A Petraitis Christmas Carol "Part 7"

Petraitis was exhausted. He had defeated his own future and he was now an immortal. He could do anything, be anything, live any life he wanted. And yet he returned to the classroom. He now had an eternity to give out too much homework and make children sad. This was his past, present and future. And yet...there was Marley. For all of the optimism of a life filled with academic sadism he couldn't help feeling just a little bad about ruining Marley's winter break. The sun was just beginning to come up and Petraitis rose from bed, and walked to the window. The neighborhood kids were fishing in his back yard again. He called out "You there! Neighborhood urchin! Here is five dollars! I want you to bring the fattest goose you can to Marley and his family so that he can celebrate winter break with good cheer!"

The child took the five dollars but didn't bother to buy a goose, because really who even sells geese nowadays. Instead he grabbed whatever bird he could from the water's edge. Some sort of egret he caught in his fishing net. He put it in a sack, got on his bike and delivered it to the address that Petraitis had written down.

Marley opened the sack and the egret (it was a snowy egret), climbed out and began to fly around the room chasing his sickly dog and knocking over glasses and decorations. A candle fell on the floor and a small fire started. The egret flew out the door and Mr. Fluffernutter the Morkie, chased the egret into the street almost getting hit by a garbage truck. Inside the house the fire began to spread. The Weston fire department took a few minutes to put their basketball away, and drive to the fire. They rarely got to use their hoses so they sprayed the fire with more than fifty thousand gallons of water, and then sprayed in some foam for good measure.

Marley and his family stood outside and read the note that came in the bag with the egret. It was a note from Petraitis. "Dear Marley and Family. This is hopefully one step in helping you have exactly the type of winter break you deserve. I hope you have many more just like this!"

Marley put the note away. At that moment his resolve hardened. His dog was outside, panting, having over exerted himself, his family was forced to stay at a Red Cross shelter and all of his gifts were soaked with water and foam. Petraitis had done this to him. All of it. At that moment he swore that he would never forget and his turn to revenge, and the thoughts of revenge consumed him. He shouted out "Petraitis!" but he said it almost as a prayer, but mostly as a promise. He may not be immortal, but the rest of his life he would do everything in his power to make Petraitis pay. And so Marley plotted his revenge, and at his home Petraitis never gave it another thought. At least not at the moment. For now, he was plotting some ideas of his own. For example could he possibly combine the mental anguish of homework with some sort of physical activity? Maybe. He would work on it. Meanwhile the thought of Marley, his family and his sickly dog were far from his mind. He would sleep soundly.

The End. For now...