Chapter Text
Richard? Lydia looked all around the office. Shrunkenheads, an officer, and Beetlejuice working on the phone. He gave her an odd sort of look, but didn’t say much else.
It felt like Richard was around though. Not just him. Not in their later years when she fell out of love with him for no reason. In their early years. Her heart felt warm. Loved. He’s somewhere around here. The person she used to love.
What would he be doing there though?
“I know,” Astrid said to her. “I felt it too last night. You feel dad, right?”
Lydia didn’t know what to say. “I feel something.” It was like, when she was smaller. “You feel it too?”
“Beetlejuice,” the officer called back to him. He was probably messing around or something.
“Right, yeah, yeah, I’m going!” He sounded mad. Nothing new.
Lydia was much more concentrated on that feeling. Richard and her in the beginning, had such a strong connection to each other. When she was younger and left her family, she had missed them. If she saw them again there, that would be nice.
But, Richard? It was a pull between them that couldn’t be defined. Lydia had experienced several things dealing with the supernatural, but there was never anything close to that connection. It was so strong, she thought it could never break.
Then just one day, poof. It didn’t make any sense. She tried to rekindle it, but she couldn’t find it again. That led her deeper into the supernatural, trying to refind that lost connection. From there, the makings of the show began.
And her love for him withered. They stayed together, but it was only for Astrid. Richard felt like a totally other man at that point.
But now, that feeling! That lost feeling. Even Astrid had felt it? Why was it there of all places? Was it hiding inside him, and died with him?
No. She saw him in the Neitherworld not too long ago. That swoon, that sensation didn’t exist. So why now?
“It has all the properties of cereal, so eat it before it gets soggy!”
Beetlejuice sounded mad about her not eating the cereal that Astrid brought over yet. She hadn’t drunk up the orange juice he made that morning too.
There was something very uncomfortable about eating something conjured. Using magic. Wearing magic. It was one thing.
Eating juice?
“It’s not going to kill you to eat,” Astrid told her. “You have to. He can’t go back and forth without us calling for him all the time. It’s pretty good too. It tastes better than the real thing. Like, less dry.”
Lydia took her bowl. She would have to. Grin and bear it. It was fine, flavorwise. Still, it was magic. His magic. His magic that she was putting inside of herself. His magic, in her. That couldn’t be more unwanted.
Maybe there was something they could do now, being in the Neitherworld? Maybe others with magic that were gone could help sort things out for a few months? Richard didn’t want to bother them living, but if it helped them-
Beetlejuice was having another fit on the phone, going off on someone else. He was in a bad mood. The officer called him out for it, and he yelled out to him as well.
He shouldn’t be complaining. He’s getting everything he ever wanted. Lots and lots of money. Almost 300,000 dollars for them to follow around him like his luggage.
She watched Astrid walk back over to Beetlejuice.
“I need to use the bathroom,” she insisted. “One of your guys did that earlier. Where was that?”
“Can’t be farther than fifteen feet,” he insisted. “Officer Wolf, um?” He glanced toward Lydia. “Can you watch some of my baggage for me? It’s pretty heavy baggage, but you’re an officer of the law.”
The officer didn’t look real happy to do that.
“Actually, I want to ask the officer some questions about the Neitherworld and his acting,” Astrid said. “I feel safe with him, so I wanted him to take me to the bathroom.”
That perked him up. “Well, I’m a lot safer than Beetlejuice.”
Astrid? What was she playing at? Lydia knew she had some kind of plan for wanting the officer to leave with her. Whether good or bad, she wouldn’t interrupt. Maybe it would leave them safe again and away from there?
Astrid was hearing all about his background before they even got close to the bathroom. He really did miss his life as a B movie action star, and that was going to get her closer to the truth. “It sounds like death was hard. No action star roles in the afterlife?”
“No, I got detective,” Wolf said to her. “I play a mean detective too. There are action star roles, but I didn’t get it for some reason. They thought detective fit me better.”
“Your profile must be extensive though, with all your roles.” She almost had it. “Can I see everything you were in, in your lifetime?”
Oh, he dug into his phone and showed her right away. He started going into his small roles and his major roles, and continued to talk.
Meanwhile, Astrid nodded. She already picked up something important in the afterlife. “That’s neat, tell me more about your first roles.” Meanwhile, with him having the profiles part open, and now not even paying attention to the phone, she typed in her name.
And found it. And. This doesn’t make any sense. Daughter? He’s not my dad. She typed in her mom’s name. “That’s cool, tell me more.” She waited for the page to pop up. Error-wife. What’s an error-wife? Is that why I’m daughter? The botched wedding her mom told her about, it wasn’t so cut and dry after all. She went and typed back in Wolf Jackson’s profile so he didn’t catch her. “That’s great, sorry, we can talk later, I have to use the bathroom.”
After Astrid used the bathroom, she followed Wolf Jackson back still talking about his roles.
When she reached the office again, she noticed Beetlejuice was just sitting there, staring at her.
“Informative bathroom break?” he called her out. He already knew she had found a way to look probably.
She narrowed her eyes at him. How? “None of it makes sense.”
“Sure it does,” he said acting more lively. “No two ghosts are the same, some are closer to the living than not, so some eat and shit like the living, while others just hobble around like clouds without thought and everything in between.”
“That isn’t what I’m talking about and you know it.”
“Oh.” He gestured around him. “Why does everyone here have shrunken heads and I don’t? Well, I didn’t feel like waiting for a long time in the waiting room, kind of borrowed a guy’s number, and he wasn’t crazy about it for some reason. Shrunk my head. So a mix up in processing put me in the shrunken head division of the Afterlife Call Center. Yeah, I tried to flirt with the secretary with it, and the shrunkenhead just wasn’t doing it for her, so you know.”
“That wasn’t it either.” Geez, he was making it worse.
“Well if it wasn’t either of those two things, I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.” He just grabbed his work phone and started to work again.
“Well, this was fun, I always enjoy meeting new fans,” Officer Wolf said to Astrid, “but I have other places to be. I’ll be around, don’t you worry. I’ve always gotta check up on Beetlejuice. It doesn’t take long for him to get into trouble.”
It didn’t matter. She couldn’t talk about this yet, he wouldn’t answer until her mom was gone. She wouldn’t leave more than fifteen feet though. She just waited back beside her mom. She was enjoying the last of her phone since the battery would go out. She couldn’t even do much, afterlife didn’t have internet. Or, at least not the internet that she had used.