The Journeys of Mason Night: Night Meets Moon

By Linden Mize

Mason Night is eleven years old. He has never known his father or traveled to a far-off place. He hasnt done many things, but he knows his mother and grandfather love him. What he doesnt know is how much his life is about to change.

His mother has met a man from England named Mr. Neil Moon, a famous actor, and theyve fallen in love. Now Mason finds out that hes going to have to move to England, to live on Neils family estate. Although hes nervous being in a new place, learning British slang, and starting in a new school, he soon finds himself making discoveries and going on unexpected adventures in his new home. He makes new friends and begins to get comfortable. Nothing could prepare him, though, for meeting an actual ghost--or finding out that the ghost might need his help.

In this novel, an eleven-year-old boy moves from New York to an estate in England where he makes new friends--both living people and spirits who are long dead.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Mar 23, 2016
• ISBN: 9781480822481

Linden Mize

Linden Mize grew up in Illinois and moved to Missouri at the age of twenty. She lives with her husband and son. She writes in hope of sharing a story with others and making the world a little bit better.

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Copyright © 2016 Linden G Ziegler.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-2246-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-2247-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-2248-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015916179

Archway Publishing rev. date: 3/23/2016

To God, for everything he has done for me.

To Chance, for all his help and believing in me.

To Walter, for being understanding.

To Mom, Dad, Kevin, and Drew, for loving me and giving me the best life ever growing up, plus letting me be myself growing up. With love forever and a big thank you.

To my last grandparent, Blanche, or Nanny, as we call her. Thanks for your time, stories, love, and hugs.

To the rest of my wonderful family, friends, and beloved ones, thanks for sharing some of your life, stories, and dreams with me.

To a good friend, Alex Hawkins. He is one of God’s many angels upon this earth. I’ve been so lucky to meet so many of them in my lifetime.

To all the good souls that have touched my life every day, even just for a moment, thanks.

To all my beloved animals on the farm, and to strays tossed into a ditch, dropped on the road or fields by our house, or knocked out of the sky during a storm, and to those that crawled into the garden to have a snack or that swam about in a fish tank or freely in a pond or creek, and to those that I had a glimpses of as they freely roamed through the woods-every one of you, down through my living years. God bless you all for the wonderful memories that are embedded in my heart, mind, and soul. I’m so grateful for you showing me what life and death meant at a very early age. Loving and taking care of some of you taught me so much, and has supported me in all that I do. God has truly blessed me in every possible way.

To my cat, Oreo-we call him Oree-for just being you and staying up through the night as I worked on this book.

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

—Matthew 7:1–2

Contents

Chapter 1 The Love Bug Bites Ouch!

Chapter 2 The Crazy Move

Chapter 3 The Flight

Chapter 4 A Fish out of Water

Chapter 5 The History Tour

Chapter 6 To the Estate

Chapter 7 The Staff

Chapter 8 The Maps

Chapter 9 The Session in Tea

Chapter 10 The First Night in My New Room

Chapter 11 A Meeting of a Ghostly Friend

Chapter 12 A New School with a New Friend

Chapter 13 The Dinner

Chapter 14 Another New Client

Chapter 15 The Lake

Chapter 16 The Well

Chapter 17 The Lie

Chapter 18 Sheer Determination

Chapter 19 A New Furry Friend

Chapter 20 The Meeting

Chapter 21 Ascend

Chapter 22 The Deep Hole

Chapter 23 Bee Afraid of the Night

Chapter 24 The Wake-Up Call

Chapter 25 My First kiss

Chapter 26 Return of Night and Moon

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1

The Love Bug Bites

Ouch!

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D o you ever consider why things happen? If not, you will once you hear my story. But first, a little bit about me. My name is Mason Night. I’m eleven years old. My hair, a deep dark brown, hangs over my ears and is long in the back and short in the front. My eyes are dark brown too. I’m five one and still growing. It is summer, and I’m tan from mowing yards and riding my bike to a rental property three blocks from my house. It sits on Twenty-Fourth Street in Flushing, New York, which is part of Queens. My grandpa owns the property. It’s an apartment building that has a pool. He lets my friends Jim and Nick use it too if we all go there together. We play in the memorial park that’s a street over from our house. It has a football field, baseball field, and tennis courts too. My school is called Public School 21; it is right on the other side of the park. I go to Scout camps and just hang around a ten-block area with my fri ends.

When I was three years old, my father took off and left my mother and me, never to be seen or heard from again. I’ve been told he was a cruel man. He never wanted to visit me or send a gift, not even a card on my birthday. A while back, my grandpa Ivan Moss was watching me, while Mom was out of town for work, and I overheard him talking on the phone with one of his friends. He was talking about my dad, Jeff. He said my father had left us to follow his dream of being an artist. I wanted to learn more, so I tried to be quiet so I could hear more of what he had to say. It didn’t work.

As I tried to move slowly into the room, Grandpa heard me and shut his mouth tight, just as a clam would do if startled. He changed the phone conversation quickly. I learned more reasons for my father’s abandonment when I became older. Once again, it was because I overheard a phone call. Eavesdropping can become a very bad habit and a source of information that you may wish you had never heard. I’ll explain more about that later.

I need to tell you something about Grandpa. He is the greatest. He was born in a farmhouse near Red Bud, Illinois.

He said he wanted to see more of the world than central Illinois, so he joined the Navy and was then stationed in California. He claimed that his stint as a SEAL and the discipline it demanded made a man out of him. Grandpa served several tours of duty before returning home to Red Bud. He decided to travel a little more, so he bought a ticket and flew to New York. On a whim, he took a ferry to Ellis Island to have a look at the Statue of Liberty, and his life was changed forever. Sitting on a bench at the statue, he saw a young woman with orange-brown hair and beautiful dark- brown eyes with flecks of green. She was wearing a stylish black dress with a white sweater. But what caught his attention was her quiet crying. He walked up and asked her what was wrong and if he could help. She looked up at him, and he gazed down at her. Their eyes met, and that’s all it took. It was love at first sight, he had told me.

That’s how he met my grandmother and fell in love. He must have been a very attractive man, because even today, he still has older ladies bringing baked goodies to him, and wanting him to go places with them. He’s trim and six feet tall, with salt and pepper hair and a country accent. He wears silver wire-framed glasses to read and a cap and T-shirt with jeans unless he’s going somewhere nice. Then he wears a suit and tie or his dress uniform that still fits after all this time. He’s sixty-eight but looks and acts like he’s fifty. He made many smart investments in stocks, bonds, and rental properties. He had a great job at a top-notch corporation, and he still works there part-time.

My grandpa bought the house Mom and I live in. Originally, it belonged to his friend who moved to Paris, France, to help his daughter, she owns a shop there. Grandpa wanted to give the house to Mom, but she insisted on paying rent until it was paid off. She doesn’t know that he takes her money and deposits it in an account for my college fund. He told me to zip my lip and keep it to myself.

Did I mention that he lives just four blocks over from Mom and me?

It’s just the two of us in our house. My mom’s name is Susan. She’s a very smart, happy, upbeat lady with a job she enjoys. She’s about five foot six, petite, and very pretty and tan. She lies out on a raft in the wading pool in the backyard when she has time. Her hair is long and tumbling. I don’t know the true color; it’s whatever she feels like, but right now it’s a dirty blonde. No matter-she looks good whatever color it is. Her eyes are brown with flecks of green in them, hazel maybe, but she wears different-colored contacts sometimes because she wants to, I guess. She always smells nice and usually wears jewelry. She’s particularly fond of a gold cross necklace that her mother gave her when she was young. Mom always says that it brings her luck, and the luckiest thing she ever got was me! So like I said, it was just Mom and me, and that’s just the way I like it. We were getting along just fine until Mr. Neil Moon came into our lives.

Mr. Neil Moon has dark brown hair with hazel eyes. He’s six foot one, tall, and slim. His nose is long and large, but it looks okay on him. His hands and feet are big too. Neil is one of those big-shot stage and screen actors. Sometimes he directs a play or movie, and he’s been known to act and direct in a production at the same time. He’s British, but he often works in the States. He has many fans around the world. I’ve seen his fans, and some of them are scary. The girls chase him, scream at him, and plead with him to let them have his baby. Neil has an English, accent that makes his voice sound throaty and even more appealing. He always smiles, cracks a joke, or teases people when he first meets them, but then he studies a person in silence once the ice is broken. It’s almost like he’s trying to decide if he can trust a person to keep a secret, or become a loyal friend, but I think it’s an act. He’s really someplace else in his mind and not thinking of the person he met at all. He’s usually wearing a suit, but sometimes it is a pair of jeans, a sport coat, a dress shirt, and tie, with only the top button fastened on his jacket. I wonder why he doesn’t fasten the other button.

I guess you’ve got the picture by now. I don’t know why he picked my mom. My mom is a makeup artist, one of those people who are paid to make sure the actor’s makeup is on right. They met on a movie set, but he could have had any girl who was working on the movie.

Neil chose my mom. It happened out of the blue, and my life started sliding downhill after that. Mom and I were no longer alone. Mom had been bitten by the love bug. I felt like a stranger in my own home. Neil entered the picture and started acting like a father figure or something of the sorts. He may impress my mom but, not me. I’m sort of like him in some ways; I have to know you before I trust you!

I just had my eleventh birthday party. It was great! Best of all, Neil was out of town, so it was my special day all day long. But I will say this about him - he does give great gifts. He also called to wish me happy birthday; he sang it in French over the phone with a bunch of people who know my mom and him. He was in some theater production with them in France. I told them, It is way cool to do this for me! I thanked Neil, for the fifty inch flat screen tv, and the two man tent. Great gifts, but I was glad he was gone. It was just Mom, Grandpa, and some dear friends I love, with me for the rest of my special day. My happiness didn’t last long. Neil was back at our place in less than three weeks, and he’s still sleeping in my toy room, the spare bedroom. Time is flying by so quickly!

Chapter 2

The Crazy Move

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F ive months after Mr. Moon first met my mom, I was walking home from school, enjoying the sunshine and cool breeze, when I saw a big For Sale sign on our lawn. It made me so mad I wanted to scream. What’s wrong with Mom? For all she knows, Mr. Moon could be using her. Anyway, they were both sitting on our porch steps, waiting for me to come home. I already knew what it was about; I could see the sign. I walked up the sidewalk toward them. In unison, they told me to sit down beside them on the old, painted concrete steps. Mom was in her red T-shirt and jeans. She put her arms around me and hugged me. Neil wore a black T-shirt and jeans, and they were both barefoot. At least he wasn’t wearing that one-buttoned suit ja cket!

I asked, Why is the house for sale? in an annoyed tone. I could feel my anger start to build. I stared at Neil, wishing I could destroy him. He must have felt my eyes trying to burn a hole right through him; I was furious! How dare he try to take my mom away and then rob me of my home! I wished he would leave and stay far away from us both. But for now, they were both saying, There is nothing wrong.

I yelled, there’s a For Sale sign out there on the lawn, and there’s nothing wrong? I was pointing at the sign, waiting to get in big trouble or grounded or have my rear end swatted. But I didn’t care. I was already hurting inside my heart, and it felt like it was ready to detonate.

Neil said, I love both of you and want you both to come and live with me at my home outside of London, England. It’s an estate that has been in my family for many generations. He tried to put his hand on my back, but I jerked away. He moved his hand away, and I know he felt that anger inside of me. He looked at me as if he was hurt by what I had done. Tears started to run down my face. I jumped up and ran inside. Once I reached the doorway, I slammed the door and ran to my bedroom. I slammed that door too. I fell across my bed, but I could still hear. Neil asking Mom, if he should try to talk to me. Mom said, No, leave him alone so he can have time to calm down.

Neil replied, Susan, I don’t want to hurt him.

I know you don’t, Neil. Just let him calm down, Mom answered.

I lay across my bed and watched the front-door monitor on my bedside table. Grandpa had installed cameras on the front, back, and basement doors after my mom went on a couple of dates with a real nut. Grandpa was afraid the man might try to force his way into the house. He put a monitor in my room and one in Mom’s room so we could see who was at the doors. I reached over and turned off the monitor, because I didn’t want to see or hear any more. Neil seemed like a nice guy, but it was too soon for me to decide. Besides, he was trying to take me to a strange country. I was still trying to calm down, but the anger and sorrow kept crashing back over me like huge waves.

What can I do? I’m just a kid, and they sure didn’t ask about my thoughts. I would be torn away from everything that I had grown to love-my grandpa, friends, teachers, and my church. Why did they do this to me? Had I been bad or something? My life sucks. I said my prayers and fell asleep.

The next five days went by quickly. The last day had come. While I was at school taking books back and saying good-byes, the movers came and packed away what things we had left. Mom gave away a lot of our things or sold them in the yard sale we had a couple of days before. After I came home from school, I put my two goldfish in a bag with some water from the aquarium in the living room. The movers took the aquarium right after I’d removed my fish, Fanwort and Loosestrife. I told Mom that I was going to take my fishes to the dentist’s office.

She said, All right, I’ll see you later. I love you, and do be careful. Call me on your cell phone when you arrive there and when you leave. Don’t forget to call me. Please leave your phone on. She was wearing a pretty wine-colored dress with a light weight black sweater, black high heels, little, gold teardrop-shaped earrings, and the gold cross necklace her mother had given her long ago.

Is that what you’re wearing, Mom? I asked.

It was until I spilled coffee on it, Mason, she said.

I told her, I love you, and you sure look pretty. I turned around to hug her, trying not to make waves for my fish, Fan and Loose, as they swam inside their bag of water.

Mason? my mother called out, standing in our empty house. Her voice sounded so loud.

I said, Yeah, Mom?

Don’t stay for more than a couple of hours. Neil will be here soon. Don’t forget, I love you, she said. She had a sad smile on her face; tears came to her eyes and started to run down her face. She turned away so I couldn’t see her.

Okay, I’ll be home in a while, I promised.

Then I opened the front door and left with Fanwort and Loosestrife. I headed toward the dentist’s office, following the sidewalk where I had learned to ride my bike. Memories started coming back to me of things that had happened on this street, and tears were falling from my eyes again. Surely I would run out of tears sometime soon, I hoped. Then I arrived at Dr. Lance Tullock’s office. He was my dentist, and I knew Fanwort and Loosestrife would be okay with him. I asked him, Can I go ahead and put my fishes in the tank to float?

Yes, that will be fine, Mason.

I called Mom on my cell phone and told her I made it to the office.

Dr. Tullock was a tall man with short brown hair and dark blue eyes. His voice was deep