Black Balled - Rachel Lamb

Most children play with dolls or toy soldiers; go out with friends to the movies or the mall, but my mother once toyed with something outside our realm. She and her close friend played with a Ouija board.

My mother, Tammy was in eighth grade and was enticed by the promises of magic and spiritual happenings. She and her friend Diane saved for weeks and bought a book witchcraft. An article they had read in the newspaper had promised they could have anything they had ever wanted, as soon as they wanted it. They had been reading this book for a few weeks before Diane introduced my mother to a Ouija board.

The Ouija board was a dark wood with the usual markings on it, yes, no, goodbye, and letters in the center. In the middle of the board was a perfectly round, cold, black ball. Diane and my mother sat down on either side of the board and looked at each other. Neither one of them had ever even seen a Ouija board, so they definitely didn’t know how it worked.