Copyright © 2020 James R. Lewis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief passages in review.
ISBN 978-1-953386-01-4
This is a work of fiction. While inspired by real people, the names, characters, places, and incidents do not portray factual events or relationships. References to actual persons, living or dead, events, locales, or business establishments are fictionalized by the author.
Editing by Marisa Donnelly
Contributions by Laurie Lewis, Kim Tozer, and Erin Voll
Discussion Questions by Marisa Donnelly
Book Design by Kim Tozer
Published by Youth Inspired Publishing, LLC
Dedication
I dedicate this book to my daughters. They have always been my inspiration and their keen interest in my storytelling kept me going throughout their childhood. When they were very little, they would always ask me to tell them a story before they went to bed and I would make up stories with them as the main characters. Erin, my middle daughter, sat next to me as I wrote the original first draft of Annabelle’s story. We decided to write at least one page every time we sat down. Over a number of months, The Secret of Annabelle was established and this led to the birth of the Hidden Hollow Five Series. I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as we did writing it together.
Author James R. Lewis
Storyteller, Author, Artist, & Grandpa
James is a father to three daughters, grandfather to 12, and husband to his wonderful wife Laurie Lewis. He served in the US Air Force during the Vietnam War as an airplane mechanic. Following the military, he became a distinguished architect and an educator for over 30 years. After retirement, he started a successful family campground business that continues to flourish. Storytelling has always been his passion. He continues to write and has several other series he is looking forward to releasing!
Youth Illustrations
Authors published through Youth Inspired Publishing, work with child artists 18 years or younger for all illustrations. Our goal through this unique collaboration is to provide our youth with opportunities to showcase their talents. By harnessing and nurturing these gifts early, we hope to provide a healthy outlet for kids to feel empowered to follow their dreams! The Secret of Annabelle was our first youth illustrated book. Drawings for this book were chosen through a youth illustration contest. Find out more about upcoming contests and other services we offer for authors and artists on our website: YIPublishing.com
The author chose illustrations based on the
ability of the artist to capture the essence
of the book cover and chapters.
Contents
Chapter 1: River’s End
Chapter 2: The Secret Door
Chapter 3: Annabelle’s Playroom
Chapter 4: The Diary
Chapter 5: The Secret Hiding Place
Chapter 6: The Boathouse
Chapter 7: The Dark Tunnel
Chapter 8: The Old Woman
Chapter 9: The Plan
Chapter 10: The Discovery
Chapter 11: The Banker
Chapter 12: The Fire
Chapter 1:
River’s End
Thump squeak, thump squeak, thump squeak, thump squeak… “Jim! Please turn off those windshield wipers!” pleaded Mom. “They’re driving me crazy!” Looking up from the map on her phone, she reached over and tapped Dad on the shoulder.
It’s about time, Erin thought, that noise was driving me crazy, too.
Erin closed the cap on the marker she had been using and threw it into the bin on the seat next to her.
“I’m bored,” she said as she raised her arms in a long, lazy stretch. Glancing back at Kim, she sat up a little higher in the seat to get a better look at the picture her sister was drawing.
“Daddy, when are we going to get there?” asked Kim from the back seat of the van. She held the picture up so that Erin could get a better look. “I’m hungry,” she quickly added before her dad could answer.
The picture had a bright rainbow across the page, with a house directly below it and woods covering the rest of the background. A pretty good drawing of the family van was parked out in front and there were five people standing in the driveway: Erin, Kim, their older sister Jenny, Laurie, and Jim.
Although skinny as a rail, it seemed to Erin that Kim was always hungry. She never ate much at one time, but she was always eating or wanting to eat. Erin finished her inspection of the drawing, looked up at her sister, and smiled.
“That’s pretty neat,” she said.
Kim was tall for an eight-year-old girl and quite pretty. Her long honey-blonde hair was in a ponytail held by a scrunchie made of shiny red, white, and blue ribbon. With a huge smile, Kim stared back at her through her soft, brown eyes.
“Thanks. Do you want to play a game?” she asked, sliding the picture into a folder and putting away her markers. Before Erin could answer, they were interrupted by their dad.
“We’ll get there soon, honey.” Reaching over, he turned off the windshield wipers. “I’m a little hungry, too. Hey, who wants to have a picnic when we get to our new house?”
“We do!” shouted Erin and Kim together.
“Then a picnic it will be.” He said as he smiled over at Mom.
She smiled back, returning her attention to the map. “We should get there just in time for lunch.”
“Let’s have the picnic down by the riverbank,” suggested Dad. “What do you say, Laurie?”
“Sounds good.” Mom clicked off her phone and tucked it into the side pocket of the van door.
Erin and Kim smiled with delight at the thought of their very own river and woods to explore and play in. Although they had never actually seen their new house, Mom and Dad had told them about it many times.
“Tell us about the new house again,” pleaded Kim. In the excitement she had forgotten all about the offer to play she had just made with her sister.
Erin put away the rest of her markers and pad of paper and slid forward as far as her seatbelt would let her. She loved to hear about their big, new house and especially about their new bedroom with a special, round sunroom attached.
This was going to be their best house ever. They would have their very own woods and a river that ran right through the middle of their land. Even the name of the river sounded mysterious – Hidden Hollow River. She and Kim just loved the sound of it. On the riverbank where they were going to have the picnic, there was an old boathouse with a pier. Dad and Mom told them that they would be able to fish, swim, and canoe off of the pier. They would have to be very careful, though, because the currents along the Hidden Hollow could get pretty swift and dangerous at certain times of the year.
Both Erin and Kim started canoeing almost before they could walk. Mom and Dad had drilled them about canoeing safety rules, and they never went canoeing without their life vests on. Mom and Dad trusted them enough that they were allowed to canoe together without supervision because they were so experienced.
“Will our canoe be delivered today?” asked Erin.
“Maybe,” answered Mom. “But probably not until tomorrow afternoon.”
“Tell us about the house again,” pleaded Kim, changing the subject.
“Well, the house was built in 1875 by the Peterson family,” said Mom. “Th
e Petersons and the Smiths were the founding fathers of River’s End. They were also the two wealthiest families in town. We met Charles Smith Jr., a descendant of the original Smith family, when Dad and I signed the mortgage papers at the bank.”
Looking back at the two girls, she saw that they were still listening, so she continued. “Charles Smith’s father, Charles Smith Sr., bought the original Peterson home in foreclosure after John Peterson mysteriously vanished on a business trip overseas many years ago. Charles Smith Sr. and his wife adopted John Peterson’s only daughter and raised her as their own. The Smith family lived in our house until Charles Smith Sr. died a couple of months ago.”
“Charles, the son, still owns quite a bit of the property around our home,” Dad added. “He told us that he is out there often checking for trespassers, so we’ll probably see a lot of him.”
“But he doesn’t own our house, does he, Daddy?” asked Erin.
“Or the boathouse?” asked Kim.
Dad glanced in the back seat and smiled at the two of them. “No, kiddos, we own the home and the ten acres of woods, land, and river frontage, including the boathouse and pier. They’re all ours.”
“Wow!” said Kim. “Ten acres! That’s a lot.”
“Look!” exclaimed Mom, pointing out the front window of the van at an approaching road sign. “‘Ten miles to River’s End.’ We’ll be there in about ten minutes and you two will finally be able to see it for yourselves.”
The time seemed to drag on forever before they finally came over the top of a high hill and saw the city of River’s End spread out before them.
“There it is, kiddos,” said Dad, sweeping his hand out in front of him. “Our new home.”
Erin wrinkled her nose. “It’s not very big, is it?”
The city of Racine, Wisconsin, where they just moved from, had almost one-hundred thousand people. The sign for River’s End said: Population 1,112.
“It’s big enough for us,” said Mom, “and I’m sure you’ll both find enough eleven-year-old and eight-year-old kids to play with in a town of over a thousand people.”
She looked back at Erin who was staring out the window at the city limits sign as it raced by. Mom marveled at how much Erin had grown in the past year. Her hair was getting darker and she was shedding that ‘little girl’ look and slowly turning into a beautiful, young adolescent. Erin had an ear-to-ear smile and her sense of humor was legendary among her friends back in Racine.
Jenny, Mom’s oldest daughter, had gone through the same kind of changes at around twelve. Erin was only a little over a month from her twelfth birthday. It was interesting just how much the two older sisters looked alike; in fact, if you looked at pictures of Jenny at this age, it was difficult to tell them apart.
“I just wish Jenny could have made the trip with us,” Mom said.
“She’ll come for Thanksgiving and semester breaks,” answered Dad. “And, of course, she will be here next summer,” he quickly added.
Jenny, the oldest of the three daughters, was a sophomore in an exclusive private boarding high school in Wisconsin. She had worked hard to gain admittance and earned a full scholarship. She had thought very carefully before finally deciding to finish the remainder of her sophomore year. Mom was sad that she didn’t come with them for the rest of summer, but the school had offered her a job at the campus library and Jenny didn’t want to give it up.
Dad reached over and gently touched Mom’s hand. “Working at Saint Clement was a difficult decision for her, but I think it was a good one.”
“I hope you’re right,” said Mom. “But it doesn’t stop me from worrying or missing her.”
“Me too,” he said, patting her hand. “Me too.”
It didn’t take them very long to drive through the entire city and come out on the other side. On the main street, which was also the main county highway, there were only a half-dozen stores, two restaurants, a bank, and a movie theater. Anchoring one end of town on the river was an old mill, which looked like it had been shut down and boarded up for many years. There was a park next to it that spread out with a playground and picnic tables all the way to the edge of the water. In the center of town was a courthouse and police station, and on the other end of town was a huge brick building with ‘River’s End Elementary and Middle School’ carved above the front entrance.
“And that’s where you will be going to school,” said Dad. He and Mom had been pointing out all of the buildings and as if they were tour guides. “We already enrolled you.”
“Yeah, yeah, we already know all that,” Erin cut in. “You told us that a thousand times. We start school in about four weeks, and we both have wonderful teachers.”
“Where is our house?” asked Kim, turning around and looking out through the rear window as the city disappeared behind them. She had studied each house very carefully as they drove through. Not one of them had a huge porch with a round castle tower on the front like her Daddy and Mommy had described.
“We live about a mile out of town,” said Mom. “And only six miles from Hidden Hollow Community College where Dad will be teaching.”
They drove for just a short distance longer before the kids felt the car slowing down. On the final bend in the road, Kim and Erin saw a long cobblestone driveway sandwiched between two tall willow trees. Below the trees stood two brick gateposts with a cast iron lion mounted on the top of each. A decorative iron gate to the driveway stood open.
“Look!” exclaimed Kim, pointing to the castle tower looming over the treetops in the front yard. “Is that it?”
“Yes, that’s our new home,” answered Mom.
They drove in and parked the car on the circled driveway. The front walk led to the stairs of a huge porch that stretched across the entire front of the big, old house. In the center of the porch was a carved oak entry door.
“Where’s all our stuff?”
“It should have been delivered by the moving company yesterday afternoon,” answered Mom as she got out of the van.
Kim and Erin didn’t really hear their mom’s answer because they were already scrambling up the stairs toward the front door. Erin grabbed the handle and turned, but the door was locked. Kim went over to the windows and pressed her face against the glass. Erin followed close behind. Inside they could see the front room piled high with boxes.
“Come on! Hurry up!” they cried.
When the front door was finally opened, Erin and Kim rushed inside. They ran from room to room, quickly exploring everything on the first floor. There was a large kitchen with an adjoining walk-in pantry. Just off the kitchen was a huge dining room that led to the living room through big, glass doors. On the other side of the house and across the front foyer, was a parlor and a large library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Most of the shelves were empty except for a single row of books, covered in dust, on the far wall.
“Whose books are these?” asked Erin, pulling one off of the shelf and running her hands over the cover.
Dad walked over and she handed him the book. “They must have been left by the Smiths,” he said, paging through the volume. “I guess they now belong to us.” He slid the book back into place and turned toward the kids.
“Where’s our bedroom?” asked Kim. She was eager to see the large bedroom and round sunroom attached to it.
“Come on, we’ll show you,” Mom said. She took Kim’s hand and walked up the large, curved stairway to the second floor. Erin and Dad followed behind them. When they got to the second floor, Mom and Kim turned and walked down the hallway. There was another set of stairs that continued up to the third floor. This staircase was much narrower than the stairs from the first floor.
Erin stopped and tried to peer into the darkness. “What’s up there?” she asked, pointing up the narrow stairway.
“Ghosts and goblins,” answered Dad. “So don’t ever go up there wit
hout an adult, or they will grab you and turn you into one of them!” He reached down, grabbed Erin, and tickled her until she squealed.
“Yeah, right!” said Erin, her voice full of sarcasm.
Kim huddled close to her mom and peered up the staircase, her eyes as big as saucers.
“Ahem!” Mom cleared her throat and pointed down at Kim.
“I’m only kidding, honey,” said Dad. He held out his hands for her to come. Kim ran over and he swung her into his arms.
“The only thing up those stairs is a very dusty and dirty attic. Come on, I’ll show you.”
He went up to the top of the stairs, stopped, and opened a small door. Kim hid her head on his shoulder, still not sure whether she should trust him. Erin peered around her dad to try to get a better look as the door swung slowly inward. The old door creaked on its hinges making a loud, squeaky noise.
They stepped up into the dimly-lit attic. There was nothing there except an empty wooden crate and a dusty, broken rocking chair. On two of the walls were large multi-pane windows with curtains draped loosely over them. Across from the door was a circular wall with no openings.
“What’s behind this round wall?” asked Erin, crossing the attic to the other side.
She walked from one end of the wall to the other, running her hands over the smooth, plaster surface before she spoke again. “When I looked up from the outside, I could see a lot of windows on the third floor. How come there aren’t very many up here?”
“I don’t know, honey,” answered Dad. “There ought to be a way to get in there. Perhaps there’s another entry into it from somewhere else in the house. We’ll have to look for it when we finish unpacking.”
“Let’s drill a hole in the wall,” suggested Erin. “Then we can see what’s in there.”
Hidden Hollow Five--The Secret of Annabelle Page 1