Four young girls, clad in blue pinafores, walked hurriedly into the empty classroom. Along the way, they had rushed past a few empty classrooms, looking out for the teacher, or the school security guard. It was in the late afternoon and almost everyone else had left school. Still, it did not hurt to be careful. They sat cross legged on the floor, around a small sheet of white paper. The classroom door was left slightly ajar, just so they can listen out for people approaching their classroom. Margaret sat opposite Karen. Jessie and Cindy sat on her sides.
'You draw it out,' Jessie held out the marker, with a mysterious look in her eyes. 'Okay,' Margaret grabbed the marker. Margaret held a black marker in her hand and along the top edge of the paper, wrote all the letters of the alphabet and along the bottom edge, the numbers zero to ten. At either two opposite corners, she wrote 'yes' and at the other two corners, she wrote 'no'. In the middle she drew a circle and wrote the word 'HOME' in it. They were about to play the Ouija Board. When Margaret was done, Jessie fished a coin out of a pocket, from a side pocket of her pinafore. Anticipation glistened in all their eyes, as Jessie placed the coin in the circle labelled 'HOME'. Slowly, they placed their index fingers on top of the coin. They looked at each other in silence, waiting for all to be ready. She stood tall and proud in the cool shade underneath the Arch of Triumph, a tourist spot in Paris. A cool breeze had picked up, and swept her hair across her face. Margaret, now at the age of twenty five, was marveling at the world, marveling at how happy she was. She had spent the last five days in dingy little hotel room. The mattress in her room was saggy and the refrigerator did not work. But the minute she put her head down on the pillow, listening to unseen voices from the roadside echoing three storeys up to her window, she was a peace with herself. She was in supposedly the most romantic city in the world and she had the whole week to herself.
It was already the fifth day of her trip. Just as she was about to turn and leave, The air beneath the Arch of Triumph turned chilly. Goosebumps erupted all over her arms. 'I would like to go home now,' a low deep voice came from behind her. She spun to see a man in an army uniform, standing some distance away. Looking around, she was wondering whether if he was talking to her. When she looked back, he was now covered in blood, his previously smart army uniform now torn in several places. And he was standing right in front of her. Margaret gave startled cry and took a step back. Just as she was about to chide him, his eyes bulged as he gave a single shriek of pain. In slow the back.
She froze. She wanted to run away, there was no mistaking that. but she simply could not. Her feet seemed rooted to the ground. Closing her eyes, she told herself to breath slowly and all she saw was just an illusion, or a figment of her imagination. When she opened her eyes a minute later, he was no longer there. She glanced around but could not find him. She put her hand to her forehead and felt her heart beating within her chest. The other tourists were looking at her queerly. Surely there was some kind of explanation. Surely there was a reasonable... 'Please send me home,' the same voice reiterated. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Margaret turned and ran. As she made her way away from the Arch, something struck her. Realization. 'Spirit of the coin, please come,' breathed Margaret slowly. 'Spirit of the coin, please come.'
She repeated again, but this time, the others chanted with her. They repeated the plea again and again, each time with a greater urgency. 'Spirit of the coin, please come.' All of a sudden, a chill came upon the room, and Margaret felt her skin prickling. she glanced at her arms and saw it covered in goosebumps. The coin had moved. Or had it? With racing hearts they looked at one another. Finally Margaret spoke, 'are you here?' Steadily, the coin picked up its pace and moved to the top right hand corner... YES. 'You're moving it!' Jessie accused Margaret. 'You're moving the coin!' White with fear, Margaret just kept shaking her head. Yet deep inside, excitement was brewing. 'What's your name?' Margaret asked. Slowly but surely, the coin moved to the different alphabets: J-O-S-E. 'Jose?' giggled Karen. 'What kind of name is Jose?'
'Sound French to me', said Cindy. 'What are doing here?' Jessie asked, who could not help but be drawn in. 'We called him here, you idiot!' muttered Margaret to her. E-X-A-C-T-L-Y. So they talked for about ten minutes. But Jessie had a doubtful look on her face. If she had been a year or two older perhaps, the rest of them would have defined it as 'cynical'. 'Prove it! Prove that you are here and that someone is not pushing that darn thing!' The others looked at each other doubtfully. They obviously didn't think that there was any room for confrontation here. Margaret especially doubted whether they were in any position to confront anything anyway. Suddenly the door slammed. GET OUT OF THE GAME... That's not all. J-E-S-S-I-E. 'What??? Who is doing that!' Jessie called out, her voice getting more and more shrill.
YOU HAVE A BLACK HEART 'STOP IT!' Jessie screamed. Then the coin moved downwards. Fear gripped all their hearts. Margaret's instincts told her to get her finger off it, but she didn't want to. She knew too well that if she did, she would have been possessed. Jessie, by then, had started to scream hysterically. Her eyes were fixed on something in the distance. Margaret looked but saw nothing. 'What is wrong Jess... Please, talk to me. Talk to us', Karen pleaded, her voice close to tears. But Jessie would just continue screaming. As she ran down the street, trying to remember which bus she was supposed to take back to her hotel room, she knew what she had to do. But would she ask? Would she ask why he had done that to Jessie? She had never really found out what had happened to her friend. She had become withdrawn ever since that incident. She never told any of them.
But as the coin moved towards the bottom, her eyes were so wide that they filled the entire room. The coin moved towards the number five. 'Five?' asked Karen, breathing rapidly, obviously trying to get hold of her senses. It moved to the number four and then to the number three and immediately they knew what was happening. 'Jose' was counting. He was counting down to something. The coin moved to 2 and paused there for awhile. Then it jerked to the number one and immediately Jessie jerked up and ran out of the class. She was screaming as she ran, not looking back. 'Jess!' Xingjun cried. Margaret panicked. 'Leave your fingers on the coin!' The familiar sound of footsteps came echoing up the stairs. The common sound of footsteps that were more ominous at fourteen than any spirit could be... ...a teacher was coming up the stairs. She took out her note pad and sat at the hotel room desk. Trembling, she picked up the pen did what she had done nine years ago as a young teenager, but this time, alone.
When everything was ready, she spoke aloud the words she realized she must have almost forgotten. 'Spirit of the coin, please come. Spirit of the coin, please come. Spirit of the coin, please come.' It was different. The French coin was smaller and denser and this time it started moving immediately. 'Who are you?' YOU KNOW. She knew who he was. 'Jose?' YES. 'What do you want, Jose?' SEND ME HOME. 'How?' SEND ME HOME. It moved around the blank space on the paper as if waiting. It took Margaret a while to realize. She said slowly and clearly, 'Spirit of the coin, go home.'
THANK YOU. The coin moved straight into the centre circle and ceased to move after that. The large figure loomed in the doorway. With their minds astray, the girls screamed in terror, only to discover that it was the teacher. At that point in time, fears of possession and the likes were nothing but tiny imprints in their minds. 'What are you girls still doing here? The gates will be locked in ten minutes', she shrieked. Quickly, the girls reacted instinctively. Margaret grabbed the paper and crumbled it quickly while the others stood up to shield her. As they did, all forgot about the coin that fell off the paper.
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