My first husband and I were stationed at Andersen Air Force Base on the island of Guam.  While we were there, I made fast friends with a woman by the name of Karen Nutter, who I utterly worshiped (Lord, I miss her!  If anyone knows Karen Nutter who was married to Dan Nutter, now deceased, please give her my e-mail address!!  She had kids named Chris, Fritz, Karma and one I sadly can't remember.) 

She shared my interests in metaphysics and the paranormal and we decided we were going to try out an Ouija board.  First, we had to acquire one.  We decided we'd find one at the base thrift store, which was an unlikely place.  Regardless, we packed up her 4 and my 2 kids into her Volkswagen bus and off we went.  Sure enough, there was an Ouija board at the thrift shop for $3!  We bought a few other things and when we got out to the car, we realized the clerk hadn't charged us for the board!!  wwhoooooooo

We went to her house and got the kids down for a nap, after which, it was time to rock.

At first, we got nothing past the whole "Are you moving it?  No!!  I swear I'm not!!  You're moving it!!"  I did know that often I could see Karen's light touch leave the planchette and it would keep moving.  We'd get round and round and round in circles or the planchette slamming off the board in hard straight lines.  We were about to give up, when the planchette spelled out "Hi" and sat perfectly still.  We both looked at it for a bit and decided to give it a try again.  We began to get very distinct messages that were easy to follow.  Over the next couple of weeks, we developed a friendship with a disincarnate by the name of Alan Alexander, who asked that we call him Alex.  He had been a crew chief on an AF mission in the late 1950's.  He was responsible for the safety check on the plane, which he'd done many times on many planes.  This time, he was very tired and somewhat hungover and hadn't been as attentive as he should have been. 

At one end of Andersen AFB is Patte Point, which is a cliff off of which the planes fly.  The island is only 30 miles long and there is not much runway for the planes on the base, but they can get going fast enough to go off the point, then they can gain flight before they hit the ocean below (which is quite shark invested in that particular area).  In sort, the plane didn't make it and crashed into the ocean with all passengers lost.  So here was Alex, who told us that his camp (before there were many buildings, just a tent city) had been where Karen's base house now stood. 

Alex told us about his wife, who in real time was in Texas and was still alive, remarried with a lot of grandchildren.    He also told Karen rather insistently that she had to get the brakes fixed on her bus.  She had them checked and sure enough, they were in trouble.  She had them fixed just in time.

One day in particular, Alex was really grumpy and not wanting to talk.  We coaxed him into chatting and it came out that he was particularly disgruntled about being dead and had decided he wanted to come back again.

His idea was that he could come into the body of someone who was near death when their spirit was vulnerable.  He went on to say that on August 12th of the following year (that would be 1982), that MY husband was going to be in a car accident and while Paul was near death, he was going to slip in.  (?!) 

After talking to him for a while, he and Karen discussed the idea that he could be reborn as a baby, which while it would not allow him to hook up with his wife, would at least let him live again.  We tried to help him find some peace with being dead and knowing that he could more easily reincarnate if he detached from this place and "moved on to the light."  Nothing doing.  He was determined to come back.

I told Karen I wasn't liking where this was going and didn't want to do this any more.  We shelved the board and never spoke of it again.

Three things of significance. 

On May 16, 1982, now transferred to Holloman AFB in New Mexico (not far from Texas), I gave birth to Joshua.  I found out I was pregnant three days after Paul scheduled his vasectomy.

On August 12, 1982, Paul was ready to leave early from his shop.  He remembered he'd left his hat on the table and ran back in to grab it, about a 15 second delay.  On his way home, there was a horrific crash that involved the car directly in front of him.  All four passengers in the car died.  Had he not forgotten his hat, he would likely have switched places with the car in front of him.

On October 7, 1982, Paul phoned me from work and said, "Well, I survived my 24th year."  October 7th is his birthday and I agreed that indeed, he had done just this.  He said, "No, you don't understand.  When I was 13, I was playing with an Ouija board with my sister-in-law and it said I was going to die in a car accident before I turned 24."

Yikes!

Is Josh really Alex?  Did Alex land in one of those people in the car in front of Paul?  Did he ever make it back or is he still roaming around Andersen AFB?  Was it all just a funky series of coincidences?