The Shady Plot





A Shady Plot is a short ghost story by Elsie Brown. The story deals with the appearance of supernatural and spiritual things.

The writer, John Hallock was urged by Jerkins to write a new ghost story for his magazine. Usually John was full of ideas but that day he could not make a start. He started talking to himself. Then, suddenly he heard the ghost Helen's voice. He was surprised. She spoke on behalf of all the people who had turned to ghosts and warned the writer to stop from calling them often. She said they were all going to call for a strike. This strike was to not to appear or provide ideas to people for writing ghost stories. Thus, Helen warned the author not to involve himself in Ouija Board's activity or any other which would mean calling the spirits.

At noon, while he was still trying to work on a story, his wife Lavinia brought a Ouija Board home and announced her party with the women from her Book Club. The writer tried to convince Lavinia, his wife, to drop the idea. However, his wife made him a partner of Laura Hinkle to work on one of the Ouija boards.

When the spirit visited, Laura asked it to tell something, the pointer started moving towards the letters to point out the word 'TRAITOR '. Bewildered, the writer had nothing to say so his partner asked the spirit to explain itself more fully. In response, the spirit spelled 'ASK HIM '. This was when the wrter realized that it is actually Helen who was trying to interact with them. They all asked Hallock if he knew anyone by name 'Helen' but he refused. After sometime the party came to an end. Lavinia had all the reasons to suspect that John was a traitor and he had an affair with a woman called Helen. She decided to get separated, packed her baggage and entered to bid him bye.

Meanwhile, Helen blamed John for having played Ouija with the ladies instead of stopping them from playing it. John could not think of letting his wife see a ghost and faint or go mad. He asked Lavinia to leave if she couldn't help.

After some time, there was a knock and Lavinia entered again. Suddenly, she saw the spirit who informed her that she was Helen of New York and now she was going. Hearing the words of Helen, Lavinia doubt on her husband is cleared. Lavinia decided to stay back. The story ends well with the writer throwing the Ouija board in fire and Helen being glad. The writer was very happy because he had got a plot for a ghost story.



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