: Um, yeah, darlin'...uh, I mean, I'd like that, Belle.

(He leads her into an instrumental version of "Winter Was Warm.")

Mike: (Older Scrooge sighs fondly in voice-over) Oh, little Belle! I remember how much I was in love with her. I'd never felt the way about her that I did about any woman. I asked her to marry me a few months later, my Belle.

(As the party ends, Larry and Millie let everyone out, then leave themselves. The last people we see are Mike and John.)

Mike: (Grins as they finish cleaning up the mess) Was there ever such a party?

John: Were there ever such lovely ladies? ;)

Mike: Was there ever such an employer as old Fezziwig? :D

John: (As the two men walk off arm-in-arm) Never, never! ;)

Mike: (Sighs) That was some of the most fun I ever had at the holidays, at Fezziwig's parties. We were all devestated when he died.

Davy: Understandable. He was very much loved.

Mike: (Voice over as the set darkens and a smaller set, a simple room with a winter background in the windows, flies out) Yes, he was. The happiness he gave us was as great as if it had cost a fortune. (Another sigh) And Belle...my little darlin'. I started my countin' business with Jacob Marley, whom I met not long after Fezziwig died, just for her, to be able to buy her a house and make her happy. And we WERE happy for a while...

Davy: *voice-over; one can practically hear his head shaking* And then you began to change. :P

Mike: I changed? WE changed. Things...things weren't like there were before, and she was always such a stubborn girl. We grew apart.

(A single light comes up on the room. Emma sits in a chair, now wearing a much simpler, darker gown. Mike is also dressed more severly and looks a bit older than before. Emma dabs at her eyes with a handkerchief. Mike leans over her in a couch next to the chair, but she turns away from him.)

Emma: (Not looking at Mike) It matters little. To you, very little. Another idol has displaced me.

Mike: What idol has displaced you?

Emma: A golden one. You only care about your money and your counting-house now. You have no interest in me. You spend more time in your countinghouse than you ever did in my arms. :(

Mike: Well, yes, but that's how things go, Belle. There's nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there's nothing wrong in pursuing wealth!

Emma: (Finally looks, sadly, at him) You fear the world too much, honey! I've seen all of your noble hopes die off one by one, until there is none left but that eternal pursuit of wealth.

Mike: But I've not changed towards you, Em...um, Belle!

Emma: Have you? If you were free now, would you choose a poor working girl, whose father left so little money, to be your bride?

Mike: (As older Scrooge; voice-over; as younger Scrooge, he says nothing and turns away) Yes, Em..um, Belle! YES! I love you! I love you, Belle! I always have, and I always will!

Emma: (Picks up a snowglobe and goes to the window, then shakes the snowglobe, which depicts a small house in the winter) Was it that winter when we met, the warmth of the carriage ride when you asked me to marry you? It was snowing, but we didn't notice. (She sings the meloncholy ballad "Winter Was Warm" from "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol." Tears run down Mike's cheeks when she finishes - and they're real. She turns from him) I release you, Ebeneezer. I hope you're happy with the life you have chosen. (She puts the ring on her finger on the table and hurries out of the room; her sobs are very much real, as are Mike's as he runs in the opposite direction.)

(Mike and Davy, both back in their Ghost and Old Scrooge costumes, reenter as the Scrooge's room set returns and the lights go back on.)

Mike: (Turns to the Ghost) She LEFT me, Spirit! I never saw her again after that night, and I loved her! I never even found out what happened to her, if she ever married and had a family! (Sits down on his bed, then growls angrily) Why do you torment me by showing me these things? X(

Davy: Just one shadow more...

Mike: No way! No more! I wish to see no more! (Grabs the candle cap by the candle on his bedside and thrusts it at Davy, after which he seems to vanish; he puts his head in his hands and sobs) Oh, Em, my Em. Why was I so foolish? Why?