Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 08:40:07 MDT From: Robyn Meta Herrington Subject: SUB:CONTEST:Lovey Another Halloween offering. As always, critiques are encouraged, but mail them to ME so that I can pass them along to the author. Robyn -- rmherrin@acs.ucalgary.ca ======================================================== Lovey It started in the middle of a snowstorm. They thought it was a game, Raymond, Jacob and Marie. I knew that it was more than a game, it was a matter of life or death, but I could not impress that fact upon the others. Parker Brothers had done their job too well. We had just completed dinner, the dishes had been cleared, and sat soaking in the sink. I sat on the floor french braiding my hair as my Persian cat Ralph sat on my lap kneading my 501's with his claws. "Come on, Kate, we need you. The directions say, two or more, but the more people -- the less likely that one person is moving it - even unconsciously." After several long moments of wheedling, Jacob smiled a brilliant smile at me. "We'll only do this for a half hour. Then you can tell us about your story for the contest." I finally caved in. I knew that I shouldn't. Regardless of what the others thought, I knew that the Ouija board could open doors to things that shouldn't be given access to our souls. But, I consider myself to be logical -- for the most part -- and sometimes my intellect gets in the way of my intuitions. They brought the coffee table over in front of me, and we all sat "Indian style" upon the hardwood floor. The board was slick and hand-detailed in gold. The box read Deluxe Edition. The planchette was an ivory colored plastic, set upon legs of black. We were going to dim the lights, but an electrical pole must have gone in the storm, because suddenly we were plunged into an early darkness. The antique kerosene lamps that adorned my living room were put to use, and the soft glow that was cast by them was a strain on our 100-watt eyes. The phone, of course, was dead. It would have been odd for it to be working - wouldn't have fit with the setting. Marie looked at me from across the coffee table. Her auburn hair gleamed in the soft light, and the frizzy curls resembled a halo around her head. She leaned over to Jacob, and kissed his ear - I could see the tip of her tongue tickling his perfect lobe. I suppressed a brief surge of jealousy - Jacob could date whomever he wanted. Raymond looked at me with a brief surge of concern. "Sis, if you really don't want to do this, you don't have to. But it is just a game - after all." "It's all right - really." I countered. I was willing to do just = about anything to get Jacob to give me a second glance. "Let's begin," Jacob said - happy that he had gotten his way. He looked coyly at Marie. "You'll have to place your index finger from both hands on the planchette, love. And we shouldn't be touching, either." Marie put on her pouty face, removed her roving hand from Jacob's thigh, and placed her fingers on the planchette. Jacob and Raymond placed their fingers on the plastic triangle, and they all looked at me, waiting. I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans, and tried to appear calm as I placed my fingers on the piece of plastic. It immediately began to move. h - e - l - l - o -l - o - v - e- y was forced from our fingertips in a matter of seconds. M - i - s - s - e - d - - y - o - u was spelled out before it came to a rest. Marie gasped with delight. The planchette started to move after a brief respite, m-i-s-s- -m-e. The planchette came to rest over the ornately lettered yes in the corner of the board. I shuddered in horror. The childhood song began to run through my head, "you missed me, missed me, now you gotta kiss me." I pulled my hands off of the evil device and stood up, disrupting the coffee table in the process. The planchette flew across the room and landed in the fireplace. The board did too, after I picked it up and threw it forcefully in. "I told you before, it's not a game. I'm gonna go wash my hands." I said as I stomped out of the room. "What's she so touchy about Raymond?" Jacob asked, a slight frown marring his cherubic face. "I thought it was cool the way that thing moved. You owe me for the board, Kate." Marie yelled after me. I found myself fighting down the waves of nausea and revulsion. Ten years had passed since my last episode with a Ouija board, and obviously Simon had been waiting for me. My god, all that time. I shuddered, and found myself shivering from the cold water that was running over my hands. I turned on the hot water tap, but the water remained near freezing. "Raymond," I yelled from the kitchen. "Could you go check the hot water heater? It's on the fritz again." Raymond bellowed from the living room, "No problem, Sis." I heard him stomp down the cellar stairs. A few moments later, he was back in the kitchen. "It's working fine." There are just a few problems with living in an old house. Normally these things are quite routine. However, cold water from the hot pipes isn't. I screamed as the water scalded my hands. I heard a muffled giggle from the living room. "Cut it out Marie," Jacob's voice rang into the kitchen, "Are you alright, Kate." I grabbed a kitchen towel and some ice and wrapped my hand as I wandered back into the living room. The roving hands of Marie had calmed somewhat, for now she was hastily buttoning up her blouse. I rolled my eyes. Jacob could always pick the ditzy horny ones. Actually I was amazed that she could actually button her own clothes. Usually the girls that Jacob picked only wore tight cashmere pullover sweaters, they were easier to pull on and off. I don't know why I'm so hung up on the guy, except for those big blue eyes, the angelic face, the jet black hair, the body of a young god, and the brains to match, Jacob isn't that great. I grabbed my purse and pulled out thirty dollars. I dropped it on the table in front of the auburn bombshell. "That should cover the damages." Marie smiled sweetly at me. "It cost 31.50." Two could play at that game. I pulled out my penny jar and began to count. Raymond interceded quickly. Little brother knows my moods. He put the extra cash on the table, and gave me a look. He tries so hard to take care of me. I used to call him Little Bother, but since Mom and Dad passed away, he's been a big help. "So what's the story with the Lovey?" Jacob asked suddenly. "Yah, why'd you get so upset?" Marie interjected. "You don't have to tell them if you don't want to, Kate." Raymond interceded. I swallowed quickly. "Maybe if I tell you guys you won't mess with this stuff again. It happed ten years ago." I began. "So you were 25?" Marie scratched. "No, I was fifteen," I spit. The cat fight was about to begin. I could feel my mental claws come out. "Marie, let her tell the story." Jacob chided. Marie sighed, and cuddled next to Jacob, holding on to his arm. I could almost see the drool running down her face. I mentally slapped myself. I must try to be nice to the idiot - Jacob sees something in her - I kept that phrase running through my mind as a mantra as I calmed my Irish temper. "Anyway, it was about eight months after Mom and Dad passed away, and we had to go live with Auntie Em." "Auntie Em, Auntie Em," Marie cried in the worst Judy Garland impression I had ever heard. "Em for Emily?" Jacob asked. "No, for Emmanual. My Mom's brother was a transvestite." Raymond answered. Jacob muttered, "I knew that. I know you told me, and it just slipped my mind. Some best friend I am. Sorry." "No problem," I replied, "it happens all the time. ANYWAY, Em lived in this cool old house on the coast of New Hampshire - all mood in the winter, all traffic in the summer. Since we had visited Em frequently, I knew some of the girls I went to school with, and was best friends with Ann Lacey and Mary Horne. My room was the tower room of the house, and I often sulked up there with Ann and Mary. We usually would talk about boys, or what we wanted to be when we grew up, or read cheesy gothic novels where the heroine is always not too pretty and the hero is the one that you think is the villain all along. " Jacob nodded his head. Apparently, he had read the same cheesy books because he shouted out author's names. "Wanda Browning and Emily Hawthorne were my favorites." Marie had a glazed look on her face. I bet she was trying to remember the last time she took her birth control pill, cause her fingers were moving like she was counting. Oops, another snide remark. At this rate, I'll never make it to heaven. "Mine too. Well, Ann got a Ouija board for Christmas that year, and she hauled it over one Friday night. I was having them sleep over, cause Em was doing a show in Boston and Raymond was over Gram and Grampy's. " Marie yawned, obviously. "To make a long story short," I continued, "we used the board, contacted a spirit named Simon and got scared, so we quit. Two nights later, we were back at it again. Just Ann and me this time. Simon came back, said he was lonely and that he missed one of us. We got scared again, and stopped playing -- I didn't want any ghost missing me, and Ann didn't know what was going on. The next night we decided to test, to see who was this Lovey that Simon was raving about. Ann and Mary tried first. Not a thing. Then I put my fingers on the planchette. Simon started with the Lovey thing again. I freaked and threw the board out the window. It landed on the rocks of the beach and the waves took it away. Ann got mad at me and stormed out. Next day I found the stupid board -- high and dry right outside the house on the grass. I swear that I saw the damned thing land on the rocks. So did Ann. But Mary wasn't so sure. She thought we should experiment again. As soon as the planchette touched the board, it started to move, spelling out Miss me, miss me, now you gotta kiss me. I swear to God, none of us were touching the damned thing. No one else was in the house except me and Ann and Mary, and we heard the stairs creaking as if someone was coming up to my room. I screamed and locked the door. We were all sitting, huddled in the center of my room when the doorknob rattled and then began to turn." I took a deep breath. "Then what happened?" Jacob asked, driven by curiosity. "Em walked in. He had got home early for once and was checking up on me. But, we were so scared, Mary had wet her pants and I had gotten darn close myself." "Oooh, how exciting!" Marie exclaimed caustically. I glared. "If it had happened to you, you wouldn't be so cool about it. Anyway, the next month, I was doing a school research report on the area and found a news article about the house we were staying in. Apparently, it had been owned by this really rich family, who had a really nutty son named Simon. He had never been quite right in the head anyway, but allegedly they had found him sleeping with the corpse of his murdered fianc=E9e. Her hands had been scalded, and she had been smothered. They were going to try him for the murder but he slit his wrists in the tower room before they could arrest him. He left a note explaining that he had caught her sleeping with another man and he couldn't bear the thought of losing his Lovey. Three weeks later, they found the body of the other man. I can't remember the guy's name right now but he had been decapitated and everything. I kept the clipping and everything. It was just too weird. Let me grab it from my notebook." I grabbed the article from my briefcase. "I've been thinking lately about making this into a story." The paper was yellowed with age, dated 1945. The picture of a young man, who clearly looked deranged, blazened across the cover. The headline shouted, "Local Man found Dead in Tower Room" "Great story, Kate. You should be a writer." "I am a writer, Marie. But I didn't make this one up. We burned that Ouija board, and I haven't touched another one until today." Marie got up, and grabbed the Parker Brothers box. "We should throw this away now that the board is burned." She shook the box and it rattled. She quickly opened the box "What the ?" The board and planchette were in the box. "This is too weird." The wind shook all of the windows. I stood up quickly, my burned hand throbbing. Suddenly, a tree branch broke the window, sending shards of plate glass across the room. A piece neatly hit Jacob in the throat, leaving a thin tracing of blood upon his ivory skin. Jacob swore as he rubbed his neck. Marie screamed. I looked at the blood running down her arms. She hadn't been so lucky. A jagged shard had landed on the box lid, and then slid down across her wrists. Blood was spurting quite nicely across my white couch, so I grabbed the towel from my hand, rolled it up and used it as a bandage, applying pressure by holding her wrists together clamping the towel. "Call 911, Raymond." "The phone is out. Gary may be home. Should I try it?" "Of course. It's alright Marie, you can stop screaming now." Raymond ran out of the house, slamming the door. The door blew open again, and a wild looking young man stepped into the room, arms outstretched. . "Jesus Christ Almighty Kate, He's coming for you! Don't you see him? Don't you see him?" Marie continued to scream her contralto reaching new heights. "See who?" I asked. "Simon." Marie collapsed in a dead faint. Music rippled in the background. I turned and smiled. "I don't know Jacob. Too gullible." "Come on, Kate. You told me to look for the na=EFve ones." He grabbed me by the waist and gave me a deep loving kiss. After a moment he turned his passionate attentions away from me. "Good job Gary. Do you think you can patch her up?" "No problem, Jake - Got the stitches in now. With a little rest and pain reliever she'll be fine. Kate, do you think your story will win?" "I don't know, do you think next time we can make the glass break like that, intentionally?" Raymond walked back into the house and pushed a button on the remote next to the door. The lights flicked on. Jacob wandered over to the computer, and tapped a couple of keys. It powered up, and the printer began to churn. A minute later he handed out little tally cards, "Kate gets fifty individuals for the telling, Gary you get 15, Raymond gets 5 for supporting actor, and I get 10 for letting Marie lick my ear and choosing a suitable subject. Overall team bonus 95 for implementation, and wow, we got 500 for surprise! We made it to the finals guys!" Marie moaned as we all cheered. God, this new game is a rush! ================================================================== -- ---------------------------------*=*=*=*=*=*-------------------------------- Robyn Herrington,Editor rmherrin@acs.ucalgary.ca InfoServe www.ucalgary.ca/~rmherrin New Currents in Teaching and Technology Communications Media MacKimmie Library University of Calgary Ph: 220-3716 (temporary) == Inter tormentia latitia == ---------------------------------*=*=*=*=*=*--------------------------------