The Shivers and the Creeps

Seven girls, one sweet-sixteen sleepover party and a Ouija Board. This proved to be an explosive combination back in the summer of 1981 which I have not forgotten to this day.

It started out innocent enough, the typical sleepover pranks were pulled, Sondra wore Kelly's pee-jay bottoms while Tiersa wore Shelby's. Everyone wore mismatched jammie's and at least twenty braids in their hair not to mention the cold cream and skin lotion Pippi guaranteed prevented freckles. Various colors of nail polish sat upon available table tops until they were passed around and mixed and matched.

After sunset we ate hot dogs and chips on the back porch, singing along occasionally when the radio played a popular song. When Mz. Chambers called us inside the time was only nine o'clock. Clue was played but after Eileen won twice in a row we decided to play Truth or Dare.

Unfortunately, I chose a dare on my turn and ate a raw egg which I promptly threw up. Mz. Chambers suggested we stick to board games and pointed to a hall closet full of them.

Sondra found a Ouija board and pulled it out. Most of us didn't know what it was, but those few who did had mixed feelings about it.

Mz. Chambers told us if we were going to play this game we should turn out the lights and put a few candles out. I should mention Mz. Ivy Chambers was a bit of a hippie and we all loved her eccentricities.

So, the lights were put out, candles were lit and the board was placed on the floor with all seven of us sitting around it. Ivy suggested we say a prayer of protection to shield us from any negativity.

Sondra, Tiersa, Pippi, Eileen and myself all said the Lord's prayer while Kelly and Shelby giggled their way through their version of it. Then we all placed a finger on the pointer and the trouble started soon after.

We were all concentrating on the first question, "Is anyone listening?" when a very loud bang! surprised us all. With shrieks and squeals we all jumped about six inches into the air but it turned out to be Ivy putting the clean dinner dishes away. She came giggling around the corner and apologized about scaring everyone.

We forgot about the first question, and Tiersa suggested we ask if anything 'wanted to play' so once again, seven fingers touched the pointer and we no sooner asked the question out loud than the pointer streaked across the board to the 'yes' response.

Eileen thought Pippi moved the pointer and I thought Shelby did, but we all agreed to try it again. The question was asked and the pointer moved straight to the 'yes' response yet again though it seemed to move more slowly the second time.

Kelly thought up the next question, "What is your name?" and we all concentrated. No movement, no response. Pippi asked the question out loud and finally there was a small circular movement.

The pointer circled around until it stopped on the L, then moved to I, then B, B again, Y, and then Y again. LIBBYY. The pointer stayed put on the last Y. We looked at each other sitting around the circle and began giggling and laughing. Kelly and Sondra sang, "Libby, Libby, Libby on the label, label, label!" just like the old commercial. Only Tiersa still held her finger on the pointer when it suddenly flew across the small space and hit Kelly on the chest.

"Hey! Cut that out! You could have hit my face." Kelly picked up the pointer and placed it back on the board as she made a face at Tiersa.

"I didn't do it, Kel, honest!"

"Right, sure, it just flew by itself!" Kelly stuck her tongue out then we all began laughing again.

We weren't ready to give up yet, so I asked the next question, "Where are you?" The pointer sat on the middle of the board without moving. Ivy walked into the room with cups of punch and a big bowl of popcorn. She was about to set the bowl down on the board when the pointer rushed over to the 'no' response.

"What were you asking it girls?"

"We wanted to know where LIBBYY was Mom."

"Kel, honey, spirits don't always realize they're gone and it's like asking how you died. It's just rude, ask nice things like what's your favorite food or color or something." Ivy set the bowl of popcorn down on the floor, then left the room.

Shelby suggested, in a low whisper, "Let's ask her how she died next!"

So, Sondra, Kelly, Shelby, Tiersa, Pippi, Eileen, and I all concentrated on asking Libby how she died. We placed our fingers on the pointer and then Eileen asked it out loud.

The hair rose on the back of my arms and neck as thunder and lightning exploded all around us. We all screamed as the house went black save for the two little candles on either end of the table. No one's hands were on the pointer anymore.

Ivy came in with a lit taper, "You kids all right in here?"

A chorus of "Yeah's" responded to her query. "We knew the storm would probably knock out power once it finally hit, so it's a good thing we have plenty of candles, right girls?" Ivy didn't wait for us to respond this time and breezed back around the corner.

"Do you think it was LIBBYY?"

"I don't know, what if it was?"

"Should we ask something else?"

"I think we should say another prayer!"

"I don't want to play this anymore!"

"C'mon! It's just getting interesting. One more question, pleeeeease?"

So once again we all sat around the little table and placed buttery fingers onto the pointer and asked "Did you do that?" of LIBBYY.

Almost instantly, the pointer began moving. It pointed to I, V, Y, then I, V, Y, again. We almost let go of the pointer but it started spelling again. F, I, E, R.

"Ivy, Ivy, Fier (Pippi pronounced it fee-yer)? It doesn't make sense!"

"Not feeyer, silly, like fire, you know f-i-r-e?"

"Mom!" Kelly jumped up and ran into the other room where Ivy was reading a book. All of us were hot on her tail babbling excitedly about LIBBYY saying IVY was on FIER!

"Calm down girls. There's no fire, I'm fine. Now, Kelly, tell me what you're talking about.

Ivy's finger made the total eight on the little pointer in the middle of the Ouija board for the next question, "Did you mean FIRE?"

Ivy asked the question out loud and the pointer went straight to the 'yes' response. She asked another question while the rest of us concentrated on what Ivy was asking. "Did you mean me, Ivy?" The pointer moved off the yes then came to rest over it again.

"What do you need to tell me, LIBBYY?" The pointer swirled in little circles then moved to G, O, N, O, M before it stopped and stayed on the M.

"GONOM? Mz. Chambers, what's a GONOM?"

"It's nonsense, let's try it again. What do you need to tell me, LIBBYY?"

Tiersa and I began to chant, "Tell us, tell us!" and as the others joined in, the pointer went again to G, O, then again, G, O, it rested slightly, then very quickly N, O, M, N, O, M, N, O, M. LIBBYY continued spelling NOM until we took our hands off the pointer.

Sondra, sitting in front of the M, said, "From my position the M looks like a W."

"NOW! She's saying GO NOW, GO NOW!" Tiersa jumped up excitedly, "We figured it out!"

We all smelled the smoke at the same time the smoke alarms went off in the upstairs hallway. Every one of us, including Mz. Chambers, screamed as we all clung to each other.

"Girls! Girls, grab your sleeping bags, they're still all by the front door and we are all going over to the neighbor's. Kelly, take everyone to Mrs. P's house and I'll be right there, call 9-1-1"

Each of us ran through the house in our mismatched jammies, multiple braids in our hair, rainbow colored fingernails and cold cream smeared on the bridge of our noses. We grabbed our sleeping bags and ran across the street and down the driveway in the pouring rain with our blankets held over our heads to keep warm.

Mrs. P's house was three lots down from Kelly's which was equal to almost a quarter mile jog barefoot for all of us, but we made it and so did Ivy shortly afterward.

- -

Kelly's house burned down to the ground that night, lightning struck it and started a fire in the attic and up in Ivy's room. If not for the persistence of an insistent poltergeist, who knows how many of us would have made it out?

And what was Ivy doing when she stayed behind? Well, she told us later the next day when we figured out what LIBBYY was saying, the pointer, sans any fingers, moved to the 'yes' reply. Ivy stayed just long enough to say thank you to our other-worldly helper.

Old newspapers reported a Liberty Young died at the age of thirty, almost one hundred years before our little party while saving her two daughters from a house fire. One of those daughters married a man named Chambers who produced a daughter named Ivy.