Haunting Ms.Lorraine

 

When I first came to work for Lorraine Humphrey as her driver, I knew she would be quite the spitfire. She managed her hired help with a whip it seemed, and because of that stronghold of hers, she lost a lot of employees. The mansion she lived in was a huge responsibility to keep up for anyone under her control. I wondered why she just didn't close down the parts of the mansion that were not in use. But the main housekeeper Ms. Brenda, warned me not to suggest such a thing to Ms. Lorraine.

"Then why not allow her servants to occupy some of those rooms, Lord knows there's plenty?".

"We have our servants quarters and it would be beyond improper for any of us to occupy her family rooms, when they're still here" she replied then walked away.

What an odd thing to say.

What I knew of Ms. Lorraine's history is that she was born the last of 12 kids to the affluent Mr. Boris Humphrey, an oil tycoon. Her mother died when Lorraine was a child, so leaving the responsibility of her care to her elder siblings. Old Boris lived a long life and passed away in his favorite chair in his study, surrounded by cigar smoke, having fallen victim to a massive stroke. 

After that, Lorraine's remaining family all began to venture off and live their lives before death claimed them one by one, till Lorraine was the only one left.

She talked to herself when she was alone and yelled quite a bit at her remaining servants and come the evening hour of 6, she would take a brandy to her father's study and sit in his padded leather chair by the fireplace. Sometimes she would call on Ms. Brenda to start up the old Victrola with the horn for a speaker, to play a record for her by Chopin or Bach.

Winter was fast approaching and Ms. Lorraine called upon her servants to have a "staff meeting". She wanted to host a winter ball on Christmas Eve. She had already compiled a guest list in which she had Ms. Brenda send out invites with RSVPs, and I drove to the post office to deliver. 

She had me call up some people to work on the mansion for repairs and a team of gardeners to help Luther (our gardener) to spruce up the lawn and be ready to decorate.  Sometimes the workers jobs ran over the time she allotted for them to work. It was hell for them to convince her why they needed to stay. Most times, she'd wave them off and told them to go away while she retreated to her father's study to be alone.

I'd peek in on her once in awhile to check on her. Most times she would be browsing the volumes of books on the bookshelves, or reading or listening to music. This particular night, she sat in the chair and drank her brandy then got up to sway slowly to the music and hum in sync. While it does not seem an uncommon thing to do, it spooked me a bit seeing her do this. There is a rectangular gold frame mirror that hangs just above the fireplace, and if you gaze into it at a certain angle, one would notice she is not dancing alone. It gave me quite the jump when I saw this. I backed up out of the room and shut the door as quickly and as silently as I had came in.

There came a few nights leading up to the ball that I could not sleep for some reason, so I took to walking the many halls, peeking into a few rooms. The mansion was considerably quite old so it didn't startle me any to hear floorboards creaking or feel a draft by a window. But I say to you, what I saw next when I turned the corner to another hall, scared me to my core. I felt very cold all of a sudden as I walked down that hall and came to a stop. There was a couple walking down this same hallway and in my direction. Ghosts. They were talking to each other but I couldn't make out what they were saying. They were dressed in old Victorian style clothes. 

The male walked right through me like I wasn't even there. Crazy as it sounds, I felt an electric shock go through my body and images in my head flashed in my mind. Memories that were not mine nor from this date in time. I was knocked to my behind. I turned back to look at them continue on, then disappear into the wall at the end. 

What the hell did I just see ? A peek into his past?  The experience left me with a strange headache. I hightailed it back to my room and begged for sleep to claim me, so by morning it would seem to be nothing more than a freaky bad dream. 

The mansion came back to life or woke after a many centuries past slumber.  With all the renovations and holiday decorations ready that had been added to the mansion, made it look so festive, beautiful. 

Ms. Brenda looked so worn out by the time evening came, with all the prepping, organizing, cleaning and discussing the menu for the event with the chef. She had one last thing to do and that was to check on Ms. Lorraine in the study. When Ms. Brenda returned shortly after, she announced Ms. Lorraine was napping, so we shouldn't disturb her.

"Won't she need help getting back to her room", I asked.  Ms. Brenda smiled and shook her head no. "You can't really see it because its built into the wall, and there's a lot of  furniture and decorations blocking the area, but there's an elevator in the corner next to a window that takes her right up to her room. It's all connected". It never occurred to me really how Ms. Lorraine made it up the grand stairway then down the hall to the left to get to her room. I had never actually seen her take the stairs, ever.

So I bid everyone goodnight and retired to my room. But once again I was not sleepy, so against my better judgment, I began my walk in the hallways again. I told myself I'd peek in on Ms. Lorraine to see if she'd made it up to her room ok before I turned in myself. 

Walking these halls tonight left me with the impression that whoever built this mansion took a page out of the old Winchester Mansion and how it was built. I swear I'd been down one hall only to round the corner to come across it again. With so many twists and turns in the halls, I was afraid I'd open a door to one of the rooms only to find a wall or another hallway that led nowhere. Or worse a staircase that had no ending destination.

I had a strange thought come over me by the time I found Ms. Lorraine's bedroom door, like maybe the ghostly inhabitants of this place did not want for me to find her room. Like I was purposefully being led astray, but I had my own strong sense of direction to find my way around. Except for tonight.  As I approached her door, I heard many voices coming from the other side. Again, I could not make out what they were saying. Was she talking to someone? Or some people? Her door handle was the old fashioned kind where you could peer in thru the keyhole. I knelt down to peek. 

Ms. Lorraine was sound asleep in her bed, but she did have company. I counted 5 maybe 6 specters hovering around her bed,  talking over her. Next thing I know I have an eye looking back at me from the opposite side of that keyhole. It startled me so much so, that I fell backwards upon my rump, I backed away quickly. Oh what the hell is in this house?

 I wondered if any of the other servants were disturbed by these phantoms. Probably not, they most likely minded their own business and kept to themselves, unlike me. I had backed myself up against the wall opposite her door. I used the wall to push myself back onto my feet.

"Look, you said you were gonna look in on her and head back. Never mind the party going on in there", I told myself. Taking a deep breath, I reluctantly agreed. Yet, not sure why but I went for the door latch again and turned it. These nocturnal beings all turned to face me then vanished one after the other.

 "Oh yeah, now you see me, sure!" I muttered.  Ms. Lorraine was undisturbed and covered up, so I creeped out of her room shutting the door behind me. 

The next morning we all woke up to a blanket of snow outside. I asked the chef and Ms. Brenda if they wanted to build a snowman or have a snowball fight. They politely declined and chuckled after me. "Still young minded" the chef commented. "Well yeah? Why not?' I replied. They ignored me and dispersed to begin their daily chores.

Tonight the festivities would begin.

The chef, whose name I finally learned was Dante- not sure if that was a first or last name- commented to Ms. Brenda when we both came in to the kitchen to snag a snack, that we were in for a blizzard tonight. ''Poor Ms. Humphrey", Ms. Brenda replied shaking her head slowly "she's going to be so disappointed".

"Is this a yearly event here?'' I asked since I was fairly new here, still.

"No, this wanting to have a ball, just dropped out of the sky. Ms. Lorraine doesn't take visitors at all" she said as she popped a tomato the size of a grape into her mouth. The chef nodded in agreement and continued dicing up vegetables and setting them to the side.

By 5pm it began to get real dark outside and soon the snow began to fall again hard and fast, then as time passed it tapered off  to a drizzle. 

Then the electricity went out. All of us servants were sitting around each other in the parlor and talking softly around candles set on various shelves and the coffee table in between us. The only warmth we had in that moment came from the grand fireplace ablaze with a crackling fire.

"The extra hired help won't be able to make it up the hill to the mansion tonight, shouldn't someone say something to Ms. Lorraine? No one is coming. That's it, full stop!!" I declared looking around the room.

 No one replied, they just went off in different directions. I stood to go check on Ms. Lorraine. I found her in the ballroom sitting in a chair by a window looking out to the empty circular driveway covered in fresh snow.  It's hard to tell what she must have been thinking, sitting there all alone. I decided not to bother her but would definitely check up later. 

                                       ************

My bedroom became so cold despite the two heavy blankets I had covering me. I could see my breath with the chill in the air. I thought I heard music and a lot of chatter and laughing. Had the electricity been somehow restored? Had all the invitees actually shown up? 

I had questions that needed answers right away. I got up and put my robe on. I padded along the carpet in my thick woolly socks, till I got to the ballroom. I must've been dreaming or at least hoped I was when I saw the scene before me.

The ball seemed to be happening in full swing, in the dark and complete with ghostly revelers, a small 3 piece band playing the old song "All of Me" and Ms. Lorraine. She was dancing in the middle of the crowd with a male apparition. She beamed with so much joy.

 I looked around at everything before me and out of the entry way. There was a small desk set up against the wall to the side. It had a guestbook for people to sign in and next to it was a stack of invites that had been returned marked Unknown Addressee or Return To Sender. 

Who were all these people? I shifted my gaze back to the empty guest sign in. Little by mysterious bit, signatures began to appear in the book as I turned the pages. The very last name to appear was mine, although I had not signed it. None of this made any sense.

I gazed one last time upon the dancers in their fancy dress clothes, the band playing their instruments, the people 'eating' the hors d'oeuvres and other goodies Dante had painstakingly prepared earlier in the day. 

Then there was Ms. Lorraine. Who, I wondered was that ghost of a man dancing with her twirling her about and dipping her, causing laughter and joy out of her that I'd never seen? 

There's a story to tell. 

I returned to my room and fell asleep. Tomorrow would be a big clean-up day for us all. 

                                 **************

By morning Ms. Brenda found Ms. Lorraine in the study slumped over to one side in her father's chair, two glasses of brandy half empty sat next to her on a small table. She had passed away but even then, she had not been alone.