Penny Pennell
It is unconfirmed that Orson Welles consulted a Ouija board when making Citizen Kane. The planchette allegedly spelled out “rosebud” and he became positively insufferable henceforward.
We fashioned our own Ouija board on the back of a framed print of Mendeleev’s 1869 periodic table. When we accidentally summoned Welles’ spirit, we regretted it immediately. He picked us up and rearranged how we were sitting like we were prepping for a first read through. Changed the lighting to cast better shadows. Told us to project when we were speaking to him. From the diaphragm, he bellowed, and then told us to shut up so he could think.
The more he glowered and pondered, the louder we could hear Bernard Hermann’s score fill the room. Chronicle Scherzo morphed to “Psycho’s” Prelude. Orson scowled when we told him which score we preferred, and now he refuses to return to the spirit realm.
PENNY PENNELL received an M.A. in English from the University of Illinois at Springfield. Her fiction is forthcoming or has appeared in Portland Metrozine, 3Elements Review, Nightingale and Sparrow, Barnstorm, and other places. She is an avid gardener and Chicago Cubs fan. @pennyrpennell