A Night with the Orbs (Part Four)

We step out of the Charles Lemp suite and head into the suite where I am planning on spending the night. Just before we all went downstairs I had run into Betsy outside this room. She asked if I was staying in that room. I replied in the affirmative and she asked that I turn out some of the lights I had turned on and dim the over head lights. She explains at one point that this is like looking at stars when you are in the city. You can usually see one maybe two stars when you are standing in the middle of town. However, you get a few miles out of town and you can see all kinds of things you normally couldn’t see. I am still not entirely sure how ghosts relate to stars but it sure sounded cool at the time.

Anyway, we step into the William Lemp Suite. She comments that the lighting is perfect. We end up standing in the area where I intend to sleep later. My friend comments that there is a message waiting for me on my cell phone. Somehow this seems very out of place. She tells us the story of William. She comments on how William shot himself in the head in this room and how the Billy arrived and tried to kick down the door. She then tells us that William’s wife, Julie, Billy’s mother, died of cancer in the room right next door which is now the sitting room area.

Julia is apparently also a ghost who walks these floors. Betsy tells us about ghosts who appear to walk around but are unaware of anything that is going on around them. They are just going about their business, unaware of the living or the other dead who might be hanging around. Julia wanders the house looking for her son’s and apparently, for Zeke.

Dylan does not take kindly to the idea of a woman wandering around looking for her son.

Now, at last, it’s time to head upstairs. The attic is the area reputed to be the most haunted. The friends I am with spent the night in the Lemp Mansion the first time several years ago. Even on their more recent trip the attic area was completely unfinished. Yes, there was one room, the Elsa Lemp Suite, but the rest of the attic was barren. It was beyond barren, actually and, in places, starting to fall down. This is not the case now.

The Elsa Lemp Suite is right at the top of the stairs. To the left is what would have been a kind of balcony at one point. It has a gorgeous view. There is no railing around the cement edge, however, and the doors that lead out there are locked. There is now an ice machine in the small room that leads up to those doors.

Just past the Elsa Lemp Suite is a short hallway. The floors are carpeted. At the end of the short hallway there are two new rooms that were not there until recently. The walls are painted. There are no holes in the ceiling. There is a kind of sitting room between the two rooms at the end of the hall and two chairs. There is also a soda vending machine and a snack machine that appears empty.

It’s very strange seeing both the ice machine and the vending machines. There is an odd mix of period pieces and modern day equipment. There are televisions in each room and DVD players and VCRs. There are CD and radio players.

We head for the room to the left. The young couple from the town near Springfield Illinois is staying in this room. The young man has dark hair and a scruffy beard. The woman is very blonde and very skinny and very beautiful. They are both very affectionate. They hold hands a lot. They appear a tad nervous that the next thing that is part of the tour is going to happen in their room.

“We’re going to have a dark room session now,” Betsy explains.

The room is not very big. Apparently, at one time, this room was part of Zeke’s play room. Betsy does not want to go into the Elsa Lemp room which is back down the hall. The Elsa Lemp Suite is where my two friends are staying and Betsy doesn’t want to go into the room. Even the plaque outside the room says it’s reputedly the most haunted room in the house. Here she is, a ghost hunter, and she doesn’t want to go into the most haunted room. She says that before that room was remodeled and a bathroom added, that room was a closet and she saw something in there. She saw something that scared her. I worry for my friends. We have a frightened ghost hunter.

We all crowd into the room. Two of my friends end up across from me, with the bed in between. Dylan is standing directly behind me. There is a woman to my left who also claims to be clairvoyant. The two who are staying in this room are not far from us either, again to my left, however. We hover near the walls. There is a window over my left shoulder. There is bathroom behind me and the door is open, nearly hitting my back.

Betsy comes in and she is carrying a flashlight. We all cram into the room. Betsy insists that everyone step into the room. She doesn’t want anyone to stand in the doorway. Her white blouse hovers in the dimness like some kind of a moon. It is very bright. She sits on the bed.

She tells us to open our minds. She tells us to look at things around us. She reminds us that spirits often appear as just orbs of energy. Orbs are often caught on film whenever there is a haunting. One school of thought that this show ectoplasmic energy left behind my traveling spirits. Another school of thought says that these are motes of dust caught in the flash of a camera because a lot of these old houses have a lot of dust.

Betsy says that these orbs often appear to the naked eye as flashes of light. She tells us that most of theses energies are white or a soft color. She warns us that anyone who starts to freak or sees anything orange or red floating in the air that that person should let her know. She will stop the session.

She warns us that she will be turning off the lights now. She tells everyone to sit still. She shuts off the flashlight. Her blouse is now a disembodied blouse-shaped moon floating in the darkness.

“Spirits of the house,” she says, “come and visit us now.”

And, to my surprise, they just might have done exactly that…

Bryan W. Alaspa’s new novel Dust is now available at his website www.bryanalaspa.com and www.amazon.com.