You Can't Eat Just One Potato Chip
/You Can’t Eat Just One Potato Chip
RUFFLES HAVE RIDGES BY SANDRA CREATIVE COMMONS WWW.FLICKR.COM
I ran my fingers over the new wall as I walked down the hallway. It was my way of making sure I wasn’t dreaming. Everything about our home looked nice except for the back yard. Daddy said a rocky creek used to run through the back yard. Next week, we would begin raking a gazillion rocks into piles before we loaded them into my brother’s red wagon. UGH!
get your SKATES on BY BRIAN RAMNATH CREATIVE COMMONS WWW.FLICKR.COM
Roller skating down our slanted driveway was so much fun. The young maple trees in our cookie cutter front yard didn’t offer much shade in July so Mom left the garage door open for us.
While sitting on the bumper of the car I saw a girl riding down the sidewalk on a bike. She stopped so my brother could pass her on his tricycle. She was amused with his boyish vigor and smiled up at me.
“Hi! I’m Marlis! Welcome to Normandy Heights!” She said as she rode her bike to the end of the driveway. “I saw you move in last Saturday.”
I rolled down on my skates to meet her. “I’m Kathy.”
“Where're you from?” she asked.
“Oakley.”
“Oakley?” She frowned. “Where’s Oakley?”
“It’s a suburb of Cincinnati. Where are you from?”
“Peoria, Illinois,” she said.
“Which street do you live on?”I asked.
“We’re on Ravena in a split-level house.”
“When did you move here?”
“Over a week ago,” she said. “I saw your bike. Do you want to ride around in the subdivision?”
“Sure, I’ll go ask my mom.”
Most of the streets in the new subdivision were paved but we still had to watch out for nails. “The new houses were popping up like dandelions!
“Do you want to go inside an unfinished house?” Marlis asked.
“No, Mom said not to.”
“I don’t think we’re allowed anyway.” she said.
We parked our bikes at the bottom of a tall mound of dirt in the middle of an empty field. “The boys call this hill, Plymouth Rock,” she said.
KING OF THE HILL BY RUSS LOAR CREATIVE COMMONS WWW.FLICKR.COM
“Boys will be boys,” I said as I laid my bike down and climbed up it. Just as I reached the top a bunch of boys came running out of a house toward us. I froze in place as a couple of them ran up the hill and jumped off.
“There's supposed to be a haunted house somewhere over there,” Marlis said as she pointed toward the woods. Her comment scared me a little but not enough to stop my curiosity.
Marlis took off on her bike. “Follow me!” she said. I grabbed my green Schwinn and followed her toward the woods. I had a feeling we might be trespassing but the shade from the trees felt good. The path soon narrowed and we were forced to leave our bikes and walk if we wanted to continue.
As we went deeper not a breeze stirred the stifling, humid air. Sweat dripped off my face. The only sound was the crunch of dead twigs beneath our white tennis shoes. I was tempted to turn back but I didn’t want Marlis to think I was a baby.
BARN & MEADOW BY UNIVERSAL POPS CREATIVE COMMONS WWW.FLICKR.COM
As we entered a clearing we saw a tired farm house that was barely standing. Thick Queen Anne Lace and Black-eyed Susans surrounded the neglected structure as if they were trying to make it look better. Slowly, we walked up the steps to where the door used to be and looked inside. With half the roof gone the inside was well lit and less scary. We started to step inside when we heard the curdling scream of an animal. We ran like crazy to our bikes and never looked back!
Marlis and I became very good friends. She invited me to go with her parents on a camping trip to Washington D.C. Her dad built a collapsible camper on wheels. We painted the head of a gypsy lady on the side that said, “Have Trailer Will Travel”.
THE JEFFERSON MEMORIAL BY BRETT CREATIVE COMMONS WWW.FLICKR.COM
We had a memorable time in the capital city especially when I almost fell into the Potomac River. I was backing up to take a picture of the Jefferson Memorial and stopped one foot before falling into the shallow part of the river. I almost wished I had fallen in so our “dream boat guide” could have saved me. Both Marlis and I thought he was so cute.
Marlis had a slumber party I won't forget. Five of us girls had a blast talking, laughing, eating and playing games. One girl brought the Ouija Board Game. Since none of us knew how to play it she explained how.
“Two people sit on the floor Indian style facing each other letting your knees touch while the board rests on your knees. You both barely touch the heart shaped pointer or planchette with your fingers and practice moving it around. Stop moving the pointer and let one person ask one question. Keep your fingers on the planchette and wait for it to move on its own this time. Do not try to push it by yourself. Wait for it to start pointing to the words, yes or no, or the letters to spell out the answer to your question.”
OUIJA BOARD BY JENNA CREATIVE COMMONS WWW.FLICKR.COM
“What makes the pointer move?” Sandy asked with a puzzled look.
“I don’t know. It’s supposed be some kind of energy force,” the girl said.
Sandy and Peggy played first.
Peggy asked the board a question: “DOES BOBBY STILL LOVE ME?”
First, the pointer pointed to” Yes” in the top left corner of the board and then it pointed to the “No” in the top right corner.
“Did you move it?” Peggy asked Sandy.
“No! I didn’t move it! I thought you moved it”. Sandy said.
“No! I never moved it!” said Peggy. “It's working but how can the answer be both yes and no he still loves me?”
I suggested, “Maybe Bobby loves you now but he won’t later. Or, like the petals on a daisy: he loves you, he loves you not.” I laughed because I had my own crush on Bobby!
“I want to be next,” said Marilou. “I have a theological question to ask the board.”
Before Marilou asked her theological question (whatever that meant) I slipped away to the far corner bed to get away from the game. I wasn’t afraid of the Ouija board but I knew something wasn’t quite right about it. I was a new Christian and I was learning to listen to warnings of the Holy Spirit. He seemed to be nudging me to not play the game. The warning was similar to the one He gave me to not go into the haunted house.
I found out years later that playing the Ouija Board Game attracts demons. By you playing with it, it gives the evil spirits permission to not only move the pointer but to follow you around and tempt you to do worse stuff. UGH! If you keep dabbling in the unseen evil world and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ as Savior the demons can actually come inside a person. The demons probably know stuff about you but they can't predict anthing because only GOD knows the future.
Unless you invite Jesus in your heart to forgive your sins you’ll never be able to be rid of evil spirits. We have a tendacy to think that a little taste of the dark side once in a while won’t hurt us but the demons know we humans are weak and we can’t eat just one potato chip.
THE FOOD JUNK CREATIVE COMMONS WWW.FLICKR.COM
How has the Holy Spirit warned you to avoid little bites of evil?
