Unforeseeable Events

Part 3 The Key to My Heart - Taylor

Alex looked at the stupid key for about two whole minutes before he picked it up. I held out my hand toward him. He gently placed the key in my palm and it was still warm from his touch. "Here you go, Taylor. It's so shiny."

"It's probably real silver. What do you think it opens?" I asked. 

"I wonder if it goes to the apartment on the third floor. No one's lived up there for about fifty years, ever since that mean old librarian hung herself in the closet of the main bedroom."

"Do you think it's haunted?" Sarah asked. She was already busy sketching a picture of the key in her little artist's pad. The part of the key you hold in your hand is beautifully ornate and she was struggling a bit to get the details just right.

"Wait!" Sarah peered at the key, squinted and adjusted her glasses higher up on her nose. "In the middle of all these curly cues is a face. A really creepy face!"

Ashley grabbed a fistful of fabric on the sleeve of Sarah's shirt. "It's a clown face!" In addition to having the best Disney Princess merch collection in the history of this planet, she had perfect, 20/20 vision. She has never had to wear glasses. I still like her, but it's annoying that she can see everything so clearly and I'm blinder than your average bat without these super specs.

Alex leaned in close to peer at the key. "She's right! And it's a creepy clown at that."

"Something's going on here. First the message on the Ouija board, then Adelaide saw a pig in the mirror. Then we heard pig noises and no-one here was making them. Now the key. That key was NOT there when we came in. I would've noticed it." Maddie said.

"Maddie's right," Arielle added. "She notices everything! Yesterday, after lunch I had arugula in my teeth and she was the only one who told me."

"We all saw it. She's the only one who cared enough to tell you about it. The rest of us felt like you deserved to walk around with slimy green stuff stuck in your teeth all day. Taylor even complimented your new Twenty One Pilots shirt so you'd smile and look ridiculous in front of everyone when you showed your teeth." I felt annoyed at Arielle for making this all about her and her stupid salad.

"Leave it to you, Taylor, to distract us during what I think might be turning into a paranormal investigation." Reilly brought us all back into the moment and I shut my mouth.

Ashley piped in, "I always thought it would be cool to be part of a paranormal investigation but this is scarier than I imagined. A key with a creepy clown face. A phantom pig in a mirror. And who the hell sent us a Ouija board message? Does anyone here even know somebody who died a mysterious death recently?"

I said, "Last year my Great Aunt Henrietta died but she was ninety five and had a bad heart. It was during that big blizzard. Uncle Bob was snow blowing the driveway, which he never should've been doing. He'll be ninety eight come this spring. They should've hired someone to plow their driveway. Any how, she ran out of the house to yell at him that he was an idiot to be out there in a blizzard using the snow blower and he pretended he was going to run her over with it. She had a heart attack right there on the spot and died. Uncle Bob felt terrible but the doctor said the cold air in her lungs was probably what stopped her heart. Neither one of them should've been out in that kind of weather."

"Holy crap, your family's sooooo dysfunctional, Taylor!" Ashley said. "Do you think the Ouija ghost is your Aunt?"

"Maybe. Let's ask." I really wanted to find out. Who was this mysterious Ouija presence and what did it "need" from us? "Maybe Aunt Henrietta's mad at Uncle Bob and wants me to give him a message."

"But why a pig and a clown? It doesn't make any sense." Ashley was right. It didn't make sense.

"Can I stay?" Alex asked. "I've never seen a Ouija board in action before."

Of course we all agreed because t'was he who noticed the key. Ashley and Adelaide sat down at the board. Everyone else was too afraid. Ashley said, "C'mon, Taylor. Three people will be better than two."

"I'll make it four," Alex volunteered.

The four of us sat around the board and placed our fingers on the planchette. Alex was between Ashley and me. We all fidgeted around a little. Adelaide picked some lint off my flannel shirt. Ashely took her hair out of a messy bun, flung it round and then redid the elastic so it looked even messier. Alex pushed the sleeves of his shirt up then adjusted them back down again. Finally we all had our fingers on the planchette and no one was fidgeting or wiggling around anymore. I looked into Alex's Smurf blue eyes and said, "Alex, you ask it a question."

He blinked and said, "Who are you?" The planchette began to move slowly toward the beginning of the alphabet. 

"A," Adelaide announced. It crept toward the end of the alphabet. "V."

Alex jumped up and the board went flying. The candles went out. High pitched little girl giggles floated through the air. 

"Arielle, get the lights for god's sake!" I shouted.

Furniture scraped against the floor. Softer giggles  echoed all around us. Then a tiny, childish voice screamed, "Noooooooooooo!"

Arielle flipped on the lights and Alex's face shone pale in their glow. He covered his face with both hands and said, "No, no, no. Oh my god no. It's Avery."