Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

Chapter Four: The People In The Attic

"So, how was it? How was school?" Lydia smiled at her daughters across the dinner table.
"It was terrible." Beth's face soured. "The girls in my class said I was weird. They called me a witch."
"Why? You're nothing like a witch."
"Because I was wearing black. I was thinking, maybe I ought to wear a different colour tomorrow."
Lydia laughed, "No, you go back in tomorrow wearing whatever colour you like, sweetheart. Don't let these girls change you- you're different, you stand out and I like that."
"Well I had a good day." Chirped Katrina. Lydia nearly dropped her fork. It was so unlike Katrina to be enthused about anything to do with school.
"Not bad for someone who didn't want to leave her bed this morning." She mused. "What happened?"
"My class is just really nice, that's all." Katrina blushed and stared down at her plate. Lydia saw her cheeks redden but she knew better than to comment on it.
"So you made some friends then?" She asked, a little smile on her lips.
"I suppose."
Beth spooned the last of her spaghetti into her mouth and jumped down from her chair.
"Excuse me," Lydia said, "Where do you think you're going?"
"To my room." Beth replied, walking towards the door.
"Nu uh, we're not done eating, that's bad manners. Sit back down and wait until we're done."
"But mom!"
"Sit back down Beth."
Katrina pushed her food around her plate, considering her little sister and rather wishing she would go away. Anyone with little sisters knows how annoying they can be and after having had such a terrible day at school Beth was in a particularly foul mood, skulking around with her arms folded and her brows knitted together.
"I'm nearly done too." She said at last, looking at her mom.
"But you've barely touched your food." Lydia protested.
"I'm just not hungry. I had a big lunch at school."
"School lunches in Winter River must have improved since I was your age." She pursed her lips.
"Well yeah mom, that was the eighties."
Lydia caved, it was no use arguing with her girls when they were in this kind of mood, so she let them go.
"Don't be late to bed, Bethy!" She called after her youngest as she fled the room, her sister close behind her.
The two would, no doubt spend the rest of the night in their own rooms- Katrina listening to music and texting her friends until 3am, and Beth writing some absurd little story in one of her many notepads.
  For Lydia the evening was wine and television. Which, to be honest, was exactly what she needed now that the move was over and she had time to relax again.
She flopped onto the sofa and let her eyes close- just for a second. When she opened them again it was pitch black outside and a little hand was gripping her arm. In front of her stood a little girl in bare feet and a white nightie, her black hair hanging down either side of her face like curtains. She looked like something out of a horror movie but Lydia was quite aware that it was only Beth.
"What time is it?" She said, struggling to sit up.
"Nearly two." Beth whispered.
"Two in the morning?! You should be fast asleep."
Beth shook her head, "I can't sleep."
"Are you hungry?"
"No, it's the people in the attic. They're making so much noise."
Lydia went cold, she felt every muscle in her body tense and her eyes widen slightly.
"The people.... the people in the attic?" The fear was overwhelming and yet the excitement was just as palpable.
Her daughter nodded, quite matter of factly.
"They've been chatting away since midnight, I can't get a wink of sleep."
"W-what did they say?" Lydia was tripping on her own words.
"Arguing mostly." Beth replied, "I spoke to them earlier, they're married."
Lydia got to her feet so fast that the room span a little, "what are they called?" She asked, gripping her daughter's shoulders.
"I don't know their names."
"Well did they say anything else? Anything about me?"
The girl considered for a moment, chewing apprehensively on her bottom lip. "They were confused that you couldn't see them. They thought you could. I don't know what that means- they're just people, I thought you knew they were there."
"Oh I knew alright." Lydia said.
"So are they like...lodgers or what?"
"No sweetie, they're..." Her voice caught in her throat, she felt it cracking. "That's Barbara and Adam. Do you remember? I used to tell you stories about them when you were a baby."
"They're real?!" It was Beth's turn to be paralysed with shock.
"I thought you knew."
"Well- well yes but I thought they were... you know...dead. White. See through. I thought they were ghosts!"
Lydia laughed, "sometimes things aren't quite the way we expect them to be. Ghosts aren't white sheets with eye holes, Beth. At least not the ones I've met."
"You've met others?"
Lydia ignored this. Beetlejuice was a hard enigma to explain and one she certainly not something she wanted to attempt now.
"Look," she said at last, "why don't you go to bed and I'll go and speak to Barbara and Adam and ask them to be a little quieter. How about that?"
Beth put her arms around Lydia's waist and hugged her, "Tell them I'm pleased to have met them won't you." She said as she let go of her mother and headed back out into the hallway.

  Lydia wiped the sleepiness away from her eyes and hurried up to the attic. She threw back the door and walked into a perfectly empty room. Not a gust of wind and not a flicker of life.
"Barbara?" She said, creeping across the wooden boards. "Adam? Are you guys here?.... Hello?"
With a crash one of the houses from Adam's model village fell on it's side and then promptly sat back up on its foundations again.
Lydia smiled but tears welled in the back of her eyes. "You guys are here!" She said. And then, regretfully, "why can't I see you?"
No answer, of course. What had she been expecting? She was a grown up now, she had kids, she'd been married and windowed. Life had happened and she was not perhaps as open minded as she used to be. In fact, she was just like everyone else. Years of doing the school run, and the laundry, and the dinner had made her mundane. They'd made her just like everyone else and now she could not see Barbara and Adam at all.
She took a sweeping look around the attic, hoping above all things to prove herself wrong. Hoping to glimpse Barbara's floral dress or the gleam of light hitting Adam's glasses. But there was nothing.
"Well. I'll see you guys, maybe." The lump in her throat threatened to crack her voice again but she controlled it. "Just keep it down, yeah? My daughter has school tomorrow."