Twinkle, Twinkle

By Glenda Yarbrough

The year is 1901 in Americus, Georgia and Sala Novak thinks she has found the perfect place for her and her six year old daughter to live at the Windsor Hotel. Sala is hired as a maid at the hotel, and they are given a room on the back hallway of the third floor. At the hotel, they become friends with the other staff members, but then her mother meets Thornton Heitzig, a powerful man who seduces the young Sala. Tragedy happens on a stormy night, resulting in the death of Sala. Afterward, the staff believes the little girl who was killed with her mother, now haunts the hotel and sings the children song, "Twinkle, twinkle." Some of the maids believes they have seen Talu on the third floor. They also say they have felt eerier cold spots on the hallway as well. Thornton Heitzig refuses to believe the stories and continues coming to the hotel for business meetings. Yet he wonders, and his fears grow as he listened to the business clients tell their stories of hearing a child singing in the middle of the night. His fears become his reality when he comes face to face with Talu.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Glenda Yarbrough
• Release date: Nov 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310112331

Glenda Yarbrough

Glenda Yarbrough is the author of novels based on a true story, but she is also the author of short stories, ghost stories, romance, and humorous romantic mystery. Most of her books are set in small southern towns where mysteries and secrets are always buried deep.

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Twinkle, Twinkle

Glenda Yarbrough

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. No part of this book may be reproduced or sold by anyone or company in any form without the permission of the Author. All Characters are fictional. Any resemblances to persons living or dead are purely coincidental.

Twinkle, Twinkle Smashwords Edition

By Glenda Yarbrough

Copyright © 2015 glenda yarbrough

Acknowledgement:

Many times someone will do something that will trigger the imagination of an author of fiction. This is true with the story Twinkle, Twinkle. It was Kay Mesa, Joyce Loosier, and Barbara Dawson who helped fuel my imagination when we went to the Windsor Hotel in Americus, Georgia.

Book Cover: Little girl ghost from long ago who image is really from an old picture.

Dedication

This book is to all those who love a ghost story. You know who you are.

Twinkle, Twinkle

The Ghost of Windsor Hotel

1900-1901

Windsor Hotel’s Lobby

Preface

When a building or a house has stood for centuries, has a tragic death linked to it, then most people whisper, It’s haunted. Whether it be true or not, I for one can not say, being as I have never seen a ghost. But there are others who are convinced they have. That’s the way it is with The Windsor Hotel. I spent two nights there, had a wonderful time, and did not see the first ghost. Although my cousin Joyce and I decided to put sheets on our heads and knock on our room’s door the first night as a joke. Some people just never grow up, and with laughter, we said it was payback for being locked out of the room by my mischievous sister Kay. The only one who behaved herself was Barbara, but in truth, she started it by saying something was wrong with the door, sending Joyce and I out into the hallway to check it out. This gave Kay a chance to lock us out of the room...out in the hallway with the ghost.

In 1901 there really was an accident, perhaps a murder, I really don’t know, but this is the story. A young woman lived at the hotel with her seven year old daughter. The mother was a maid for the hotel, and the daughter had free range to play in the hotel as her mother worked. A man who was a politician came to the hotel, and he and the woman became involved. One night, for whatever reason he was angry, some say he was angry at the child because she awakened him from his sleep. In anger, he shoved the little girl. The gate to the service elevator’s shaft was not closed. When he shoved her, she was in line with the opening, and her mother attempted to jump between the child and the shaft. But instead of saving her, they both fell to their death. It was rumored that the man paid off the staff to keep his secret since he had deliberately shoved the little girl, and of course, he did not want his illicit relationship exposed.

A hundred years later the story is still very much alive as well as a ghost story. People say they have seen the little girl in the third floor hallway, running around and singing her song, Twinkle, twinkle. Workers have said they felt a cold breeze as a quick movement passing them, or a cold spot in areas of the third floor. They are convinced it is the little girl. The hotel has been investigated by ghost hunters, who ascertained they felt something in different areas of the hotel, especially on the third floor.

And....who am I to say either way. Enjoy the story, which is just the author’s imagination, and let your imagination take you back to 1901 Americus, Georgia to the Windsor Hotel, and if you visit the hotel, perhaps you will meet the little girl who sings Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are....

-1-

"Twinkle, twinkle little star how I wonder what you are," six year old Talu sang as she skipped down the second floor hallway of the Windsor Hotel. She stopped and stared down at the lobby below. Her mother was dusting the furniture while Huns removed the ashes from the fireplace. Talu knelt, grabbing the rails, her face pressed against the white spindles of the golden oak rail. She waited until her mother looked up. When she did, Talu waved her small fingers at her through the railing. Her mother smiled, giving her a small wave in return.

Talu and her mother had been living at the Windsor for the last six months after her mother obtained a job as a maid. They lived in one of the rooms on the back hallway on the third floor on the servants’ hall. Her mother told her this was the best job and place to live that they had ever had. Talu loved it here. There were so many rooms, hallways, and stairwells to explore. Her mother helped clean those rooms.

Maids, cooks, doormen, and Huns worked in the hotel. Margaret and Beth were waitresses in the dining room. Floyd ran the elevator and was the doorman, and Norman and Oscar worked at the front desk and the pub. They were all her new family and