Paranormal Experiences : The Grieving Ghost of Mary Jo

The Grieving Ghost of Mary Jo

These high school drama students always suspected their theater was haunted - a fear confirmed by a Ouija board, a bizarre discovery and the shocking secret of a despondent spirit. We were absolutely idiotic, and a Ouija board is not a toy. We were, on the whole, very lucky.

Rita went to a small high school in Northern Minnesota. She and five friends - Cathy, Andi, Jess, Lizzy and Christine - were the core of the school's drama department. The program required them to do everything from building the sets to assistant directing the plays. This entitled them to special privileges, such as wandering around the school with a director's set of keys for the auditorium and related rooms. By the beginning of her senior year, this special access to the school at virtually any time of the day convinced Rita that the auditorium theater was haunted. Props went missing even more than the students' sloppy propmastering could account for. Doors unlocked themselves. As part of their routine, Rita and Cathy would unlock the front door to the theater, lock it behind them, walk to the back, unpadlock the door to the curtain booth, repadlock it, go out the back entrance and relock that door. Often they would come back 15 minutes later to find the curtain booth unpadlocked and standing ajar! "This happened so often," Rita said, "that we would all take a turn pulling on the padlock to make sure it was really locked." THE OUIJA BOARDNow, looking back on this period, I wonder what the hell I was doing. The most I can say is that at least we never did it alone.These unexplained occurrences may have had something to do with another interest the girls shared besides theater - a Ouija board. Rita, Cathy, Christine and Lizzy became so addicted to it that they conducted sessions almost daily. It was a simple homemade board. The girls would meet in the school's art room where they'd find the materials they needed: a sheet of paper on which they wrote the letters and numbers, and an empty plastic cellophane tape spool to use as a planchette. The girls would discard the set every week or so and make a new one.

Several spirits clamored to talk to the girls. It got to the point where they would barely touch the planchette and it would instantly take off so fast that their fingers could not keep up with it.

"There were several spirits that we talked to all the time," Rita said. Their favorite spirit, who called herself "Janet," was a somewhat mischievous entity who would often spell out the word VENEREAL just seconds before a bunch of jocks walked in the room. In fact, Janet's control of the board was sometimes so strong that the girls had to dismiss her from a session. Rita was sure they were truly communicating with spirits. "We were not fooling ourselves or tricking each other," she said. "The four of us in all possible combinations used the board with equal success."And Janet was not the only spirit they conjured. Several spirits clamored to talk to the girls. It got to the point where they would barely touch the planchette and it would instantly take off so fast that their fingers could not keep up with it.. THE RED ROOM I had no idea such a thing even existed.The faculty theater director was a fairly young teacher named Don. He was new to the school, but the girls took a quick liking to him, and he to them. One afternoon, Don and a few of the girls were just kicking around the theater after school hours. Don asked them if they had ever explored the dark, mysterious area high above the theater's stage. The girls were unaware that there was anything up there at all. It was an old, unused part of the theater complex - and usually off limits. Don suggested they all check it out and the girls, feeling adventurous, agreed.Rita, Andi and Cathy followed Don to a door located on the stairwell by the back door to the auditorium. Rita, for one, had never even noticed this old wooden door before. Above it were faded gilt letters that said, "Theater Property Rooms."

If they wanted to, they could have stepped across the top of the stage rigging on to the actual ceiling of the auditorium. But none of them were game for that. From the hall they could see that the ceiling was littered with ancient trash and a old, stained mattress.

The door creaked open to reveal a set of very steep, narrow steps. The group slowly made their way to the top where they found a small hallway off of which were three openings. Immediately to the left, they entered a dim room full of rotting, black velour stage curtains. No one knew how long those curtains were up there, but the nasty smell seeping out from their folds was sickening. The group pressed on.A few steps down the hall to the right, the wall simply opened up to the area directly above the stage and auditorium seating. If they wanted to, they could have stepped across the top of the stage rigging onto the actual ceiling of the auditorium. But none of them were game for that. From the hall they could see that the ceiling was littered with ancient trash and an old, stained mattress.Rita was starting to feel uncomfortable. The sickening smell of the curtains and the dizzying heights of the stage rigging made her want to head back downstairs. But there was something further down the hall that compelled them to continue.The third opening, on the left, was to another short length of hallway. At the end of it was a small room. Its walls were painted a bright fire-engine red. It was completely empty except for an old trunk that sat in the center of the room. To say the least, Don and the girls found this highly unusual - and a trifle disturbing. Rita had a curious feeling that they were trespassing - not just on school property, but on something much more personal.MARY JOMJ was very different than the other spirits; she seemed almost nervous.In the days that followed, Rita and the others did not even mention their strange adventure to Christine and Lizzy, knowing that if word leaked out, Don could get in trouble.The discovery of the red room and the weird feeling they got from it made the girls even more curious about the possibility of the theater being haunted. They decided to make another Ouija board and ask Janet about it. Rita and Cathy, with the other girls looking on, sat at the board and contacted Janet. Spelling out her message, Janet confirmed that there was a ghost in the theater and that her name was MJ.With her fingers on the planchette, Rita asked if it would be possible to speak with her. Almost immediately, a spirit identified itself as MJ through the board. The feeling that the girls got from MJ was very different than what they were used to from other spirits. There was a kind of nervousness in the way she spelled out her answers. "After a while, and with Janet's assistance, we found out that her name was Mary Jo," said Rita.Mary Jo wasn't just a nervous spirit. There was something wrong... something disconcerting about her manner, often only answering questions with the refrain, "I cry forever. Sad. Forever sad."

Rita and her friends were determined to find out. When in contact with Mary Jo, they pressed her for answers about her death - and her answers shocked and frightened them.

The girls at last had found a spirit they felt was connected to the theater. But why was the sad, despondent spirit of Mary Jo trapped in the stage area of this small high school? Rita and her friends were determined to find out. When in contact with Mary Jo, they pressed her for answers about her death - and her answers shocked and frightened them.Almost reluctantly, Mary Jo revealed that she had been raped in the school and had subsequently died of an illegal abortion. The girls began to wonder just how much more they really wanted to know. Yet they continued and asked where this horrible crime had been committed. The planchette began to move erratically, indicating that Mary Jo was becoming agitated as she tried to spell out... PR... PR... PR...PR? What could this mean? The school's pool room? The physics room? Then the realization of what it meant struck Rita like a bolt of lightning: "The prop room!" The instant the words came out of Rita's mouth, Mary Jo began to rapidly spell out: RED, RED, RED...Rita and Cathy were practically numb with fright. The significance of the red prop room was not lost on them, and they were so shaken that they finally told Christine and Lizzy about their bizarre discovery above the theater. MARY JO GETS EVEN She became an archetypal figure for me. Grieving with her and for her was like grieving for every woman victimized.From that day on, the girls talked with Mary Jo nearly every day. Rita even began to feel very attached to her, and felt that Mary Jo liked them, too. But Mary Jo wasn't as benign a spirit as they thought at first - especially to those who didn't believe in her.And virtually no one outside the girls' circle did believe in Mary Jo. Don, Jess and Andi dismissed the idea as a creation of the girls' dramatic imaginations and often playfully mocked the girls about it. "Mary Jo did not take kindly to this," Rita said. "She hated them, and called them respectively, ‘The Bearded Boy,' ‘Blondy' and ‘Bones.' She told us that she was going to get even with them, and although she promised that she would never do anything to us, began issuing warnings to ‘Beware stage left.' " At the time, the department was in the midst of a production of a Shakespearean comedy, which kept them working in the theater at least four hours a day. During rehearsal one day, Mary Jo seemed to make good on her threat. It was a scene of stage combat, and Andi inexplicably fell and injured her head. This might have been easier to dismiss as merely an accident had it not happened where Mary Jo warned it would - stage left.Despite the accident, Rita never felt an evil intent from Mary Jo. "She wasn't evil," said Rita. "She was just very, very sad and confused." Yet the spirit persisted in telling the girls that she was going to do things during the performances - that she would "make things happen." When they tried to get specifics from Mary Jo, she would fall back into her old refrain: "Sad. I cry forever."Fortunately, nothing drastic happened during the run of the show... just little things... little personal things that brought members of the cast and crew alike to tears. For example, Rita stumbled upon the biggest jock/tough guy in the class bawling in the stage wings. When she asked him what was wrong, he claimed not to know why. Soon after that, the girls retired the Ouija board. But the girls, especially Rita, could not forget Mary Jo. "If I had known more then, I would have tried to really help Mary Jo," said Rita, "to release her from that cycle of pain she was caught inside. I think it would have been possible to help her move on. It is one of my biggest regrets when I think about how Mary Jo shared her tears."