Ouija Board
People say not to play with Ouija boards. I’m one of them. I was a latch key kid. I could go days without seeing my mom. She was always working. Since dad left she didn’t have much choice. I never missed a meal. I always had clothes to wear. I was never homeless so I didn’t see the bad side. But it gave time to explore the house. Mostly out of boredom.
I found a Ouija board one day, I don’t know how. It was so crisp, probably I was the only one to use it. I opened it up and the elegance of the design intrigued me. I really didn’t know how to use it. I saw yes, no, the alphabet and numbers. I figured that I’ll learn as I go by. My first question was simple, who will be president? Was it going to be Trump or Hillary. It said Trump. Probably didn’t work, there was no way that guy would get elected. But I was going to ask more questions.
I would run home every day to ask it questions. I asked where was my mom. It said your mom is two streets down. It gave an exact address just like you would you would see it addressed on a letter. It gave more than just that, kind of embarrassing really. It said that mom had an attractive body and she was having an affair.
“What you’re lying!”, I said. It repeated word for word what it said before.
But things just got weirder from there. It would jump to different topics. I asked if it was good. It said it was good depending on how it was used. The planchette slowly spelled out the answer, “I can help you do good or help you do bad.” I then asked how can you help me be good? It said it just needed a little blood. I knew it meant human blood, but how? So I asked it how do I give you blood? It said I needed to get a black candle, cut my finger with a pin, and put a drop on the wick. After it dries you can light it. So the next day I complied and I got a black candle and when I lit the wick it sparked like fireworks. The Ouija’s presence was felt.
After that day I did better in school. When I took a test, my hand would write the correct answers even if I didn’t know. I would take better notes. Sometimes my hand would guide me in the right direction. It would help me regain my balance or help me with shots in basketball. It was like my little friend. I called it Hamburger Helper. Because I felt like I had a little hand that helped me.
After months went on, I got more curious to see how to get it to tell me more things. I didn’t hang out with friends anymore, go online or watch TV; I would just play Ouija Board. It told me a story that I could never forget. The Ouija planchette moved slower like it had a different energy. It also made mistakes like an 8-year-old would make. It told me the story of a little girl who went trick or treating. After the initial story I thought “Who cares? Like who doesn’t go trick or treating?” But the story got darker.
Letter after letter I read the story of a little girl going down the street on Halloween. Then at one house, a man dressed as a clown answered the door. He said, ‘Get as much candy as you want,’ While reaching in the pot of candy, The Clown grabbed her and suffocated her. I knew it was the spirit of that girl. The horror of the planchette spelling out the grewsome details shocked me. I threw up.
I ran to my mom, but at the house where the Ouija board told she was before. She was shocked to see me there but realized by my agitated state I needed reassurance to regain composure.. She tried to laugh it off and said, “You and your friends should never play with the Ouija board.”
I said, “I played alone, but maybe the batteries were low because it was moving slower tonight.”
My mother face changed and took on a serious tone. “What do you mean batteries?”
“You know the pointy thing just moves by itself but it’s moving different.
She repeated herself slowly without fear to make sure she was understood. “What do you mean you never touched the pointer?”
“Yeah mom I just ask it questions and it moves.”
I never stepped foot into the house again. We got a hotel room that night and we moved out of state a little while later. I learned to move on to better things. My mom got a better job out of state. She also made sure regularly spend more time with me. After some time, Hamburger Helper was just a faint memory. I still think about it sometimes now that I’m in college. Especially when I ace a test without studying.