Saturday Shivers by Editor Kat O'Shea

Photo by Dr Joseph Valks

 It's Saturday again, and time for some spooky encounters with the paranormal. This one comes courtesy of Kat O'Shea, Editor-in-Chief of Leap Books. Is it any wonder Kat likes to edit the Leap Books line of paranormals?

When I was in high school, I was eating lunch with my friend Alice at a picnic table outside. Two girls sat at the table in front of us, spread out their lunches, and began making fun of Alice. When they made ape sounds and kissing noises, Alice’s eyes filled with tears. (Some people called the guy Alice had a crush on “Apeman.”) She gathered up her stuff and started to flee, but I’d had enough.

I stood and said, “You’d better watch out because I’m a witch. If you don’t leave Alice alone, I’ll cast  a spell on you.”

The girls giggled and pretended to cower.

“Ooo, scary,” one of them said.

I have no idea why I did this, but I held out my arms and wriggled my fingers toward their lunches in what I hoped looked like a witchlike motion.

A sudden breeze blew their bags of chips off the table and dumped them into their laps. Their eyes got wider.

The wind grew stronger. The plastic wrap on their sandwiches and cookies flapped open, a partially eaten pack of Tastycakes slid to the ground. They clutched each other and screamed as a carton of chocolate milk tipped over and doused the cookies.

As the puddle of milk flowed toward their laps, they leapt up. Throwing frightened glances over their shoulders, they fled, leaving their lunches behind.

Truth was, I was as petrified as they were. I have no idea if the wind was a coincidence or if I caused it, but I’ve been afraid to repeat that performance. I worry that nothing will happen, or even worse, that something will. I’m not sure which I’d prefer.

I still wonder: Can people really cause things like that to happen? Why did the wind stop as soon as I lowered my hands? How come only their table was affected by the wind? Nothing on our table or nearby tables even moved.

 Any thoughts? Anyone else ever have an experience like this? Feel free to leave comments or send your story to Lexie North and we’ll post it on the blog.