Fabric of Life
by
Owlcroft
Beetlejuice turned in surprise as he heard Lydia coming down the stairs to his lab.
"Lunchtime," she called cheerfully. "And we don't have to pick Beatie up from kindergarten today because she has a playdate with the Hoppner twins until three."
"You should have Called me. I would have brought you down the stairs, dear one. Or come up to you." He tried to frown in disapproval.
"I'm fine," she laughed. "The morning sickness is just about gone and none of the other problems have started. Let me enjoy feeling this healthy for a while."
"We-ell," he couldn't maintain his censorious expression, "since you're down here, I've got something to show you." He ushered her to the lab bench and handed her a thick, plush section of material. "This is that double-napped wool I had you get. Run your hand over it one way, then the other." He watched as she did so and then stared in amazement at the material.
"It turned color!" She gave him one quick glance, then bent her head over the fabric again, brushing it yet again. "Beej! It was blue and then silver and now it's blue again! You are amazing! How does it work?"
He gave her a smug smile, then took the swatch from her and held it up to the light. "Trade secret," he smirked, then laughed.
Lydia laughed with him and put her arms around him. "You are a genius. How do you come up with ideas for things like this? It's perfect for a winter coat – two coats in one because it can change colors!"
"Yeah, but I still need to tweak it. You don't want a blue coat with a silver patch because you scratched your arm. There's a way to set the color, then take the setting off, but I'm still working on that." He handed her the piece of material again. "It's kind of like a static charge, but it shouldn't take more than another couple of days for me to get it right."
"I think I can manage to grant you a couple of days." She tossed the fabric onto his lab bench, and put her face up to his. "In fact, I think I could grant you a couple of lifetimes, easy."
"Oh, yeah? I might want more than a couple, you know," he murmured before meeting her lips with his.
When they came up for air, she sighed happily. "I might manage a few more. For kisses like that. How could I ever imagine being this happy, all because you took pity on me that day we met?"
Beetlejuice cocked his head and thought about that. "Nah, I didn't pity you. Okay, maybe I felt a little sorry for you, but that didn't last long. Then it was all friendship, companionship, being together because . . . we were supposed to be together."
"Yes, we were. And we are. Lunch, my darling?" she reminded him.
"Oh, no, hang on a sec. I have something new I'm just starting to work on. Look at this swatch." He let her go and turned to pick up another small square of fabric. "The dye has chromatic crystals embedded in it, almost molecular in size. And they all orient the same way so they react the same to the angle of light they get." He tilted the swatch slowly to one side then back flat.
"What . . ." Lydia looked and sounded stunned. "It changed! It went kind of . . . all rainbowy or something!" She reached to take it from his hand and stared at it in incredulous awe.
"The crystals act sort of like prisms. You don't even have to move. When people walk past or turn around to look at you, they're different colors." He stared hard at the swatch. "I'm trying to figure out what to call them, though. They're basically just specks and freckles. Speckles." He shook his head at that. "Fleckles. Spreckles, Freckettes, Sprecketts, Fleckettes – Flecketts!" He raised his brows at his wife with a hopeful smile. "Flecketts?"
"That's perfect!" she grinned as she quickly made notes and then a sketch in the notebook she always carried in a pocket.
"But I really want to . . . to figure out how to adjust the crystals, the prisms a little, maybe flatten them, so we can pre-set the colors they show. I mean, think about a really dark blue –"
"Navy," she interjected.
"Yeah, if I could make them change just from gold to green, or on something white where they would just shift from red to blue –"
"You are a genius," she breathed.
"Pfff. I'm just playing with stuff." Then he took his eyes from the material in his hand to look at his wife. "Why aren't you sitting down? You need to start taking better care of yourself."
"I'm not tired. And besides, I'm too excited to rest now. I have so many ideas for the dye with the prisms!" She grinned at him in pride and wonder. "And I want to get started on a winter-coat design for the double-napped wool, too!"
"You ought to be thinking about taking a nap."
"Right after lunch, I promise." She wound her arms around his neck. "Remember lunch? And I managed to find a can of Swampbull's Chunky Beetle Soup for you."
Beetlejuice made an mmm-ing noise and gave her a kiss of appreciation.
"You know," she said then, "the best things happen when we work together. It's like the warp and the weft of fabric." After considering his confused expression for a moment, she added, "Or maybe it's like I draw the sketches and then you come along and paint in the beautiful colors."
He furrowed his brow in thought, then shrugged. "We belong together, always did. You know, we do make something special when we work together – collaborate, I mean." He ran a tender hand over her still flat abdomen. "And somehow, what we are, what we have between us made something incredible. It's got to be a sort of magic – that somehow our . . . you know, our feelings for each other created the tiniest spark of life in me that led to children." He gave her a small, somewhat shy, smile. "You brought my heart alive."
That led to another kiss, then Lydia shook her head at him. "Lunch? Soup?"
He grinned and nodded, releasing his embrace. "Soup. Oh, hey – the crystals mean the fabric has to be hand-washed."
She took his hand and led him to the stairs. "Well, fancy you thinking about washing something!"