“I thought we’d try this out tonight Hucka Doobie, since Wheeler and The Musician are away getting food.
Hucka Doobie was observing the planchette. “It’s spinning.”
“Yeah. Freaky. I thought we might have to hold the planchette but maybe not. Should we go ahead and ask some questions? Why don’t you read down through the list. Take your pick. Use your bee intuition to choose the correct direction.”
Hucka Doobie unfolds a piece of paper in her lap. “Alright. At the top we have… ‘Who is the owner of the Key Shop?'”
The planchette spin transforms into a back and forth movement across the length of the board. Then it goes to “YES”, and then the “O” of OUIJA. Then it moves to the center of the board and stops.
“‘O’ owns the shop?” Baker Bloch queries. The planchette returns to “YES” and then the “O” and then back to center. “That doesn’t really make any sense to me, Hucka Doobie.”
“Nor me. Let’s try another one. First off, can we identify who we are speaking to?”
The planchette spells out, more rapidly than the two expected, “THE DEAD”. It returns to center.
Baker stared over at Hucka Doobie. “The dead of VHC Town?”
The planchette hesitates, then moves to “YES” again and then more slowly back to center.
“Do you have a collective name?” asks Hucka Doobie.
“OD,” came the response after a small pause. But the “O” used was that in the word OUIJA again at the top of the board, and not the one that’s part of the 26 letters below it. And the planchette moved back and forth between this “O” and the “D” to its lower left a number of times before returning to center. Another thing: the “O” was lingered over longer than the “D” in each repetition.
“What do you think, Baker Bloch?”
“OD. The letter ‘O’ and the letter ‘D’?”
The board answered affirmatively.
“Maybe it’s initials, Hucka Doobie.”
The board then spelled out “OD” again, using the same motions as before.
—–
Meanwhile, Wheeler and The Musician were studying menus at a nearby sushi bar, oblivious to the oddity of the picture on the far wall.
Sunklands 