Hello - My Name is Anthony

By Anthony Toma as told by S.Short

This paranormal novella is about a seventeen-year-old girl named Dina who finds a Ouija board. She doesn't know much about it, but soon she has an amazing experience. She lives with her mom, but her father has passed, so she tries to talk to her dad through the Ouija board. To her shock, spirit tells her that her dad is not dead. The rest of the

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: Jul 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638373780

Anthony Toma as told by S.Short

Ever since Shirley Short can remember, she has been gifted. Not a psychic or a prophet, but a Listener. She started hearing spirits at a young age but did not know what to do for a long time. Now she has a radio show called The Listener, where spirit speaks through her. Still, there has not been a day in her life that she has not known God. One day a New York City musician called in to Shirley's Texas radio station, and she felt he was a gift from God, so she gave him a whole hour. She later found out that on the day she had Tony on her radio show he was sick in bed and dying. He had stage four cancer and had lost one of his lungs so he couldn't normally speak. The people with him in his bedroom were shocked that he talked with her for so long. Doctors had told him he was dying, but he lived six more weeks after the program aired. When he passed, Shirley traveled to New York City to see his family at the church service. The two hundred fifty people who attended thanked her, and told her that she had given him back to himself for that short time during her show. Shirley was the only person born in 1944 with an Rh factor conflict and lived. Born in Mercy Hospital, doctors worked for three months to save her life. She now has eight grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. For 30 years she worked as a volunteer in the prison system. She is currently working on a book about her own life.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

I

n my quest for knowledge and understanding, I came upon a story. A love story about a girl named Dina and a boy named Anthony.

Dina was a pretty girl of 17 years. She lived with her mother in a small apartment just above a grocery store. Dina and her mom were what you would consider poor by most standards. Dina’s mom worked in a pub and, when Dina wasn’t in school, she worked in the grocery store below her apartment.

Dina was a shy girl and she didn’t make friends easily, so she spent her leisure time reading or listening to classical music on the radio.

Dina’s mom was a kind woman and a hardworking woman, which didn’t leave much time for anything else. By the time she would get home at night or the wee hours of the morning, she would fall asleep exhausted. She would still be sleeping when Dina would get up in the morning for school.

Dina’s dad passed away when she was a very small girl, so Dina never really knew him. However, she did miss the idea of having a dad like everyone else.

One day early in the spring, Dina was walking home from school and as usual, took a short cut through one of the small alleys near her apartment. It was the day before the trash men would come, so the alley was full of filled trash cans. As she walked, she came upon a trash can with the top off. Dina saw something stuck in the side of the can that looked like a wooden board with hinges. It looked like it was only partly folded up because something was inside it to keep it from folding flat.

Why it caught her eye she will never know. Her curiosity got the best of her and she pulled it out only to find that it was an old Ouija board and planchet someone had thrown away.

Now Dina didn’t really know very much about Ouija boards, but she had heard some of the kids in school talking about them. She decided to take it out of the trash and take it home.

Work and school kept Dina very busy so the board stayed in a drawer for the next few weeks. In fact, she almost forgot about it until one evening after work. Dina was feeling kind of lonesome and went to the drawer to get a sweater to sit out on the fire escape. She found the Ouija board tucked in the drawer with the sweater.

What the kids had said about the Ouija board started to come back to her. Dina decided she would try it and see if it would work for her.

She put her hands on the board and rested the fingers of her right hand lightly on the planchet. She waited for a while then asked if there were any spirits there. She waited and waited but nothing happened. She thought to herself maybe I’m doing something wrong. Maybe my hands aren’t on it right or maybe I’m asking the wrong questions. She continued to try many different things, but nothing seemed to work. She was getting tired, so she put the board away and went to bed.

Somewhere in time, somewhere else and yet nowhere else, there were voices. There were male voices and female voices. These voices were talking about Dina, the girl who was trying to use the Ouija board. In fact, the voices seemed to be coming from under the table where Dina was sitting when she was trying the Ouija board.

Her name is Dina one voice said. That voice sounded very sweet. Another voice said Who is Dina? What is she to us? This was an important sounding voice.

I would like to know what we are doing here! said someone else. Yes, said someone else. So would I.

Well, if you will all quit chattering for a bit, I will tell you. My name is Thomas and I was sent here to explain to you all why you were asked to come here. From time to time there is someone from the other time who sits down to use the Ouija board.

At this point, someone called Paul interrupted and said, We all know about people using Ouija boards, but why are we here? Isn’t there another group of people who usually take care of Ouija board situations? A select group?

Yes, Paul said Thomas, but this time it’s different. Dina is different and each of you have been chosen to meet the need that can be felt in this room.

All of us here have other things that we would rather be doing said Paul. This really seems to just be a waste of time.

Time? That’s what we are all about said Judi. The time is now. All of us here were picked for a reason. Look said Judi, Dina is sitting at the board again and she is waiting for something to happen.

It’s the middle of her night said Jo. Why is she awake?

Maybe we were all talking too loud said Paul. If we weren’t here, we wouldn’t be talking at all and she wouldn’t be awake expecting something to happen on the board.

Would you be quiet Paul! said Judi. Dina is talking to the board and I want to hear what she is saying.

That is a good idea, said Jo. I want to hear what she is asking us to do. I mean, if we are here to help, we need to listen.

While they were listening to Dina, someone entered the group unnoticed and just stood there listening—and this is what he heard.

Dina woke with a start. She thought she heard someone call her name. She laid there for a few minutes thinking it was here mom calling her. But all was quiet. She tried to go back to sleep, but she was wide awake. She got up and her first thought was maybe the Ouija board would work for me now. The setting was right. It was the middle of the night. The only light she would use was a candle she had when she didn’t want to waste electricity.

Dina lit the candle and set it on the table where she put the Ouija board and sat down. She closed her eyes and said a little prayer. She put her hands on the board and planchet and asked, Is there a spirit here who will talk to me using this board?

As she waited, she wondered,