Betelgeuse-A Beetlejuice Novel

Chapter 18: Benny the Handyman

Disclaimer: I do not own Beetlejuice or related characters, he belongs to Tim Burton. I do not own Beetlegeuse. I don't own Betelgeuse? I don't own any of the weird spellings for his name.

Betelgeuse

Written By: Melanie Ray

Chapter Eighteen: Benny the Handyman

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"Not again." Kathleen groaned as she tried to stop the leaking water from the faucet. At the same time, she heard BG crying in his nursery. "Coming! Just a bit!" Kathleen ran over to BG and opened the door.

He just cooed his sweet 3 month old coo and winked.

Kathleen smiled at him. "One second, okay?" She started to run back to the leaking water and realized it was starting to leak at the base of it as well. "Not this again too." She heard BG start crying again and took off to check on him again.

He cried as she held him a few minutes, then she tried to lay him back down.

She ran straight for the water again and saw it was really starting to leak all over the floor. Oh no! She heard BG starting to cry at the same time. She ran and brought him in, at the same time trying to hold him and stop the leak. "I've gotta get the water turned off!" She looked at the pool of water on the floor and knew she had to get help right away. BG on the other hand was starting to cry and was squirming all over.

"Looks like you need a handyman."

Kathleen stopped as she saw someone standing at her opened front door. The skin was tanner, the hair was flat-out black, but it looked almost like..."Mr. Beetleman?"

The man scratched his head. "Naw, I'm Benny." He took out a tool from his side and started to walk over to her sink. Kathleen watched as the man that looked similar to Beetlejuice started to fix her sink.

"There ya go." The man took his thumb and flicked it across the bottom of his nose. "That was easy."

Kathleen looked at the leak. Can't be. Beetlejuice couldn't ever fix anything.

The man held out his hand. "I just moved in next door." He nodded at BG. "He your little brother?"

That's when it hit Kathleen. This wasn't a man, it was..."You're just a boy."

"And you're just a girl," Benny said. He looked at BG. "Your brother's got some freaky white hair."

"He's not my brother," Kathleen said, still looking at the boy in awe.

"Babysitting?" Benny nodded. "I tried that but kids are out of control." He took one of his tools and twirled it around his finger. "Repairs make more money. Speaking of which, you owe me twenty bucks."

Kathleen looked offended as BG started to cry. "I didn't ask you to fix it."

"Yeah sure, and you would have done what?" Benny asked. "Called a plumber which would have cost a lot more money. Meanwhile, water continues to flood your kitchen. So come on, fork it over."

"Benny!"

Kathleen watched as a new woman she had never met appeared at the door.

"You are meeting our new neighbor for the first time and you ask for money?" The woman griped. "My boy has no shame." She looked over at Kathleen and looked back toward Benny. "She's even your age and pretty and you still ask for money? Incorrigible."

Benny just grunted. "Money's money."

His mother corrected him with a look and then smiled toward Kathleen. "Hi, I'm Mrs. Juniper, is your mother here? We just moved in next door."