Spook Nook
by
Owlcroft
Beetlejuice made sure his wife wasn't going back to sleep before going downstairs to start the coffee. This morning, he'd sung 'Here Comes the Sun' softly to wake her and she had kissed him blearily and managed to sit up before he left.
Once downstairs at the kitchen table though, Lydia sat and leaned a muzzy head against her hand and stared at her coffee mug without speaking, still drowsy.
Her husband sat down in the other chair with his own mug, narrowed his eyes at her, then suddenly rested his hand on her arm. "We're going upstairs," he said and clicked his fingers.
In the sunlit corner of the lab, partitioned off with dark wood panels, there were now two cozy armchairs to either side of a small wooden table holding a twining green plant and their coffee mugs. Looking directly out the window in front of her, there were retorts and beakers and flasks with brilliant green, red, purple, blue, and yellow liquids in them, lit from behind by the suns.
"Beej?" she said, blinking at him.
"You told me once, maybe you were fourteen, that you wanted to wake up every day and have breakfast in a room like this. I think you said you'd stayed in a hotel once and remembered it. Is it okay?" He gazed at her anxiously.
"You remembered that?" She stared around the sunny inviting space, then at her husband. "After . . . what, four years, you remembered that?"
He shrugged casually. "Should've remembered sooner. So," he waved a hand around the walled off area, "you like it?"
"I love it," she said, gradually becoming more awake and more appreciative. "I really do! But it takes up some of the space of your lab."
"Nah. I can just . . . sort of fold it up every day. Besides, it's what you wanted, right? I can bring breakfast up here for you, too." He looked at her closely, watched a glowing smile break over her face, and was satisfied. "You want eggs and bacon this morning?"
Lydia shook her head. "No. Let's have something you like. Mealworm pancakes, maybe? Is it my turn to cook?"
"Not today. You just sit here and wake up."
She did, thinking of the love that wrapped her and held her every moment of her life, and how she returned the strength of that love with every beat of her heart.