“Where did you get money?” “Playing poker like Daddy!” Mom said, “Give it back, the other kids don’t know the game! You’re cheating them!” Dad and I went to give the money back, and one neighbor was a cop. He said if his kids had played with me, then keep the money! He said it will teach his kids a lesson, not to gamble on something you don’t understand! He also played poker with Daddy! Daddy said, “What do you want with your money?” I said, “A bike so everyone could play on it!” Donny, David, the cop’s kids, and my cousins all loved it!

My other option for entertainment was watching my mother, aunts, and neighbor ladies play with the Ouija Board. I have seen the Ouija Board lift up our kitchen table and walk it across the floor! One lady, I believe she was a medium, although I didn’t understand mediums at the time, would chant, calling names, and telling it not to lie to her. My Aunt Sue had recently lost her father, and the Board told her when she gave her dog away, she gave her father’s soul away! She believed this and was very depressed because she thought her father was reincarnated to be the dog she gave away! She tried to get the dog back, but the family she gave it to had moved. My Aunt Ruthie had a Ouija Board that would always turn up after she got rid of it! She would find it after throwing it away, and it hated my cousin! He said it would swear at him, call him names, and the board followed them. Where ever they moved it would turn up somehow after they threw it away! My cousin said he took it out into the backyard and burned it! He said as it was burning he saw a face and it screamed! I believe his story, and the board has not turned up since! My mother will not allow a Ouija Board in her house now, neither will my aunts, or myself! Although Dad has passed on, I will still play poker, but not at live tables in Vegas, as I promised him. He said no matter how much you think you know about poker, someone will bluff you out! Ouija Boards are bluffing too, but they are real and they are scarier! I will not allow one in my house!

Several months later my 35 year old nephew, who was having a lot of trouble with drugs, needed a place to stay. No one wanted him, so my husband and I told him he could come home with us. One day, he and I were talking, and I told him of the experience with the dark spirit. I described the spirit to him. He got a horrible look on his face and almost started crying. He said, “Auntie, that is exactly what I saw when I was about six years old. It happened when we lived next door to PawPaw. We were playing with the Ouija Board one day in our kitchen. I looked up and standing in the doorway was this person you described. He stood and stared at me with piercing red eyes. I got so scared and my momma thought I was making it up. Oh! Auntie, that was the scariest thing and it’s exactly what you described coming into your house.”

This happened about ten years ago but just last year my elderly aunt who lives nearby told this story:

While she was sleeping, this same thing awakened her, staring at her. All she could say was “Oh! Oh! Oh!” It stood over her bed, and she closed her eyes to pray. When she opened her eyes, it was gone. A few days later she was taking her daily walk when a vehicle passed her, stopped, and backed up. This thing, she couldn’t tell if it was male or female, asked, “How are you today?” Aunt Mae said, “Ok”. She said she was scared and just wanted to get home. This thing said, “I think of you often. I come through here and I wanted to see you. I’m doing good and I have to go.” And then, “It was good to see you”. After that, she walked as fast as she could back to her house. Aunt Mae said it had the same fiery eyes as the thing that was standing over her bed that night.

Our hands were on the Ouija Board, that’s how you use it, four fingertips lightly resting on the moving thing. And I swear, we did not push it. That plastic thing with the little nail in it slowly moved to the H. Then it moved to the A. And back to the H. Then back to the A. Back and forth it went, faster and faster. It wouldn’t stop. We tried asking different questions to redirect it but it kept saying Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha. The board was laughing at us. And with perfect timing, a scorpion ran across the bedroom floor at exactly that moment.

Okay, that was it. We were scared silly and as I remember it, never touched that Ouija Board again!