Showcase Magazine - Central and Southwest Virginia's Exclusive Entertainment Magazine

June 28, 2005

Everything seemed to return to normal after the night that Jess and I could not contact each other. Jess seemed to gear her attentions more toward the coming school term and away from Mrs. Williamson. I have to say, I met this with a sigh of relief. Her sudden personality change really did have me worried that she may have been allowing herself to get too close to the unknown.

Jess and I spoke nightly without any interference except for the occasional static in the line when I used my cell phone. I attributed that to the poor reception in my house and not the paranormal. Jess seemed to be concentrating solely on getting prepared for school. In fact we never mentioned the Ouija board or Mrs. Williamson. I figured that my friends and I had contacted her when I was 14 only once and that was it. So why should this be any different? I have to admit that contacting Mrs. Williamson did intrigue me. How could it not? I dare not tell Jess this; her mind seemed to be off of the subject.

The thought of trying to contact Mrs. Williamson via the Ouija board crossed my mind several times. At the most inopportune times too. I would be watching TV and out of the blue, the idea would hit me to try to contact her. Of course I never acted on the impulse. I had always read that one should not use a Ouija board alone. I suppose this is what really troubled me with Jess. She had used the board alone. In fact the only time there was any activity with the board is when she was using it alone. I can see the headlines now "Young woman becomes possessed playing with a Ouija board." It sounds like something straight out of Hollywood, but I had this gut feeling that was what was going to happen if she continued to use the board. So there was no way that I was about to use it alone.

On the morning of the 28th I was awoken at 3:37 AM by the phone. It was Jess, she seems extremely nervous and it was hard to make out what she was saying. I said "slow down Jess." She began to tell me how she "thought" she was having a dream about Mrs. Williamson. In the dream, she said the old lady was upset with her because she had ceased in trying to find her daughter. The old lady said to Jess" I thought you were my friend; I thought you were genuine in your concern. But you are just like my daughter. She doesn't care anymore .Not once has she came to visit me." Jess then said she felt something tug on the bed sheets and she sat straight up to see a shadowy figure of an old woman staring at her.

Needless to say this floored me. Normally I would think that Jess's mind was playing tricks on her after the bad dream. Giving the current situation I knew this was not the case. Any doubts that anyone could have had about this just being a bad dream were resolved with what Jess told me next. She described the old lady that was staring at her. The description was identical to the way that I remembered Mrs. Williamson even down to the hunchback. I knew right then that Jess had seen the old lady.

Jess said she just stared in fright, unable to scream, almost paralyzed looking at the shadowy figure. The figure did not speak nor move. It just stood there staring back at Jess. She said this went on for about a minute then all of a sudden she heard the voice of an old lady from behind her say "I thought we were friends." Then the shadowy figure disappeared.

-William