A Haunted Man -- Part 2

Author’s note: This is the second of a three-part story. Lari Bollinger believes he is a haunted man. Throughout Bollinger’s life he has experienced shadow people, disembodied voices and demonic visitors in the night … he may have a point.

In the 1960s, Lari Bollinger’s father brought a Ouija board home to him. It wasn’t long after that the young Bollinger discovered the board was dangerous.

Ouija boards, also known as spirit boards, are sold as toys but are often used as tools for people to make contact with the world of the dead. And the dead don’t always play nicely with the living.

“Things escalated after that very quickly,” said Bollinger, who often saw shadow people flittering through his house. “Murmuring voices from the other room would wake me in the mornings.”

Things often happened in the morning. One morning, Bollinger woke to find someone in his bedroom – watching him.

“I was visited one morning by my brother who was as I looked up, standing at the foot of my bed,” Bollinger said. “He said he wanted to visit with me.”

His brother David stood before him, wearing black jeans and a black and white checkered shirt. The things David said were strange.

“He started to tell me things that would come to pass in my lifetime, as I got older,” Bollinger said. “He told me I would have a son and he would die before me. He told me I would have a broken back and be crippled later in life. There was more, and while I did not feel threatened, the whole thing was so surreal.”

Then he realized that this entity standing before him wasn’t David.

“This was in no way my brother, and I told him so,” Bollinger said. “He then looked somewhat startled and stated, ‘I have to go now,’ and he swept under the foot of my bed as if his feet were pulled out from underneath him.”

Bollinger remained in his bed, shaking in fear.

“I sat huddled and motionless for about 10 minutes before I gathered enough courage to go and confront my brother who was sleeping in his room down the hall and tell him how that scared me,” Bollinger said. “He was asleep when I went into his room and truly did not know what I was talking about.”

With shaking legs, Bollinger walked into the kitchen to find his parents.

“When I reached the kitchen, I saw the previous year’s school picture of my brother David, in which he was dressed in the same black jeans and black checked shirt I had just seen him in,” Bollinger said. “I told my mother this and demanded my brother be punished for scaring me, and she told me that me did not have that shirt anymore and could not have been wearing it that morning.”

Later in life, Bollinger underwent regression hypnosis to remember exactly what happened that morning.

“But I was too scared I would hear when I was to die and did not want to know how long I was going to live,” he said. “I deeply regret that now. I may have been able to save my son.”

Next week: My grandchildren are seeing these things.

Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.