Childlike

July 23, 2008. This one happened when I went to a place in Missouri (no I do not live there. This was on vacation) called the Lemp Mansion. If you haven't heard of the Lemp Mansion, then you need to do a bit of Googling. Anyways, I was visiting my older sister when she brought me on a tour of the place. This tour was filled with some hilarity but mainly I just want to share the personal experiences I had. In order to do this, I'll have to give you a bit of background.

We went into the mansion and immediately I noticed that there was so much energy in the building that my hair started to stand on end. This place was at one point a boarding house and a rather shabby one too. There were tons of deaths that took place in the building, supposedly from cats and dogs to former tenants, to even members of the original Lemp family.

Our tour guide only wanted to talk about Billy Lemp but nevertheless between all of that droning on about her dead "love" (we branded it love, because it was sort of that thing where she talked about that person all the time, but completely deny feelings for them) Billy, she got some interesting information in.

One thing that she didn't mention very much, though, was of a little baby, the illegitimate son of Billy Lemp, who had been popularly named Zeik. I didn't believe the baby's name was Zeik, but apparently Betsy did. Zeik was not only a bastard child, but he had Down Syndrome. During the time period in which the Lemp family lived, (I believe it was the mid to late 1800's) Down Syndrome was unacceptable, and people with it were widely discriminated against.

We know now that disabilities are acceptable and natural but again at the time, it was practically illegal, a shame to the whole family. So the baby boy was the son of Billy Lemp and one of his maidservants (Billy was a player) and had a disability. He was locked in the attic and lived there about eight years until he died. Now I'll give you details on this at the end of the story because the timing in which I learned these facts is absolutely crucial.

We were nearing the end of our tour when we went up to the attic rooms, the two smallest rooms in the mansion. We did what Betsy called a "darkroom" session. Betsy explained how said "darkroom" was supposed to work. She turns out all the lights, and everyone tries to strain their eyes as much as possible to see if they can see a specter or phantom or shadow or mist, only the third of, which was common.

What happened was that we went into one of the attic rooms, supposedly the most haunted of the two (I guess I should say now that it was about nine o' clock) and turned out all the lights in the room (except for a radio clock, which silly Betsy joked around about, although that was helpful because some idiot was liable to shout, "I see a blinking red light! I think there's a ghost in here!"). She said that the Lemp child, "Zeik" sometimes appeared to tender, kind-hearted women (I resent that statement. I believe she meant to say "people.").

So knowing that, we were all content to turn out the lights. Now there was some weird stuff going on. A lot of people were pointing some BS out but that's not what interested me. In the doorframe, I (as well as multiple other people) saw a feminine shadow dressed in a long dress. Little tiny orbs of light were circling her. As soon as someone pointed her out, she jumped out of the doorway until everyone stopped paying attention to her. I could see the frame get lighter and darker as she did so.

That alone was also not what interested me the most. It was the feeling, the influence I felt that was by far the strangest phenomenon. Within ten to twenty seconds of the light going out, my legs became increasingly weak. They were shaky and jellylike, almost as though someone were repeatedly kicking me in the back of the knee, causing it to collapse just enough not to bring me to my knees but to make it hard to stand.

I found my back bending over, like I was being pulled toward the floor and I looked very much like a monkey. My stepsister actually laughed at me when we left the room. I assure you that these feelings were not of my own. I walked in straight-legged and strong, and I walked out the same way. In fact, as soon as Betsy said, "All right, I'm going to turn the lights back on, the impression dissipated.

Afterwards, we went downstairs and everyone was given a pair of dowsing rods to use around the bottom floor of the mansion. I have to say the results were rather interesting, although everyone wanted to talk to Billy (of course). I however chose an old man who was frequently seen sitting in the back corner of the dining room. I know it sounds stupid but the dowsing rods really worked, even if I concentrated on one answer, they still pointed the opposite way. Very crazy stuff and quite a funny old man.

Finally, when we left the mansion/bed-and-breakfast, I told my sister what really happened in the darkroom. She was quite surprised and told me that she actually saw the room where the Lemp child lived. She had been to the mansion in an overnight ghost investigation the previous summer and one of the carpenters who were working on the remodeling showed her the room in the attic where people usually weren't allowed.

She said that the room in which he lived out his short life was so small that he couldn't stand up all the way and he could barely walk. So he was hunched over like a monkey all of his life, thus earning him nicknames like Monkeyface. (Yes, there was a window in the small room, according to my sister and it overlooked a relatively busy street in St. Louis). Children would see him looking down from his tiny home and call him rude names. She told me that she could even see ruts where he had walked back and forth for so many years. I attributed this information to my experience. All of the information shook me pretty hard.

So that's what my biggest experience was. It was definitely weird, but not scary. I was at peace, just weak during those 10 minutes in the darkroom. If anyone has any questions or commentary, I'd love to hear it. I don't think I did, but if I left something out then I don't want to leave it out for good.