Ms. Scrooge (1997 TV Movie)

Cicely Tyson: Ms. Ebenita Scrooge

Photos 

Quotes 

• Maude Marley : I always did like a big entrance, didn't I? How's tricks, Ebenita?

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : Maude?

  Maude Marley : You haven't said a word about my outfit.

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : Oh, it can't be Maude. She's dead. I buried her.

  Maude Marley : And rather hastily, I might add. Afraid I might come back to life? Reclaim my possessions? Now I can't.

  [Ebenita reaches for the phone] 

  Maude Marley : No! That line is dead, darling. Save us both time, Ebenita. I'm dead, I'm here, and I'm talking to you. Now, I'll cut to the chase. I actually need your help to rest in peace. That's all anybody ever talks about in the afterlife, how they do things differently. The grass is forever greener, but when I was alive, I lived by one question only: What's in it for me? I'll admit I was a little self-centered then, cared not a whit for the little people. That's why every year, on the anniversary of my death, I have to roam the world and see the happiness I can never share unless...

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : Yes?

  Maude Marley : Unless you listen to me and turn your little life around.

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : What's so little about my life? Business has never been better. I own three buildings and a house with ten rooms.

  Maude Marley : And how many rooms in your heart and how long will your chain of grief be when you join our miserable band?

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : I don't have to do anything.

  Maude Marley : No, you don't. Not if you change. My fellow ghosts will show you how.

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : More ghosts?

  Maude Marley : Yes, but tightly organized on the other side. Actually, you'd probably love it for a while. Tight schedules, time clocks, the works. However, the only problem is it never ends. It goes around, and around and around!

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : Get away!

  Maude Marley : Anyway, expect your first visitor when the clock strikes midnight, your second visitor at one, and your third at the stroke of two. Regular as clockwork.

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : What is the point of all of this?

  Maude Marley : Change, Ebenita, for your sake as well as mine. Either get me out of this or join the crowd forever!

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : Ghosts, you can have this place. I'm going to be someplace else!

• Reverend Luke : Bob Crachit's little boy is dying.

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : How I conduct my business is no concern of yours.

  Reverend Luke : Your soul is my concern, and the Cratchit family is my concern. They are members of my church.

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : People die, nephew. I'll die, you'll die, life goes on. The amount of work that has to be done here still remains. Bob Cratchit can't do it, I have to find someone who can.

  Reverend Luke : And the man's grief? His family's loss? That means nothing to you?

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : I have my own grief.

  Reverend Luke : You think you don't owe anything to anybody else? You think that you're the only one responsible for your wealth?

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : I have earned every single thing I have. Nobody gave me anything.

  Reverend Luke : What about Grandma Clara, who cleaned all of those houses so you could go to school?

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : It was her choice. She said she wanted the best for me.

  Reverend Luke : And Libba and Bob only want the best for their child.

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : Get out of my office. Get out, I said.

  Reverend Luke : Don't you realize that you have climbed to the top of your pile of gold on the backs of Cratchit and Edna and Annie...

  Ms. Ebenita Scrooge : Get out! I said, get out!