The Planchette Spells L-O-V-E

The Planchette Spells L-O-V-E 

After their waltz, he grabbed her hand and led her through the crowded ballroom. Checking to see if the fire breathing chaperones noticed, he guided her with gusto through the double doors down a long hall and out a back door. Breathing in the fresh air, he ran ahead for an amusing game of cat and mouse. She followed him deep into the lush hedge maze of the mansion’s gardens.

“Percival, come out come out wherever you are.”

He sprang forth, surprising her. She giggled with delight as he brought her soft body close to his strong chest. Leaving nary a space between them he nibbled on her ear and neck.

  “My, aren't we naughty!”

  “Dear Violet, you have no idea how naughty I can be,” he trailed his finger from her nose down to the top of her bodice...

  “Hello....oh hi Lisa. Where am I? Home, why? Is it tonight? Oh, sorry I forgot. I got involved in a new book and lost track of time. No, it is not another romance. Not fibbing at all; I’m reading War and Peace."

  Madison reluctantly closed her book, “The Marquess Deflowers His Spring Bloom,” and hopped off her bed. She had forgotten tonight was their first designated game night. Her three best friends were now single. Lisa and her boyfriend of two years parted ways because of his lack of ambition and money. Megan’s on and off boyfriend dumped her for his pickleball competition partner and Amber caught her fiancé cheating on her with a fresh-faced nineteen-year-old model.

  They all swore off men losing faith that they could find an intelligent, gainfully employed, loyal, decent man. All except Madison. She was a hopeless romantic and she knew that someday her prince would come, sweep her off her dainty feet and they would live happily ever after. Her more practical friends ribbed her all the time about her incessant reading of romance novels.

‘There is a good reason those books are in the fiction section, Madison. It never happens that way in real life,’ Amber, a bit jaded, admonished her more than once.

  Madison knew their no men ‘pact’ would not last. All in their mid-twenties, they already talked a blue streak about their ticking clocks. Although they fluffed it off, Madison knew deep down her friends wanted to get married and start a family sooner than later.

  “Alright ladies, we have plenty of board games to choose from,” Lisa announced. “I have Margarita, Strawberry Daquiri, and Pina Colada mixes to whip up in my shiny new blender.”

  After several hours of playing some classic games – Clue; Scrabble; new games, Bad Choices and Really Loud Librarians, the ability for higher thinking, except for Madison who was a light drinker, was disappearing along with their frozen drinks. Silliness ensued with a few rounds of Charades.

  Lisa and Amber paired up against Madison and Megan. 

Amber holds up two fingers.

  “TV show.”

  Amber shakes her head from left to right and cranks her left hand on the side of her right hand.

  “Movie!!!”

  Amber nods with enthusiasm and places her hands on top of her head. 

“Headache. Migraine.” 

Amber shakes her head like a bobblehead doll and indicates the clue for the second word by jumping up and down with arms akimbo and puffing up her cheeks blowing them in and out. 

“Monkey...ape...Kong!!! King Kong!!!” 

They run into each other chest bumping and laughing like hyenas before falling onto the sofa. 

“You guys got an easy one,” proclaimed Megan as she whipped up another batch of Pina Coladas. “Our turn.” 

Megan holds up three fingers followed by the crank gesture. 

“Movie,” says Madison. 

Megan walks around prim and proper then claps her thumb to her fingers in rapid succession.

“Lady Chatterley's Lover,” shouts Madison. 

Megan screams ‘woohoo’ as she points to the hourglass. 

“Hey, no way. How’d you get that so fast Madison – she didn’t even act out the word lover,” slurred Amber in a teasing manner. She was joking but with a slight tinge of ire. Amber was a competitive beast, and she hated to lose even for just a silly game. 

“Well of course she would get that. Our little miss romance expert,” Megan said with pride. 

Megan was not being flip. Madison was little compared to her friends. They were all tall, lean, and beautiful beyond compare. Amber had in fact, been a Miss Teen USA first runner-up. She decided not to pursue beauty pageants while in college, since she knew an education was more viable overall. It was doubly damaging to her ego when her fiancé, Patrick, took up with someone seven years her junior. She reminded everyone ad nauseum that the model was, ‘not even close to being as pretty as I am.’ 

Madison was five feet, four and a half inches tall. She never left off that ½", it was important to her. She had a Rubenesque figure – curvy, not rounded - with a much more generous bustline compared to her friends. Her face, though, was elfish. She looked ten years younger than her twenty-six years. Whenever she and her friends went out, guys thought she was their younger sister. It bothered her so much that she would load up on the makeup to look older. 

People pinched her cheeks like she was a baby and commented on how adorable she was. She had a cute pert nose with a smattering of freckles that extended to her T-zone, auburn curly shoulder length hair, green doe eyes, and Clara Bow lips. Not exactly the face that her romance heroines had, she lamented in her mind whenever she stared at herself in the mirror. 

Megan and Lisa could have been twins. Both drop dead gorgeous with waist length blond hair and legs that would not quit. Madison wondered if she was pretty enough to have a handsome prince slip a glass slipper on her foot.   

Lisa claps her hands. “Okay, enough of Charades, let’s move on to the real showstopper. The main event. The pièce de résistance…of parlor games.” Lisa mangled the French word into a muzzy mess which caused more tear inducing laughter from all the girls. 

“Now, let’s be serious because this is a serious game...no not a game...serious business,” Lisa put her finger to her lips as she hiccupped. “Sshhh.” 

They never got to their card games even though Lisa set up her card table. Everyone wondered what she was doing when she lit a few candles in the middle, turned down the lights, cut the music they had blaring. 

“Hey!!!” Amber protested. After the charades they danced around to the latest pop tunes. 

Lisa played Olivia Rodrigo's Vampire video, to set the mood. 

“Ooohhh, spooky,” giggled Megan.  

Lisa bends down and retrieves a box from under the card table. “Here it is.” 

“What is that?” asks Amber.  

“A Ouija Board. You never heard of a Ouija board?” 

Madison had and she was a tad nervous. She considered herself an empath as she was more sensitive to emotions and even the paranormal. Most people had the ability but did not know how to tap into it. 

“This is a new edition not some ancient board. It’s just for fun,” Lisa assured Madison. 

They proceeded to ask the board ridiculous questions conducive to their level of intoxication. Everyone took turns with the planchette asking predictable questions about career, children, and if they would land a husband. Madison was more specific and asked if she would find true love with a handsome prince and live happily ever after. The board did not answer. The planchette led her hands around in circles.

‘Odd,’ she thought.

Everyone snorted assuming Madison was playing games.  

After an hour or so a sudden loud thunderclap reverberated, seeming to shake the table, which made everyone jump. The windows were taking a pounding from lashing rain accompanied by a whistling wind, not screechy but mysteriously melodic. It had been a warm peaceful May evening. There had been no mention of a storm in the weather forecast. 

When the candles blew out everything went eerily silent; the rain and wind stopped. No one said a peep but seemed to sober up in a flash. Then Lisa jumped up and flipped on the light switch. “Just a microburst guys, that’s all.” Lisa was the expert, as she was a meteorologist for their local TV station. 

“Coffee time! Then let us call it a night, ladies. Work tomorrow. And what say all we do game night on a Friday not a Wednesday next week?” Lisa extemporized. “If we are planning to get this sloshed again,” she remarked with a sardonic smile. 

“Here, here,” everyone shouted in unison. 

As everyone was rising from the table. Madison was stuck in her seat. It had been her turn when the candles blew out, so her hands were still on the planchette. Not of her own volition, the planchette began to move. It spelled out: ‘Hello, my love.’ 

“Looks like Madison is trying to prank us,” Amber shouted to Lisa and Megan who were in the kitchen preparing the coffee and a plate of Italian pastries from Luigi’s. 

"No really, Amber. I have no control over this,” Madison whispered. 

“Why are you whispering?” Lisa asked as she got to the table. 

“The board spelled out, ‘Hello my love,” to Madison,” Amber snickered. 

“She’s got her new romance novel on her brain,” chided Megan. 

“No, really guys. I did not...”

With inexplicable suddenness, her hands moved again, this time faster – spelling out: ‘We shall meet soon, my love.’ 

“Holy shit!” screamed Lisa. 

The three women laughed and teased Madison. But Madison knew she did not purposely move the planchette to spell out those phrases. 

“Everything is fun and games until you conjure up a horny ghost,” said Amber. 

More laughs and ribbing of Madison. 

Madison went home and prepared for bed. It was late, 11:55 PM. She had to be up early. She liked opening her boutique bookstore by 7:00 AM, so people on their way to work could stop in for the fresh coffee and cake she offered in her sitting area. All her friends had professional careers, but she loved her eclectic little shop. It was always her dream to have her own business. Her own bookstore. She had always been a voracious reader and lover of books. Her shop boasted a robust romance section. 

Lost in her thoughts about her shop, she did not notice when the wind picked up. A thunderclap then an onslaught of whipping rain caught her attention. A familiar sound – that melodic whistling of the wind filled her ears. When her lights flickered on and off, she knew...something or someone was in her house. She could feel a presence. She could feel him. 

Startled, she spun around and there he was in all his semi-transparent glory. At least a foot taller than her, she scanned his appearance from the top of his jet-black wavy-haired head to his latchet and laced shoes. Ocean blue eyes, a patrician nose and full lips turned up in a smile just for her, set her heart aflutter by his otherworldly handsomeness. He was dressed in a plum purple waistcoat and matching tailcoat. Olive green breeches with snowy white stockings and lace cuffs. He had a brocade cravat of fiery red and royal blue. She stood frozen in awe of him, but she was not afraid, rather she was enchanted. 

Bowing, “Sir August Bertram Wessley, 1st Duke of Sutherland, at your service.” 

Speechless and planted in the same spot, Madison just gawked at him before uttering, “Hel...um...Hello.” 

He walked over to her, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a necklace. “For you, my love.” 

It was a cameo locket. When she looked at it, she gasped. The cameo was a portrait of Sir August and her. The picture inside the locket was a photograph of Sir August and... her. 

She swooned, repeating, “It...it...cannot be...how?” 

With a light touch, he brushed her hair aside while standing behind her. Placing the locket around her neck and closing the clasp, he proceeded to follow his trail of intimate kisses from the nape of her neck to her shoulders. 

Whispering in her ear he proclaimed, “We were meant to be together, forever. It was always to be.” He kissed her hungry mouth with unabated passion as she melted into his strong arms. 

Taking her hand in his he led her into his world.