The first of my Ouija board experiences were much like those of many other people in some ways and in others not at all. To begin with it seemed to be a game. I went with a friend and we looked around hoping to buy ouija board toys for her birthday party and that is what they seemed to me: toys. We found ones that glowed in the dark and some that came in funny colors; others looked much grander (and were far more expensive,) having that mystical, aged appearance.

I think the one we settled on was some massed produced piece, after all we were kids just looking to have fun and I never actually thought that such a device might work. For one thing I could already talk with ghosts, what need had I for a communication device? For another, it just seemed silly!

Being surrounded by paranormal events so often I guess I didn’t share the excitement of the other girls at the party, but I wanted to fit in…as I so often tried (and failed) to do. So I joined in the fun as we darkened the room and tried to make the atmosphere as befitting to spirits as possible.

When the planchette began to move I was interested, but I also assumed someone was moving it. Assumed that it until I noticed that just outside of our giggling, oooing and aahing circle was what appeared to be the ghost of a little boy. He was just behind two girls about halfway around the circle from me and he was watching board intently.

I looked very deliberately at him, but he either didn’t notice or didn’t care, he in fact seemed to be enjoying himself with the toy we had in front of us. So I kept on with the game.

We asked all sorts of silly questions as young girls will and after a time somebody’s sweet tooth won out over paranormal curiosity so the group fell apart bit by bit. I was at the end left with just one other girl and of course the boy.

Her name escapes me all of the years later, but I do know she was wearing a yellow hat. It was a bright, loud piece of clothing that I never would have worn for fear of drawing too much attention to myself. This made me like and admire her boldness.

The girl was leaving on a trip the very next day, camping if memory serves. She asked the board about the trip, nothing too outrageous, just questions about the weather and what she might see. It was at this point that the boy got very upset and repeatedly told her not to go. He would not say why and judging from the look on his face, I might venture to say he didn’t know exactly.

When, after a time, the board continued to repeat this warning over and over, the girl finally shrugged and said she was tired of playing. I knew she hadn’t taken the warning seriously and even began to fear that she would think that I had asked this of her. We both let go of the planchette and I asked her if she was still going to go on her trip. She said something about the entire experience being silly and how naturally she would still be going. I remember she looked bothered, but as young as we were how would she have gotten out of it anyway? Most parents would not take such a message very seriously and most would be right not to.

After she spoke, the planchette began to shake on the board and finally rose up off it maybe a few inches. It stayed there, shaking just a bit in the air before falling back down again. Both the girl and I were silent during this little display. I, because I had seen such things before and understood this to be a way of getting attention; she because she had not and I believe it scared her.

We were the only two in the room when it happened. Once the planchette dropped the girl got up, gave me a funny look and left the room to join the others. The boy sighed and looked at me. I thought he might explain, but he made no move to speak. Someone called me from the next room after a time and I joined the rest of the girls who were raiding the kitchen for treats. The boy was gone when I peeked in later.

The experience was not terribly noteworthy in itself. In time I would have many more that were far more amazing and of value to me. In the end I took two things away from it: One that I really had to be careful about what I shared with others. If a moving piece of plastic is frightening, the rest is simply unimaginable.

The second thing came days later when a friend of mine called to tell me that the girl’s family had been in a car wreck. No one was killed, but the girl did get her leg broken along with some other minor injuries. Though I was sorry to hear it, I still didn’t feel as though it was quite the catastrophic event that the ghost boy seemed to feel it was. That night he had seemed to be to be filled with dread and I couldn’t quite see this accident as being the cause of it.

Years later, in my teens, I had the opportunity to speak with the girl who had broken her leg. We were at a party and she had been drinking quite a lot. It was one of those moments when a familiar face, any familiar face seems like cause for celebration and she shocked me with a hug and a very warm, if not somewhat clumsy welcome. We talked for a while and she got to telling me about what a bad place she was in.

As she explained her unfortunate circumstances she eventually made her way back to that night and filled me in on the accident I’d heard about. She explained how she had been unable to play soccer that year after her injury and hadn’t gone back to it once she’d healed. From there she seemed to steadily lose interest in school and other activities and had managed to drift down the path she was currently on, which made her very unhappy.

In the end, in a round-a-bout sort of intoxicated way, she pinpointed that accident as the beginning of her fall. Though she never specifically brought up being warned by the board, I could tell she was thinking of it and the possibilities if she had managed to follow the advice.

Now I personally don’t believe that one accident can be held accountable for all of life’s misery. We make our own choices and I would bet that the girl had plenty of opportunities to get herself back on track. I do however wonder, not about the warning or the domino of events that took place, but at why the boy knew what he did. Was it the boy at all? If so, did he see it stretching out that far, or was it simply the accident he tried to warn her against?

I have received some answer to these questions over the years from beings involved in similar situations, but they vary and leave much to wonder about.

Moving around as much as I did I only ever got fragments of people’s lives and seldom even that; but last I heard the girl was fine, on her way to becoming a veterinarian and engaged to a friend of her brother’s.

Did it matter in the end? Who can say. But I certainly thought of Ouija boards a bit differently, though I have some different theories on just how that all works. That is for another time and another section, so for now be well and be careful.

Goodbye for now, another end.
Until a time we meet again.

-Seline