Welcome Home

By Karen Stollznow

In 1921, the Hodder family moved from Sydney, Australia, to a quiet rural town.

Their excitement quickly sours when they enter their new home and are greeted by an ominous message.

The house is soon beset by strange disturbances. Much of the activity appears to surround 12-year-old Fanny.

The family believes they are being run out of town. But by who...or what?

This story is inspired by actual events.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Karen Stollznow
• Release date: Aug 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463900710

Karen Stollznow

Bestselling author Karen Stollznow's non-fiction works include Missed Conceptions: How We Make Sense of Infertility; On the Offensive: Prejudice in Language Past and Present; Language Myths, Mysteries and Magic; God Bless America; Haunting America, and Would You Believe It? Her fiction includes the anthology Fisher's Ghost and Other Stories; the novel Hits & Mrs.; and the short stories Unforeseen Circumstances; Don't Leave Me; Welcome Home; The Dark Road; I Am Me; Room for One More: Lord Dufferin's Tale; The Screaming Skull; The Way We Weren't; Leap of Faith (The Guardian Angel); and Oliver & Olivia.A host of the popular science podcast Monster Talk, she has spent many years investigating urban legends and folklore. A Doctor of Linguistics, she has taught at several universities in the United States and Australia. She was formerly a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently a researcher at Griffith University. Karen was born in Sydney, Australia, and she currently lives in Denver, Colorado.

Book preview

Welcome Home

(A Short Story)

By Karen Stollznow

Copyright © Karen Stollznow 2019

All Rights Reserved

www.karenstollznow.com

Front cover design: Matthew Baxter

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Also by Karen Stollznow

Short Stories:

I Am Me

Don’t Leave Me

Unforeseen Circumstances

Other Titles:

Would You Believe It?

Hits & Mrs.

God Bless America

Haunting America

Language Myths, Mysteries and Magic

Welcome home! Henry Hodder said with a flourish of his hand as the lonely farmhouse came into view.

"It’s certainly homely," observed his wife Gertie.

"It’s charming," he countered.

Their motorcar pulled up outside the little cottage that sat on the outskirts of the town of Uralla, in rural New South Wales, Australia. The cottage was painted a cheerful blue colour, and at its entrance was a leadlight door featuring a brightly painted kookaburra. The surrounding open spaces seemed to stretch on forever, the rocky red earth punctuated by grassy hills and bushland. Tall eucalyptus trees encircled the property, their leaves fluttering in the summer wind.

It’s got a pond…and a creek! cried their 12-year-old daughter Fanny.

Full of veins of gold, added Henry hopefully.

He had left his job as a merchant