Beetlejuice and Jellybeans

So I asked my best friend to give me something to write about. His response: “Desk toys that come to life.” Here is the product.

Candace heaved a heavy sigh and leaned back in her black leather office chair. She had to be careful not to lean back too far or the old chair would tip over. . Although it had never happened to her, the fear was always there. She smiled as she thought about how her boyfriend would always grab the back of the chair and tilt it slightly backward, causing her to spring forward and shriek in terror.  It was his favourite way to “playfully” scare the crap out of her. It was also the only way.

She checked the clock: 5:34 pm. What a boring day. She flicked the clasp on the jar of jellybeans that she kept next to the computer screen and made a mental note to refill it. She only liked the pink ones, maybe she should get the gourmet kind this time. The ones that had all those different flavours like toasted marshmallow. She smiled as yet another memory crept across the inside of her skull. She would have to challenge her best friend to another Bertie-Bott’s-Every-Flavour-Bean-Eating-Contest. She turned her attention to the Beetlejuice bobblehead that she kept on her desk. It was the twin of the one she gave to her best friend. He kept his on his desk at work. She flicked it and watched it wiggle around. She shifted in the chair and refreshed her Facebook page once more. No updates. Maybe everyone else was just as bored as she was.

Through the window, the overcast sky threatened rain and the wind blew up against it as if to challenge its authority. Candace must have dozed off. She checked the clock again. “That was a short sleep.”  This didn’t surprise her, she never really slept. Four to five hours a night, tossing and turning – maybe that was why she got so many headaches. Realizing that she was stiff from having slept in the chair, Candace stretched out. Eyeing the bobblehead, she said “I bet you never get a stiff neck.” She often to spoke to inanimate objects, she wondered if joking with them made her any less sane.

Beetlejuice was Candace’s favourite cartoon when she was a kid. She was a lot like the show’s character, Lydia. Maybe she should dress up as Lydia for Halloween? She made a mental note to ask her boyfriend later what he thought about going as Beetlejuice. Wouldn’t it be cool to have a ghost friend and be able to go to another dimension (in this case, the Neitherworld)? What was it that mantra that Lydia used to chant at the beginning of each episode? Candace searched her brain, “Though I know I should be wary, still I venture someplace scary; Ghostly hauntings I turn loose. . .Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!” She could almost hear Beetlejuice saying  “It’s showtime!”

The human mind is fascinating thing, when you remember something so distinctly, it’s like you are actually hearing things in reality. . . or at least, that’s what Candace thought until that familiar voice spoke again. “Well it’s about time, Babes! I thought you were never going to say it!”