Beetlejuice and Lydia

I had to take two showers before I felt totally clean. Afterwards I crawled into my bed, feeling exhausted and yet when my head hit the pillow I didn't fall asleep automatically. I listened to the silence, feeling that it was too silent. There was no Beetlejuice tonight; no sound of Deelia and Dad, or of Barbara and Adam. It was just me and the baby. That was it. As if sensing this loneliness too, the baby kicked at me. I put my hand over where I had just felt the kick.

"I know, it's lonely." I answered, rubbing my stomach gently. I missed Beetlejuice, the first time in a long time and I felt guilty over all that had happened. I vowed that I would go back there soon enough if he didn't come searching for me first.

The next day I woke up around daybreak, starved and dehydrated. I grabbed a glass of milk from the refrigerator and a tray of cookies from the cupboard, and went into the living room. On my way to the living room I passed a mirror and paused at the reflection. My stomach looked even more swollen than it had last night. I wondered if being in my body increased the pregnancy. Trying to forget all about how lonely I felt and about Beetlejuice, I flicked the television on.

A show about some woman who was having trouble finding the father of her baby popped on the screen. I groaned and switched channels, just to find the next channel starred a woman who was in love with a ghost.

"What the...?" I thought television coinciding with real life only happened in movies. I turned the t.v. off, deciding that it was better to not have t.v. when I was in this state. Yet I still felt bored and alone. I was used to feeling utterly alone on the inside, but this loneliness felt new to me. It felt like I was missing something I once had, and that I was in danger of drowning in depression if I didn't get away from it. I needed to get out of the house.

This was the first time in my life that I, Lydia Deetz, willingly went to the mall to interact with people.

The afterlife must be freezing over.
I got ready, putting on a flowing black dress in hopes that I looked somewhat thinner and my baby bump was disguised well enough. After that I grabbed the car keys to my beat up old Volkswagen and I was off. The mall was about an hour drive away, but it was nice to be out of the house and town. I turned on the radio which luckily wasn't plotting with the t.v. to make my thoughts go back to the crazy poltergeist who was waiting for me on the other side. Having gentle music let my thoughts wander to the few good times I had in my life, back in New York City as well as here. I remembered meeting Adam and Barbara, and how after that I felt like I had a family once again. My life wasn't too depressing anymore once I dissected it, and that was definitely something.

I probably spent too much time with ghosts and not enough time with alive people. Maybe once this was all over I could change that. Barbara and Adam was always happy to see me get out of the house, so maybe I could make new friends and have more time spent with them. Then when I was home I could spend it with Adam, Barbara, Beetlejuice and the baby. That is, if they didn't re-kill Beetlejuice once they got back.

I giggled to myself at the thought of the good-natured couple killing Beetlejuice as I pulled off the interstate onto the road where the mall was kept. Everyone at my school was always complaining about how small this mall was, but to me it looked huge for being in a small town. I circled the parking lot until I found a spot near a side entrance to the mall. Smell of greasy fat food found the way to my nose, and the baby started kicking greedily. I rubbed my stomach, silently hushing her. We would get fed shortly.

The first shop I went into was a clothing store. I needed new clothing in general, not to mention I was popping almost out of everything I wore. Even this black dress was starting to feel tight, but maybe that was because the baby was feeling so active today.

"Shh." I whispered as I rubbed my stomach as if I was hungry. The shop I went into had some of the coolest clothes, generally in all black. I was looking at this cool horizontally striped top when I started to become bloated. I looked down, and almost couldn't believe my eyes. My stomach was growing at an alarming rate.

"Oh god," I said. "Oh no." It was rounding out, and becoming harder to hide. I went from having just a small bump to looking almost seven months pregnant within minutes.

"Lydia!" Someone called. As if things couldn't get any worse, that preppy girl Amanda Spooler was coming towards me from the entrance, looking like a shark coming in for the kill.

"I didn't know you shopped at malls. Well, I mean you probably do shop at this mall considering you live so close. In general, I pictured you to be a department store kind of girl." She rambled on as she got closer to me. I tried my best to hide my body behind the clothing rack.

"What are you still doing in town?" I asked, pretending as if I was studying the clothes very hard.

"Oh, Daddy was so in love with this country bumpkin lifestyle that he decided it would be cool to vacation here." Amanda said, rolling her eyes as if liking the countryside was a silly idea to everyone.

"Yeah." I said, moving back. She was getting dangerously close to me.

"What brings you out to the mall today?" Amanda came next to me, and I quickly held up the shirt I was looking at. She looked down at it.

"Oh, you know, shopping for some new clothes." I answered, patting my hair as my comfort level decreased.

"I understand. Hey, that shirt is actually cute." She said, eyeing up the one in my hand. I felt myself growing nauseous. This just kept on getting better and better. She touched the fabric of the one I was holding and lifted it up to get a closer look at it.

"I think it would look better in silk. Cotton just doesn't do it any justice." She answered, dropping it out of her hand. "Were you going to try it on?"

"Sure. That's exactly what I was about to do." I said, taking the opportunity to get away from her as fast as I could. "I'll be just finding the nearest changing room right now." I went to step back from her, and a tight pain shot through my stomach. I gasped, clutching my middle section. I've never felt something so painful before.

"Are you okay?" She said, and when I stood up straight she started laughing her head off. "Woah, sorry. I didn't realize you were pregnant! Lydia the Freak is knocked up! I can't wait to tell everyone this. Who's the father?"

My vision became unclear and cloudy. I felt bile rising up the back of my throat, and then I puked all over Amanda. She screeched as she was covered in purple goop. I ran as fast as I could back to my car, my vision going in and out of focus. I blindly slid into the front seat, panicking and wishing I never stepped foot out of my house in the first place. I started the car and my eyes began to focus as I stopped panicking, but my stomach was still hurting. I pulled out of my parking lot, my tires screeching as I did so. I was on the highway when my eyes went out of focus again. I began to cry as I panicked, hoping that where I was turning was the shoulder of the road so I could stop and get focus again.

My eyes came to focus, just in time to realize I was in the oncoming traffic lane. A pickup truck was barreling towards me, and in a split second I heard the splintering crash as my car collided with the truck.