Okay get your minds out of the gutter, there is nothing salacious here. I just wanted to share with you my first experience with a psychic tool, a Ouija board, which led to my first contact with someone I knew on the other side of the veil of life.

In Grade 7, I had to change schools and walk to the other side of my small town to school. A new school meant new people and new experiences. I lived on the quiet side of town and there was always so much more going on it seemed across the bridge. One fall evening I attended a gathering for young people at what used to be a church. There were several girls standing with myself outside of the former church having a visit. A young man rode up on his bicycle and proceeded to entertain us with stunts on his bike. He rode up the stairs and was a general bother and annoyance to most of the girls and I thought possibly their eyes might get stuck in the rolled up position.

To me, he was pretty funny - he was being a clown and a tease but the whole time he had a big smile on his face and obviously enjoyed the attention. I didn't know who he was. He didn't know who I was either but he took quite a shine to me. He left, we went to our meeting and I didn't think any more of it until about a week later when he telephoned me. This was the first time a boy had ever called me. I wasn't even interested in boys at this point in my life - I had brothers and that was enough testosterone poisoning for me to deal with.

This young man proceeded to court me. He rode his bike 5 miles into town from the village he lived in just to get to where I was going to be. It was very flattering to have someone go far out of his way just to come and entertain me. He was funny and really good on that bike. I think he would have been a Tony Hawke/Bam Margera skateboarder these days - and probably just as good, certainly just as wild.

Something terrible happened to him. He was riding his bicycle home and he was struck by a car. He died there, his bike wrapped around a Hydro pole. It was very sad. I think this was the point in my life where I decided that I didn't want to be in love with anyone or have the responsibility of anyone loving me, I thought I was a jinx. I didn't talk about him to anyone. He wasn't really a boyfriend just a crush, someone I was just getting to know and the first boy who had paid any sincere attention to me - and possibly the last.

A couple of months after his death, I was gathered with three other girls from my neighbourhood at one of their homes. We were all downstairs in the basement. They brought out a Ouija Board. I had never seen one before this and didn't know what it was all about. After a quick explanation, we sat down and started using the board. Almost immediately the planchette started going crazy. I knew I wasn't pushing it, I was barely even touching it.

One girl was asking all the questions, she had obviously done this a couple of times before. She asked, "What is your name?" The planchette moved, the letters spelled out my young mans' name. The other girls got quite excited about this, the accident had been big news, a shock to everyone even if they didn't know him. I didn't say anything because my head was reeling, none of these girls knew that I knew him, they were a grade younger and not at the same school as I was attending yet. "Do you know someone here?" The planchette moved again spelling out my name. All of a sudden, three sets of eyes were burning into me. It was a simultaneous "You know him!" and I spilled. They were sympathetic and very impressed. We were all shocked, surprised and scared at what we had just achieved. We said "Goodbye" to him and let him go, we were all pretty shook up by it I think.

So there it is, my story about my first time - the first bloom of love, first experience with a death so close to me, but so far away from me too, and my first communion, via the Ouija Board, with a friend who made it to the other side.