Beetlejuice and Elizabeth

1. The tall man that came to dinner

I closed my eyes as I fell from the tree.

I was four. I was in the park with my mother. I climbed the tree by the slides. I was so high that I got dizzy looking down.

"Lizzie?! Where are you? We need to go home!"

"I'm up here mother!"

"Lizzie!!"

That was the last thing I heard before I slipped from the branch I was on. I was falling backward.
The sky looks so pretty.

*snap*

That was the first time I died. They held a funeral and everything but mid-way through service I gasped for breath like a drowned man. "Mother, where are we?"

"Oh oh, Lizzie. Your alive!"

"Of course I am! When did we leave the park? I wanted to go down the slide again." The tears that filled her eyes were something I'd never forget.

The second time I died was when I and mother were at the connivence store. A man wearing a mask stormed the building. He waved his gun in the air before grabbing me. "Give me all the cash or the kid gets it." He shoved the gun into my forehead.

I didn't flinch. I didn't scream. I didn't cry. Why does he need money? Why does he have a gun?

I looked at mother and she had her hands clutched to her mouth as she begged, pleaded, for the man to let me go. She was sobbing so much she could barely form the words.

"Mother Im okay. Be calm please."

"Shut up you little runt." The gunman said while pushing my shoulder.

"Okay."

Police came and the man panicked. With his finger on the trigger...I was shot in the head and died a second time.

I came back much quicker. Only a handful of hours this time.

That day we couldn't deny that I had gotten my quirk. Someone called it immortality I think.

Mother left me in the living room to watch tv while she made dinner. The tv flickered between static and color. A commercial came through the static I don't remember most of it. I mumbled the words on the screen under my breath.

"Call now...Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice."

In a puff, there was a tall man with fingers like spiders in the living room. His hair was green like sludge. His skin was pale and ghostly with purple rimming his eyes. He wore a pinstriped suit with a black tie and dress shoes.

"Hiya toots!"

My eyes were drawn to his face and I examined him closer. He has high cheekbones that pinch the skin. He has a thin and narrow nose with pouty lips: a strong chin and a long neck.

"Hello? Why are you in my home?" I said politely with my hands folded in my lap. Between my thumb and forefinger, I was tightly clenching my dress.

"Well toots you summoned me. So why am I here?" He tilted his head mockingly.

"I do not know." My vision flickered like the static on the TV and then I was opening my eyes to my mother's smiling face.

"Sweetie wake up. Dinners ready. Go wash your hands." She said sweetly.

"Yes, mother," I said. Always the polite child.

I grabbed the step stool for the bathroom sink. I turned the faucet on and put the soap on my hands. Movement in the mirror made me look up and I met eyes with the tall man's toxic green.

"Hello again. Are you joining us for supper? I hope mother made enough." I grabbed his hands in my small ones. I pumped soap onto his hands and rubbed them together. "Mother says you must always wash your hands before supper."

The tall man washed his hands as well and I noticed how they were nearly purple at the ends. Is he cold? Blood, dirt, and some grass washed down the drain. I did not question it.

We rinsed our hands and dried them. Then I pulled him by the hand to the dining room. "Mother. A nice man would like to join us for dinner. I'll set the table!" I ran to the kitchen and back, quickly setting the table. Mother came in carrying a pot of food. She was startled and nearly dropped the food when she saw the tall man. "Sweetie who is that?"

"I don't know. But I've been calling him the tall man."

The tall man sighed. "Kid summoned me and hasn't unsummoned me. I'm stuck. My name is Beetlejuice. But you can call me anything sweetheart."

"Oh." Mother put the food down.

"I helped him wash his hands so he can eat with us!" I smiled.

"Thank you for washing your hands...Mr. Beetlejuice."

Beetlejuice nodded and then we all sat down to eat. He ate like a starved man and mother made a coughing noise before motioning over to me. The man then ate slower but still ate a lot.

I frowned not understanding what was wrong with the way he ate.

After dinner, I ran to my room and grabbed one of my pillows and blankets, and gave them to the man. Even Mother was shocked at my actions.

That night the man slept on the couch. I did sneak out of my room and down the hall sometime around midnight. The man was still up. As he stared at the ceiling his eyes gave off a soft glow.

"You can come out." He said in a whisper.

I came out from around the corner carrying a big stuffed dinosaur. I stood in front of him and whispered back. "I can't sleep. I haven't slept since but I don't tell mother."

"What do you normally do?"

"Read. My classmates are still learning their ABCs. But I can read some things. I'm trying to read one of mothers books but she put it on a shelf I can't reach." I pointed at the shelf above the couch. "Can you please get it?"

"Yeah, kid." Something about the way he stood up screamed Not human. His bones shifted like a puppet on strings. It was eerie and beautiful.

He handed me the book and I sat on the ground leaning against the couch and opened the book up to where I left off. I read for an hour before the man held the page to stop me from turning it. "I wasn't done with that page. Damn kid, you read faster than I do."

I didn't even know he was reading over my shoulder.

"You said I summoned you? But how do I send you back when you want to go back?" I said unsure.

He ruffled my hair and smiled. His fangs caught the light. "Ask me again tomorrow, kid."

The rest of the night we read together. For any words, I couldn't read he helped me sound them out and understand them. I read more that night than I had in the week alone.

Eventually, Beetlejuice became a common occurrence in our home. He was there to pick me up from school and walk me home. He helped mother with cooking, even though he was terrible at it. Mother came to see him as a son. He still flirted with her relentlessly, but I think that's just his personality. He and I read every night and within a month we finished the book. We then picked another book and began all over again.