The door of the Cratchit house slammed behind her, silencing the small living room as fifty heads turned to him in hushed anticipation. Paralysis set in, even as he clung to little Bradley, who waited patiently on his shoulder for his final cue. For a moment, the room could have passed for a ride at one of those high-priced theme parks, where the guests floated through fantastical scenes with broken animatronic characters who could only blink and jerk their heads. The heat of the room’s bated breath left beads of sweat on Clark’s forehead, trickling down his forehead as his only indication of the passing of time. He couldn’t wrench himself away from the closed door; the place where Kate once stood now tortured him endlessly. The absence of her ripped at him; a punch in the gut would have been less painful and robbed him of less breath.

After too long a silence for the little boy’s taste, Bradley clonked the top of Clark’s head with his cane, a new brand of pain almost bold enough to shake him from his stupor.

“Hey.” Clark blinked. Another clonk. Bradley addressed him in a stage whisper through clenched teeth, a manner of confidentiality he probably mimicked from a million Saturday morning cartoons. “Hey, Mr. Clark. I think they’re waiting for you to say something.”

Michael caught Clark’s eye first, a small miracle. After staying up to read his present from Kate, he tracked the young man down. A frantic phonebook search later and he had both Emily and Michael in the living room of Michael’s cabin, where he told them the entire story. Being the sort of guy who never spilled his guts, Clark struggled, but eventually explained everything.

They didn’t get on board with his plan, however, until he told them the entire truth. I think I’m falling in love with her and I don’t want to lose my one chance because I was too blind to see that some people are good people. Halfway through the Dickens book, Clark started to understand why he’d been so happy to assume the worst of Kate, even when everything she said and did instructed him to believe the best.

He couldn’t believe what a jerk he’d been.

Once Emily and Michael got on board, they went to work greasing up Miss Carolyn who did not care for him, expressing frequent and blatant desires to punch him in the throat. In the end, she only agreed to the entire scheme because Emily convinced her it was the only way to save Kate from her disillusionment…