Class 10 English A Shady Plot Summary and Important Questions

 

'A Shady Plot' is a story within a story. The narrator is an author of short stories about ghosts. In this story he reveals how he gets the plot for his latest ghost story.

 

The narrator had been told by the editor of the magazine that frequently published his stories to write a ghost story as his ghost stories were well-liked by the readers. As he sat thinking of an idea for a plot, the narrator was confronted by the ghost. She slowly materialised in a dark corner of the room like a moving picture cartoons being put togelher. First an arm came out, then a bit of sleeve of a stiff white shirtwaist, then a leg and a plaid skirt, until at last there she was complete. The ghost was angry at being called to help. In fact. she informed the narrator that it was she who had been supplying him with plots for his ghost stories. She claimed she'd been a writer in her other life. Now she, and some other ghosts who had been writers earlier, had organized 'The Writer's Inspiration Bureau'. They put ideas into the mind of a writer without ideas and with a mind soft enough to accept impressions. Though initially they had done this willingly, but lately they had been called out too often and so they wanted to put the practice to an end. The ghost wanted the narrator to get all his friends and acquaintances to stop using the Ouija board.

 

Just then the narrator's wife, Lavinia, came in. Much to his dismay, she informed the narrator that she had bought an Ouija board. Nothing the narrator said dissuaded her from using it.

 

The next evening, when the narrator returned, their maid Gladolia met him in the hall. She informed him that his wife had organized an Ouija board party that evening. By the time he changed into his second best suit and a fresh shirt and collar, the guests had arrived. They were mostly elderly belonging to Lavinia's Book Club. They were sitting in couples, and between each couple was an Ouija board! He looked around for the ghost but couldn't see her. His wife told him to partner Laura Hinkle.

 

When the Ouija board began to move, the narrator at first thought that Laura Hinkle was cheating with that board. But then the board spelt out loud the word 'T-r-a-i-t-o-r'. It also told Laura Hinkle to ask the narrator what it meant. The spirit identified herself as Helen. Other couples with Ouija boards also claimed they had received communications from Helen for the narrator. The narrator's wife looked at him suspiciously. The writer left the room. Angry and suspicious, Lavinia slept in the guest room that night. The next morning she threatened she would be going back to her grandmother and that her lawyer would communicate with the narrator.

 

John sat in the study, upset with the turn of events. The ghost of Helen arrived again. She said she had been sent to ask when his wife was going to get rid of that Ouija board. At that moment Gladlia called to say she was quitting her job. Lavinia came in then wearing the brown hat and coat she usually travelled in carrying a suitcase which she set down on the floor.