“Mom, can the girls come over this Friday night? And can you make sure Devon leaves us alone, he is always trying to butt in and won’t leave us alone!”Melissa yells as she crashes through the front door like a tornado through a mid-west trailer park “Sure, just don’t make a ruckus or a mess up there” Kathy says, “Thanks Mom!” she yells on the way up the stairs to her room “Woo Ho, we can finally paaarrtyyyy” she says under her breath. “Got to round up some snacks and soda, maybe sneak some beer, yeah that would be sweet” grabbing her cell phone, she cranks out some fast text messages in that strange teenage texting language adults can’t decipher to the girls. Got to let them know that Friday night was on. In less than a minute the phone begins to buzz from all the responses, “sweet!” everyone is good to go for Friday festivities. Melissa begins to plan all the events of the night in her head. “Wow, maybe we can do two nights and get some pizza. I need to get with dad and make sure he won’t freak over his damn rule about food”. Cool stuff needs to be planned since there will be no sleeping, or at least not ill way early in the morning. As long a Devon doesn’t bug everyone it should be great. Bzzzz, Jo-Ann texts that she has a surprise for Friday night, “cool, what is it?” Melissa asks. Her phone rings “I’m bringing a Ouija board” Jo-Ann squeals in a flirtatious voice “That old house of yours may have some spooky stuff and we could have some pre-Halloween fun”. Melissa replies “Oooh that sounds cool I’ve never played with one of those, Mom and Dad thinks they’re bad news, I just don’t see what the big deal is, it’s all fake anyway, but cool”. “Hey do you think Becky can sneak some beers from her dads stash? My dad watches his like a hawk, I can’t get near them without him freaking out.” “Dono” Jo-Ann replies “I’ll see if she can”. “Cool, I’ll see you at school, later!” And just like that things are beginning to look pretty good for a decent weekend.
Friday night…..
The girls are all giggly and noisy and I can’t wait for them to go upstairs. As much as I miss the days when the kids are younger and more fun you do get to a point where you want them to be self sufficient. The downside when they are there you miss the days when they needed you and wanted to be with you. “Don’t be creating any drama with your brother” I yell, “Devon you leave the girls alone” I say “Why don’t you come down here hand pick a movie and we will have some man time”. Of course that means I’ll have to watch some Disney movie I have seen or heard a hundred times. I need to get him into sports or racing. He loves cars but try to get him to watch a race lasts about 5 minutes. “Dad can you order some pizza?” Melissa says in that suck up voice she uses when she wants something. “Mom said it would be ok to get some Cokes with it”. If Kathy was here she would be able to help me out here because I don’t really know if this was cleared or not. But pizza does sound good and it will help with Devon and his desire to torment his sister whenever she has her friends over. “Ok little man what kind of pizza do you want? You want the fishies and jalapenos on yours right?” I joke, “Noooo eeewwww those are gross!” He yells” I want cheese..I want cheese..I want cheese!” He chants “Ok, ok just kidding, hush up now” I say laughing. I hate when Kathy stays late to grade papers. I understand the need to focus without distractions, but I like it when she’s home. Granted we both try real hard not to bring work home, and sometimes she just has to, but it’s so easy to get wrapped up in it and lose focus on the family. “Ok girls the pizza should be here in about 45 minutes let’s get the kitchen ready”. “Daaad can’t we take ours up to the girl cave” Melissa begs “Um let me think about it for a minute..uh hell no! I don’t need you girls making a crazy mess up there that I’m going to have to clean up or invite critters” I reply. On the other hand getting them out of my hair could be worth it. “Ok just don’t make a mess up there promise?” “Yes dad we’ll be good” Melissa says almost sarcastically, “thanks!” they all yell.
Once the girls grab their pizzas and soda, they run up the “girl cave”. That’s kind of funny but I guess it works, at least Devon won’t be bugging them since he has his cheese pizza Coke and a video game instead of a movie.
“So you guys ready for some fun” Jo-Ann states conspiratorially, “hell yeah” Becky says “lets do it” Lisa chimes in. Jo-Ann grabs the board out of her bag and gets it set up on the floor. “Hey Mellissa grab the candles and hit the lights”. “Can do, Lisa help me set these around. This is gona be so cool. Hey Becky can you crack the window, I don’t want my dad to smell any smoke?” Melisa lights that candles and the girls gather in a circle at Jo-Ann’s direction. As she takes the planchette and puts it on the board she tells them to put their hands on it and try to clear their minds. “So what do we want to ask the spirits?” Jo-Ann says, “ “This is an old house so I’m sure someone has died here”. “Eewww that’s not funny” Melissa replies “jeeze I live here” “Yeah but this house has been here since like the Civil War and hello we live like right in the middle of a battle ground”. Replies Jo-Ann “My dad is always going on about all the historical stuff we live near and we have to go do the tourist thing for family time, it really sucks.”
“But ok so what are we going to ask then?” “Hmmm, alright everyone put their hands on the planchette and start moving it in a circle” Jo-Ann says, “alright here we goooo” as the girls begin to move the planchette Jo-Ann begins to ask questions; “is there anyone here? What is your name,? Are you a boy or girl? did you die here?, hellloooo anybody home for real, come on were trying here, common damn it we want you show yourself.” “Nothing is happening” whispers Melissa “Are we suppose to be doing anything else?” “No I think we’re doing it right, sometimes nothing happens we should get some more pizza and have some beer” replies Jo-Ann. As the girls get up and begin to run around and get their snacks, they forgot about closing the session by placing the planchette on goodbye and the other rule about being respectful to the sprits. They miss the planchette begin to move on its own and start spelling out some answers to their questions. Y E S……I…….A M…...H E R E..…oh the other rule; never ask something to show itself unless you are really extending an invitation.
As they sit back down and go back to gossiping about school stuff Becky starts to feel a chill in the air but shakes it off as just being in the attic. She looks around to see of the window is still open and goes over to close it thinking that was the cause but in the back of her mind she’s not so sure. The remainder of the night passes with the girls finally passing out before sunrise. When Jo-Ann finally wakes up, it’s because Devon is making so much noise in the kitchen playing with the dog all she sees is the mess they made and fails to notice the Ouija board is not where they left it.
