They adjourned to the living room and sat down on the floor in front of the coffee table. Kevin was introduced to Matt and Gail, Jill and Tim, and Linda’s opposite, Marcus. He turned out to be a chunky, dark, hairy guy complete with long sideburns, black eyes and tousled hair that could have used a curry comb. Kevin found himself shaking hands with somebody who probably cracked walnuts barehanded as a hobby.

Only after the introduction did he notice what the board game was.

It was an Ouija board, complete with ‘yes’, ‘no’, alphabet, planchette, numbers and letters. Kevin almost got up to leave, but Kat put a hand on his arm and grinned at him. “Give it a break. You could use a laugh, Kev. And you never know…”

Kevin cocked his head and thought to himself, here I am, over here to ask her if she’ll come over to my quad and slap a hex on a horde of cockroaches. How the hell can I say no? He couldn’t, of course.

“Oh, hell, why not. And maybe you’ll come over and help out with a problem at my place, sometime. Okay?”

“Mandy did say something about cockroaches.” The grin was wide and the eyes sparkled. Kevin suddenly knew he’d been set up.

He started to grin his understanding when out of the corner of his eye, he spotted some motion where there couldn’t be any motion. Not logically.

The planchette slid across the board and stopped directly over the word ‘yes.’

Tim said, “How’s this work?”

“A couple of us put our hands on the planchette and ask it questions. The spirits move the planchette around the board to give us the answers,” Linda replied. “It’s lots of fun.”

Tim looked unconvinced and Marcus laughed out loud. “Cute.”

Linda glared at him. “Do you mind?”

“Not at all. I just wonder what spirit is so damn lame as to get board duty. Who’d he piss off?”

Linda and Kat both glared at him and he subsided, but not meekly. Under his breath Kevin though he heard him say, “…had to piss somebody off.”

Gail broke the ensuing silence. “But how did it move just now. I saw it move by itself.”

Tim shrugged. “Static electricity maybe. Or…” he said, running a hand over the board, “the table is tilted. It’s so smooth the darn thing would skate right off. Feel it.” Both Kevin and Gail did so and Kevin agreed. It almost felt like it had been oiled, it was so slick.

“Who’s first?” Kat asked.

“I’ll try it.” That was from Jill, a nondescript but cheerful looking girl with both brown hair and eyes. She looked a bit young to Kevin. “Tim?” Her date shrugged and took up a spot opposite her when Kevin vacated his position. “What should we ask it?”

“How about who’ll win the World Series?” That was from Matt, Gail’s date. He looked properly greedy, as if he might actually put money on the answer.

“We don’t even know who’s going to be playing.” Tim muttered.

“Even better. We can win a lot more.” Kevin looked at him and wondered if he was serious. He looked nutty enough.

“Okay, that’s a good idea. We’ll get a hint before hand if the team it picks makes the play-offs.” Jill decided. “So, great spirit of… what the hell do we call it.”