The Spirit of the Glass
By Gianna Maniego
“Ayoko. I don’t want to play, I’m scared!” Maita protested.
Maita was not usually a scaredy-cat, but what her bestfriend was suggesting was just too dangerous, in her opinion.
Camilla wanted Maita to join som egirls in class who were playing with the Ouija board that Steph brought to school that day.
It was early December, and the whole school was preparing for the Christmas pageant. Some were in the choir, some were acting as Angels and Shepers. Regular classes were suspended and the whole week was devoted to rehearsals.
The only ones left in the classrooms were thos who weren’t included in the pageant. They were assigned to decorate the classrooms for the Christmas decorating contest.
Maita and her classmates were in Room 36, the honors section. As usual, their resident artist had everything planned ahead of time, so there was nothing left to do but string up the rainbow-colored lights.
Bored, some of the girls began bringing games to school. Someone brought playing cards; others brought a chess set. The braver ones brought GameBoys. Those were not allowed, but since the teachers were also busy with the pageant, Maita’s classmates got away with it.
Pretty soon the classroom turned ito recreation center, with groups of students playing in various corners of the room.
The most popular game at the moment was the Ouija Board.
About 10 girls had gathered around the rectangular-shaped board which was painted with the alphabet, numbers, the moon and several stars. In the middle of the board were two circles. Inside one circle was the word YES, and in the other, was the word NO.
The girls were listening in hushed silence to Steph, who was explaining the rules of the game.
It’s like Spirit of the Glass. You ask a spirit to join you and then ask it questions, like ” ‘When I will get Married’ or ‘will I finish school?’, stuff like those. Tapos hintayin mo yung sagot ng spirit (Then wait for the spirit’s answer),” she said.
”Paano sila sasagot? (How will they answer?)” Celine asked skeptically.
“Pag Yes, pupunta yung glass dun sa bilog na may nakasulat na YES, pag NO dun sa kabila. Pag hindi masasagot ng YES or NO, ii-spell out nung glass yung sagot. My Ate once called the spirit of Jose Rizal. He was a lot of fun, he kept speaking in Spanish, so nobody understood most of what he said,” Steph told her enthralled audience.
”Ibig mong sabihin, the spirits get inside the heart-shaped thingy and play the game with you? Hindi ako naniniwala! I don’t believe in ghosts… or spirits!” said Arlene, one of the prettiest girls in class.
to be continued……
