October

For their first shared birthday as a married couple, Lydia and Beetlejuice had been invited to dinner by Lydia's parents.

"Do we have to?" whined Beetlejuice in his best little kid voice.

Lydia gave him The Look, then added a quick hug. "You know we do. It'll be fine. Father's cooking steaks on the grill and they've bought us presents."

"Us?" The ghost got a gleam in his eye. "Me, too?"

"Mm-hmm. Just a small thing, but they've been really good about accepting you, don't you think? And trying to make you feel like part of the family?"

"Yeah," he said slowly. "I guess." Then, "Really? A present?"

ooooo

But when they arrived, they found a distinctly frosty atmosphere. It transpired that Delia and Charles had just had a serious argument and were now not speaking to each other.

"He said I was stupid," raged Delia to Beetlejuice when he escorted her to the kitchen. "I won't stand for that, not from anyone!"

"C'mon, Deels, he couldn't've said that. Maybe he said you were . . ." The ghost tried in vain to think of something that rhymed with stupid. "Or maybe you just misheard him or something. Maybe he said he'd thought of something stupid, or wished he wasn't stupid." Suddenly, he was glad she wasn't listening to him because he actually did sound stupid.

She picked up a dish towel, then hurled it into the sink. "How could he?"

"That's what I'm wondering," muttered a perplexed Beetlejuice.

ooooo

"All I said was that maybe it was a bit thoughtless, that's all." Charles never stopped pacing, and his daughter had given up pacing with him to stand by his desk. "The present she bought for BJ – it's soap on a rope. Pumpkin, I ask you – isn't that just a tad . . . thoughtless?"

"Really," marveled Lydia. "That was a little . . . umm."

"And she took it that I meant she was thoughtless or ignorant or something." Lydia's father ran a hand through his hair and finally stood still. "And then she said I should know, or something like that." He shook his head more in anger than in sorrow.

Lydia shook hers in commiseration.

ooooo

The still fairly-newlyweds got the other couple together at last in the dining room. "You love each other – what means more than that?" Lydia crossed her arms and gave each of them a hard stare.

There was a cold silence then until finally, unhappily, Beetlejuice looked at them and said, "I just think it's sad that you two are worse at dealing with your emotions than I am." He turned to his miserable wife and told her, "Heart of my heart, let's not ever do this," and opened his arms to her.

"Never, my dear, sweet darling," she whispered as she moved to embrace him closely.

Charles and Delia watched them for a long moment, then each took a peek at the other. When they realized they were looking at each other, they quickly turned their heads. Then each slowly turned back. Neither ever knew which made the first move, but the next instant they were in each other's arms, babbling apologies and promises.

The ghost lifted his head in surprise, his wife lifted hers in relief.

"I think we should go home," she murmured.

He murmured back, "You mean, our work is done here?" When she nodded he obliged by juicing them home, leaving the human couple kissing ardently. Then he suddenly re-appeared, grabbed the presents and vanished again.