(The following was taken from part of a speech by David O’Rourke)
It has occurred to me that none of my friends have ever been to the eleventh floor of the main library on campus. It had never occurred to me that there could be a reason for this, so I began researching this topic. I began asking friends why they had never gone up there. The most common response was because they had no academic reason to visit the top-most level of the stacks, but then a few told me it was because they heard it was haunted.
So I did what any curious person would do; I went to the eleventh floor. The first weird thing I noticed was that the elevator in the library only goes up to the tenth floor. So I inquired whether the eleventh floor was added many years after the library was initially built. Unfortunately, none of the librarians had answers for me.
I stopped at the tenth floor and then needed to take the stairwell up to the last level. Getting up there felt eerie- dead silent. I began walking around and it was creepy. I felt a strange sense of paranoia around me as I continued to walk through the mounds of books I passed.
Friends of mine have said they heard stories of ghosts on the eleventh floor, but nothing I have heard has been confirmed as fact or fiction. … anyhow, I think it’s cool to just let rumors stay alive by repeating them. Not everything needs to have an answer to be believed in.
Context:
Who created/performed the text- freshman David O’Rourke
Members of the audience- students in his folklore class
Location/timing- folklore class, fall semester 1996
Contributor: Jackie Faine
Informant(s): David O’Rourke
Semester/Year: Fall, 1996