Charity Begins at Home

December 16 The week before Christmas, Charity announced to her classes that they would be reading the play version of "A Christmas Carol." The students, she was gratified to note, were enthusiastic: I wanna be Bob Marley! I wanna be the Christmas presents! Scrooge! I wanna be Scrooge! Charity assigned parts and they began reading. "That's not a booming voice!" Danny yelled, when one student read his part in a monotone. A few students read in Cockney accents. They were very convincing, Charity thought, but some of the kids didn't. "That's wacked! You're crazy!" They said. Kevin read the part of Tiny Tim. He was small, hyperactive, impulsive, so of course he kept screaming, "God bless us, everyone!" at regular, unscripted intervals. Marvin read the part of the Ghost of Christmas Future, who had no lines but only pointed. Every time the narrator read about the phantom pointing, Marvin raised his hand, only, and barely indicated an area to his right, no matter what the stage directions said. He did it exactly the same way each time, and each time it seemed funnier.