The Fish Dish

Around the late 1970s, one of my grade school friends was named Moonchild. (Name slightly changed but extremely close to this name.)

The family lived in an old Victorian home. It wasn't a dark or scary home but one filled with love and family and little kids. But, you could tell it was a home that housed some past lives. It just felt lived in. I liked their house and liked spending time with my friend there.

Moonchild, was alluring. Long blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin. She was into all things odd. People would find her strange, especially when she tried to convince people she was an alien. She would look at you in this convincing way and just talk about her past lives or her experiences when she lived on other planets. I never really believed her but she believed herself. I'm not sure if she just made this stuff up or her parents put these ideas in her mind. It didn't matter, she sure was intriguing. I'm describing her personality because things that were weird just seemed to follow her. She was the the type of person that when you were with you just knew it was going to be a weird day.

So, one day when she said she wanted to have a seance, I thought, ok, typical.

Moonchild's family had been hearing footsteps in the hallway at night frequently and hearing unexplained noises. They weren't sure if it was their imagination, the kids or they were sharing their home with the past. A lot of the activity seemed to center around her sister, Misty, and the first bedroom at the top of the stairs. Every time I was over her house that bedroom looked like a bomb went off.

So, her sister was always told to clean her room and always in trouble for not cleaning it.  She would clean it, then it all returned to chaos later in the day. This happened several times. Misty swore she didn't mess it up. So, one day, same routine. Misty was told to clean it. Then her parents checked the room, it was wrecked and Misty got in trouble for lying. Her sister was sent to her room for a time out. But, footsteps were heard on the stairs. Thinking she was not listening again, her parents went to check why she wasn't in her room. They didn't understand why they heard footsteps on the steps when no one was on the steps. Misty was in her room just where she was supposed to be, cleaning.

So this gave Moonchild the idea to have a seance to see if there was something making the footsteps and wrecking the room.

Earlier that day, we were passing by a garage sale in the neighborhood and Moonchild was drawn to this weird silver dish that some old lady was selling. It was like a handmade flat bowl in the shape of a fish. It was engraved with writing on the edge and a little fish ornament was attached to the top. Like a fish jumping into a fish bowl. A one of a kind for sure. Moonchild's snatched it up and said, "this is perfect for our seance".

There were a bunch of us kids hanging around that day. I don't remember all of us there. One girl was a neighbor from another street with black curly no I can't remember her name so we'll call her Curly.

So, Moonchild takes this silver dish engraved with fish etchings. She fills it with water and and we all hold hands. She makes up these magic words and says them, and then we all drink from the dish. Some of us start chuckling. Curly and I are some of the chucklers. So, Moonchild gets mad at us and pushes us out of the room and locks her door. She says, "well the spirit of the house can get you now since you laughed". So, we are kicked out.

Curly and I are pounding on the locked door because we don't like this game now.

Our hairs start to stand up on our neck and we look behind us. The first bedroom, Misty's bedroom, catches our attention and we hear some commotion. There is this guy that walks out of the room and is just standing there. We just stare and know this is the spirit that was conjured up.

He is wearing a black pin stripe suit. A hat sort of in the fedora style. Black and white shoes. I'd say he was middle aged looking. Kind of translucent. He seemed like he was from the 1930s or 40s. He looks at us. Then turns to walk down the hall. He enters one of the bedrooms and picks the room where Moonchild's baby sister was sleeping in her crib. The spirit looks into the crib and he reaches into the crib to touch the baby. Spirit guy knows we are still watching him and meets our gaze. He looks at us again and smiles a knowing smile that went through my soul. Like he was trying to send me a message with that smile as if to say, "I'm here and yes you are really seeing me". Then he walks through the wall to the outside and disappeared.

After our shock wore off, I turned to Curly and asked if she saw what I just saw. "You mean the guy with the hat?" "Yeah, him", I said.

We ran back to the bedroom door and pounded until Moonchild opened it up. We told her and the rest of the girls what happened. They believed us. Moonchild's mom though got really scared about the spirit man going to check in on the baby. Later that day, she moved the baby out of the room and into her room. Also, everyone stopped accusing Misty of lying about the room being a mess and started to go easier on her. But the footsteps continued and the room tornados too. Eventually, Misty moved her bedroom to an attic room that was finished off nicely.

The thing that stands out to me still so many years later was the weird silver fish dish and the smile the spirit man gave us as walked through the wall.

Not long after this day, I went to a new school and stopped seeing Moonchild and her family. I've lost contact with this friend over the years. One day we just stopped talking. I made a few phone calls to get together but I never met up with her. We just seemed to move on from each other. Last I  heard the family moved out of that house. As for the spirit, he could still be there...