Mr. Dickens and His Carol

by Samantha Silva

“Flee all you like,” she said, turning to face him. “Your past is quicker than you are and will catch you soon enough.”

“The world enters in, doesn’t it, when one least wants it,” he said to her, exasperated. “And when we want it the most?” she asked. “What does the world do then?”

“A door closes at times. Even between those who’ve loved well.”

“For the second saddest thing in the world after a child who’s been abandoned,” said Eleanor, “is the parent who abandons him.”

“We are all lost, all broken,” said Eleanor. “Trying desperately to be whole again.”

“And the colder it was, the nearer we were to each other, and to the truth of Christmas. The truth of your books … That despite what is cold and dark in the world, perhaps it is a loving place after all.”