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The Time a Ouija Board Scared Us
We weren’t sure if we were tapping into spirits or superstitions
The wooden tray was stored on its side in a lower kitchen cabinet, along with my mom’s metal baking sheets, an old-fashioned popcorn maker, and a rarely used teapot. As a kid, I saw it many times before I was eleven years old, when I actually “saw” it for the first time..
The blondish wood was decorated with black letters, numbers, an image of a sun, and one of a crescent moon. For years, I figured it was a serving tray, a fancy way to carry tea or food. But we were not a fancy family.
I pulled it out from the cluttered stash of kitchen items.
“What is this?” I asked.
“I haven’t seen that in a long time,” Mom said, almost wistfully. “It belonged to my mother.”
Her mother died when my mother was still a teenager. She rarely talked about her. I worried the tray made her feel sad.
“Is it a board game?” I asked. It was a dreary day, and my big sister and I were looking for something to do.
“No,” Mom said. “It’s not a game. It’s an Ouija board.”
My sister and I drew blanks.
Our mother added, “It’s sort of like a fortune-teller tray.”
