Ebenezer

By: Don Massenzio

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Before Ebenezer Scrooge became the miserly figure who haunted the streets of Dickens’ London, he was a child born into the bleak alleys of Plowed Garlic Hill. His father, Franklin, a man worn thin by labor and gin, struggled to provide even the barest scraps for his family. Hunger, debt, and loss marked Ebenezer’s earliest years, shaping a boy who quickly learned that survival was the only currency the world truly honored

At The Brackenstone Academy, a cold and joyless boarding school, Ebenezer discovered the protective power of invisibility. He became a watcher, a counter of numbers, and a recorder of injustices, slowly learning to guard his heart behind ledgers and sums. Yet, in moments with his beloved sister Fan and his steadfast sister Lottie, he glimpsed rare sparks of warmth and loyalty. These fragile bonds of family offered him a choice: to embrace love despite its cost, or to lock it away as another liability

Ebenezer is a vivid and unflinching re-imagining of the untold years that forged Scrooge into the man we meet in A Christmas Carol. In richly Dickensian detail, Don Massenzio reveals the struggles, betrayals, and fleeting hopes of a boy burdened with a cursed name. This haunting prequel invites readers to journey with Ebenezer before the redemption, to see not just how he lost his heart—but why he so desperately needed it restored.