The Ouija Board (A True Story)

The other night I had the strangest dream about a former online friend. It was very unsettling, and it made me wonder why in the world I would have such a tragic dream. Maybe it was the snack I had just before going to bed that brought on the bad dream. Or maybe it was a warning about something to come. At first I thought it had little to do with this blog, but now I’m wondering – did it?

When I was in college (a private college for women in Virginia), several of the girls in one particular dorm started playing around with a Ouija board. Each night they would gather around to ask this silly board all kinds of questions, and the next morning word would spread to the other dorms as to what the great Ouija had predicted the night before.

This went on for several weeks until one night the Ouija board predicted there was going to be a fire. It named the dorm and location where the fire would start, and it spelled out the names of those who would be hurt or die in the fire. Ouija also gave the date and time of the fire. Word spread like wild fire … no pun intended … and fear spread even faster.

The longer this prediction went on, the more concerned everyone became until finally administration stepped in, confiscated the Ouija board, and said that if another one was found on campus, the owner or owners would be sent home.

Too late, the damage had been done. One girl’s mother was a close friend of a very famous psychic who lived in New York City. She confirmed that we would indeed have a fire just as the Ouija board had predicted. As the date approached, the fear of what was to happen was beyond belief.

Parents started calling to ask if they should take their daughters out of school until the danger had passed. Some actually drove hundreds of miles to make arrangements for their daughters to sleep off campus on the night in question.

But the most unbelievable image of all was that of the town’s firefighters camped outside our windows, and firefighters stationed next to every fire alarm in every building to make certain no one pulled an alarm. Dorm mothers, faculty, and administrators walked the halls all night long to make sure no one left their rooms unless accompanied by a college official.

No one slept that night. We were all terrified. The dorm where the fire was predicted to start was emptied. All girls who didn’t go home or off campus were moved to other dorms, and because the fire was predicted to start in the kitchen (which was on the first floor of the named dorm), the fire department watched over that area all night long. Also, the local police department was present on campus throughout the night.

The time came and went and there was no fire. Thank God. The next morning we all dragged ourselves to our classes, and later that day we had an assembly. I seem to recall our president telling us that he was proud of the way we had handled the situation. He also told us that if anyone had a Ouija board or was even thinking about bringing one on campus that they would be expelled for good, never to return again.

The next week there was a rumor that a Ouija board had been smuggled into another dorm, but no one wanted anything to do with it.

The End.

© Catherine Evermore. All rights reserved.

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