On my sixteenth birthday we went to the cemetery, some three hundred years old, across the street from my house. We brought the Ouiji board, some candles and matches, and plopped out little group down past the first hill just out of sight from the street. It was just before dusk and we set up out candles in our little circle and lay the board between up. Unfortunately, the candles proved to be a bit too much for my ever amused friends, and soon they all had to be blown out due to my fear of the sticks, twigs and leaves they kept trying to set on fire. Then we began our task: communication with the dead. Going around the circle we tried to think up questions for the dead. What was the afterlife like? Chocolate or strawberry? Cremation, is it better? Which one of us here should run for president?
None of the questions were answered, I think we had just a few too many people exerting pressure on the game piece. Then the sun really began to dip below the horizon, our candles were long since extinguished, and the shadows were getting long. Although I see this cemetery every day of my life, the night brings it new life. Its no longer the benign place that it is in the light. It ceases to be a place to stroll through, meandering through reading tombstones. In the dark it is a forbidden place, at least to me, filled with ideas of the unknown. For some reason my discomfort amused my friends, who decided to continue with the futile questions.
"C’mon, PLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEeeeeAAAAAAAAASSSSSSe" I whined, but to no avail. This only proved to amuse my friends who like to watch me squirm. The darkness descended further and my discomfort decreased. What could really hurt me there? Why was I so afraid? In the end I got everyone to run out of the cemetery with me, pretty much for no reason, but it made me feel a whole lot better. That cemetery isn’t a scary place, its actually one of my favorite places. No harm done though at my sixteenth birthday party.