The PLANCHETTE

“Shew…Shew…. Shew! Quiet girls. We need to focus!” Dilpreet and Sherene looked at each other, held each other’s hands and repeated the line “any spirit crossing by, we request you to come to us”.

Both focused on a piece of Wooden-Board, where their index finger was placed on a coin. Two circles were drawn on which was written YES and NO. Alphabets and numbers were neatly embossed on it.

“Oh, come on girls, we need silence here.” Dilpreet shouted and the murmuring stopped. All the girls became silent.

Dilpreet and Sherene repeated the lines. There was no movement on the coin.

One of the girls said, “Listen both of you. When the spirit comes, I am going to ask the first question”.

Dilpreet said, “My dear, can we first get connected with a spirit then you can continue with your questionnaire”.

Sherene replied, “I don’t think spirits exists. This is completely bogus! And in this noise, no spirit will ever come to us. Let’s just quit”.

Looking at the seriousness on her face, the rest of the girls assured Sherene that they will maintain silence.

Again, Dilpreet and Sherene, held hands and went on repeating, “Any spirit crossing by, we request you to come to us”. This time all the girls were very quiet. The room echoed by that sentence, as if this time that sentence was sure to spellbind some spirit. There was a pin drop silence. Suddenly, there was a slight movement on the coin. Before Dilpreet could alert everyone, Sherene raised her finger from the coin and stood up impulsively.

Dilpreet hushed, “Oh Sherene! you shouldn’t have done that. Didn’t I tell you, not to break the rules?”

Sherene laughed at her, “Do you believe in it?” and Sherene left the room. No one uttered a word. The lights flickered for that moment. The ambience of the room gradually turned heavy. The sudden uneasiness in the room made all the girls go numb for some time and they looked at each other.

Dilpreet said,” Sherene shouldn’t have done that because I felt some movement on the coin”. Before she could react, the door slammed loudly.

Sherene was standing at the door. She was standstill, facing down towards the floor.

Dilpreet worriedly said, “Where were you? What’s wrong with you?”

Sherene didn’t answer. She looked weird. With minimal movement, Sherene sat beside Dilpreet.

The rest of the girls asked her to continue with what they all had started. Everyone in the room had a question on their mind. Suddenly, the room temperature dropped.

Among the girls, someone said, “switch off the AC… it getting cold here”.

Dilpreet said, “Let’s start again girls!”

All the girls looked at the wooden board. Dilpreet repeated the line but Sherene was quiet as if she was stoned with no eye contact with anyone, was constantly looking down. Since there was movement on the coin, no one gave much attention to Sherene.

Dilpreet asked, “Are we in contact with a spirit now?” The coin moved to “YES”.

Dilpreet then asked, “Are you a female?”

The coin moved to “YES”.

There was a blend of excitement and apprehensiveness among all the girls. “Are you willing to answer us few questions?”

The coin effortlessly moved to “YES”.

One by one a plethora of questions were asked. This continued for some time. Finally, girls quenched their thirst for their questions. Later, Dilpreet requested the spirit to leave and the game was over.

A week later, all those girls were amazed to see that all their answers turned out to be true in their real lives. They all gathered at Sherene’s Birthday party.

Dilpreet said, “Hey girls! Do you know my Dad is taking us out for a trip! The spirit was so correct”.

Another girl said, “Yeah, even I got selected for the elocution contest”.

“And I finally passed in math’s” one girl laughed. All looked happy and giggled with excitement to share their experiences.

Dilpreet said, “I guess, that spirit answered all our questions accurately”.

One of the girls said, “I think, we must try “Planchette” once again. What say, girls?” Everyone shouted in agreement.

Soon Sherene came and said, “Hey, am so happy to see you girls together again. And before you all get angry at me. I, really apologize for leaving that evening without informing”.

Dilpreet was stunned, and asked, “Sorry! which evening are you talking about?”

Sherene replied, “the day we were experimenting with that silly Planchette. I am sorry dear!”

Dilpreet said, “Are you kidding us? You were present with us throughout the evening”.

Sherene came closer to Dilpreet, placed her hand on Dilpreet’s shoulder and said, “Come on dear! Why would I lie?” Sherene then explained that, as she was feeling bored that evening, so she had left without informing them.

“Sherene, come here, your dad is calling!” Sherene’s mother shouted.

Sherene excused herself, and went away.

Dilpreet and other girls were completely stunned and dumbfounded. Dilpreet said, “If Sherene had left that day, then who was with us that evening?”

Sweta Gupta

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels