Today, we are taking a peek at a page in the journal of Ned McNeil. You can read about her and her friends and her lovely but mysterious old house in Moonlight Can Be Murder and By the Fright of the Silvery Moon.
September 29 — It is hard to believe that September is almost gone and I’ve been back in Ednalee for nearly a year. So much has happened since I left Atlanta. I’ve found my school friends, Pat and Jackie; I’ve met Cade Morris after forty years, and made new friends as well. I love my new job with Daisy, writing up descriptions of old houses she has for sale. But, there have been other things, not so happy things; things that are–well–downright spooky.
My cat Penny, my dog Ulysses, and I feel safe here in the old home place, but for some reason, this house or me or something seems to attract one mystery after the other. First, there was the shock of finding someone had shot Uncle Javin, my last remaining relative on this earth. Then came the realization that not everyone in this town was honest and some of them had secrets to hide, and my near brush with a gruesome death. It gives me chills to think about it. I found a riddle that has to do with Granger’s Mansion, my home. I would never have believed the secret this house has kept for generations. I mean, who could have known?
So, tonight as my animals and I sit in front of the fireplace and I sip a cup of chamomile tea, I wonder. Did I do the right thing in coming back to my home town? I had a good job, friends, a comfortable home in Atlanta. I hear the wind moaning across the chimney. Maybe that’s a sign that rain is coming. Fall is like that–warm one day, cold and rainy the next. The wind is rattling that loose shutter again. My goodness, that shutter is noisy. Or, is it a shutter? Did I hear someone at the door? Who would be visiting at this time of night? Ulysses has heard it too. I’d better go …
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