DARK SECRET OF THE OUIJA
CHAPTER 5
Rap, rap, rap. Someone was knocking on her bedroom door.
"Leave me alone, Sam!" Jenny growled.
"It's your mother, honey. May I please come in?"
Jenny shook her head. Then she looked around the empty room, sat up, wiped the tears from her face and said, "Yes, I guess."
The door opened. Jenny's mother appeared there, her head tilted in concern. "Are you okay?" she asked.
Jenny thought, Weren't you listening? Of course I'm not okay. She shrugged.
Her mom sat down on Samantha's bed and faced Jenny. "I know how you feel."
"No, you don't!"
Mrs. Seker sighed. "Yes. I do. Don't forget I was your father's wife. He meant more to me than I can put into words. We had a good marriage. I thought we'd be spending forty or fifty more years together. When the accident happened, I was angry, just like you are now. I missed him and resented him for what he did. I didn't think I could ever forgive him."
Jenny glared at her mother. "Why didn't you stop him from drinking?"
"I tried. I know now I should have tried harder. He never drank as much as some alcoholics do. So I didn't think he had much of a problem. I tried to ignore it because I didn't know what to do about it. I never once imagined it would end up like this." She looked down at her hands and fingered her wedding ring. Her eyes reddened.
"Dad should have been mature enough to get help for his problem himself."
Mrs. Seker spoke softly. "But you need to forgive him, Jenny."
Jenny sprang from her bed. "I can't! I won't! He's messed up our lives, and he's a murderer, too!"
"Jenny," her mother said sternly. "There can be no healing from the hurt unless you forgive him."
Jenny grabbed her pillow and tossed it against the wall. "I don't see how it's possible to forgive him. I don't see how you forgave him so easily."
"It wasn't easy. But I had to, or I'd still be miserable. It's not healthy to dwell on the pain. It's better to remember the good times. Regardless of how your father died, he did love us. He was a good man."
"And he showed his love by driving drunk?" Jenny stomped past her mother.
"What's that on the floor?" Mrs. Seker asked. Jenny glanced at where she was pointing, at the broken photograph beside the desk. The glass was splintered like an evil web across her father's face. She moved away from it.
Mrs. Seker went over and picked it up. "How could you do this? This photo meant so much to you."
"I hate him, Mom."
"Don't say that! It's just your hurt talking."
"It's me talking, Mom. You don't understand. All these years I've loved a lie. I hate lies. And I hate Dad for doing what he did."
"Jenny—."
"And you should have told me the truth sooner! No, Mom, you don't understand me at all. I'm going to find someone who does understand me." She fled from the room.
"Where are you going?"
Jenny pounced down the stairs. "To Carol's, I guess."
At Carol's, Jenny felt restless being in a home which had a loving father. She suggested that they go to the mall.
"But it's getting close to dinner time," Carol said.
"We'll eat at the Pizza Palace. Will your brother drive us or will we have to walk?"
Carol got permission from her mother to eat at the mall. After her big brother, Jimmy, dropped them off, Jenny headed for the music store. Carol had to trot to keep up.
"What's bugging you?" Carol asked the back of Jenny's flying hair. "What happened when you went home earlier?"
Jenny stopped and turned. "The Ouija board was right."
"How do you know?"
"My mother finally told me the truth." She continued her fast walk through the mall.
In the store, the two browsed through the CD racks. The current top hit was playing, but it couldn't drown out Jenny's hurt.
Carol nudged her. "Look who just came in," she whispered. Jenny recognized Phoenix MacLain, an older girl who always wore the latest fashions, from hair to shoes. She'd been held back a grade, so she was in Jenny's classes. Usually she had a flock of low-achieving friends around her. This time she was alone.
"What is it about her that makes her so popular?" Carol whispered.
Jenny shrugged and mumbled, "Who knows? Maybe it's her looks."
"I wish she'd show me how to do my hair."
"You look fine," Jenny said, louder. "Here's a CD I'd love to have. I can either buy this or buy dinner. Which do you think I should get?"
Carol eyed the CD. "My sister's got that one," she said. "It's really awesome."
"If my Dad hadn't killed himself, I'd be getting a big enough allowance to buy dinner and this CD."
Another voice said, "Be glad he did kill himself." It was Phoenix. She was standing behind them. It surprised Jenny that this girl from the school's most popular crowd would speak to them. Phoenix shook her permed blonde hair and added, "I wish my father wasn't around any more."
Jenny gasped. "How can you say that?"
Phoenix grinned. "You don't know what he's like."
"Maybe not, but—."
Phoenix started to walk away.
Carol blurted, "Jenny just found out the truth about how her father died, even though his accident happened six years ago."
"Bummer," Phoenix said without turning.
"My Ouija board told her."
Jenny shot Carol a questioning glance that said, Why bring that up? You want us to look weird?
"Oh really?" Phoenix said, suddenly interested.
Carol nodded energetically. "You have a Ouija board, don't you? I heard you talking about it at school."
Phoenix smiled. "You're telling me that your Ouija board revealed a secret about the death of Jenny's father?"
"Yup," Carol said proudly.
Jenny didn't like this conversation. She wanted to get out of the store and find something else to think about.
Phoenix was surveying Jenny. "Did the Ouija say anything else?"
"It said enough," Jenny answered.
"My Ouija tells me lots of secrets," Phoenix said. "It has supernatural powers, you know."
"Powers?" Carol asked. "Powers to do what?"
Phoenix thumbed her hand across the stacked CDs. "Oh, different things I ask it to do."
"You mean it can do more than answer questions?" Carol's eyes were growing wider by the word.
"Sure, if you know how to use it right."
"Unreal! Hear that, Jenny?"
Jenny frowned. "I thought you said it was just a game."
Carol looked disgusted. "Jen! Get with it."
Carol had never spoken to Jenny like that before. Jenny tried to hide her surprise and mumbled, "It's divination."
"Yeah!" Phoenix said. "Divination. Occult powers. You guys have so much to learn."
"Will you teach us?" Carol asked.
"Sure. But we'll have to do it at your house in case my father comes home."
Jenny felt uneasy about the way this meeting was turning out. If only Carol would notice the warning Jenny was trying to give her with her eyes.