The Ghost of Sandy Creek

By Claudia Schmidt Liess

The Ghost of Sandy Creek is a fictional adventure story of two girls becoming friends as they try to solve a mystery. It wasnt easy for Shelly to be transplanted from her busy life in New York with her famous mother to the country in the middle of Nebraska. She was going to have to spend the summer with her dad, who she hardly knew. She knew that her summer would be terribly boring.

As soon as she arrived, she met Zeta, the neighbor and together they set out to find the truth about the legend of the ghost of Sandy Creek.

Shelly and Zeta share their many adventures while trying to settle the questions of the legend. Is there really a ghost? Was there ever one? What did the flute music mean? Did the ghost stalk the river now?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493179633

Book preview

The Ghost of Sandy Creek

Claudia Schmidt Liess

Copyright © 2014 by Claudia Schmidt Liess.

ISBN:      Softcover   978-1-4931-7964-0

                eBook        978-1-4931-7963-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 03/22/2014

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris LLC

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

605100

Contents

The Bus Ride

Rachelle Arrives

The River Ranch

Getting Acquainted

The Neighbors

Flame

Sleepover

Mother Arrives

Lost

Getting Even

Sweet Revenge

Sunday Dinner

Confession

Mushroom Hunting

The Haunted House

The Pit

The Search

The Ghost

The Truth at Last

I dedicate this book to my dear family and friends that shared in my summer adventures.

The Bus Ride

Rachelle Elizabeth Browning rubbed her tired eyes and stared out of the window of the large Greyhound bus and regretted her decision to accompany her aunt to Nebraska to see her dad. Her Aunt Lucy was afraid to fly. Shelly thought that it would be a great adventure for her and her Aunt Lucy to travel together to Nebraska. After all, they were practically going to the same place from New York City. Aunt Lucy was going to Parker, the next town down the road from Sandy Creek. Shelly’s dad lived on a dusty little road south of the town of Sandy Creek. If she shut her eyes, she could see in her mind the cozy little cottage nestled snuggly in the midst of the tall, whispering cottonwoods. Her grandmother lived fairly close along the same dusty road. It had large trees offering the welcome shade on a hot, sunny day.

The things she remembered most about her grandmother were her curly white hair, her love for telling stories, her contagious laugh, and her black S. A. S. shoes. She loved to be around people and she talked and talked. Shelly got the feeling that her mother, Margaret Elizabeth, was ashamed of her, but Shelly liked her. She was never afraid to put her arms around Shelly and hug her. Even her home was comfortable. From the open windows, you could hear the bees buzzing and the birds singing. There was something about Grandmother’s home that felt peaceful and calm, like a walk in Central Park on a lazy summer day.

Shelly would be spending the summer with her dad and her grandmother, Grandma Gertie, while her mother, Margaret Elizabeth, was shooting a movie in Hollywood. Her mother was becoming famous and Shelly was proud of her mother’s singing voice and she admired the way her mother handled her acting career and still had some time left for Shelly.

Her parents had separated over three years ago, so Shelly saw her dad when he came for an occasional visit. Naturally, she had dreams of him holding her and loving her, but he seemed so far away. Shelly didn’t feel comfortable with the new arrangements for her summer. She didn’t feel like she even really knew her father and she felt that he didn’t really know her. She felt all grown up now. She wasn’t a little girl in pigtails like he liked to think of her.

The bus swayed as they sped on down the endless road toward the setting sun. Shelly had been on the bus riding with Aunt Lucy for a full day and she was getting tired of sitting, playing games, and watching the landscape fly by. She did enjoy the stories that her Aunt Lucy told her about growing up with her dad on the farm. They had cows to milk, eggs to gather, and pigs to feed, and dogs and cats to play with. Even though they had chores to do, they had a great time growing up together. Aunt Lucy was a year and a half older than her dad, so they had worked and played together. Many times, in the heat of the day, they would go down to the river and swim. It was an unwritten rule that they should never go to the river and swim alone, that was because of the ghost of Sandy Creek. Aunt Lucy told Shelly of hearing the ghost one hot humid day. Her dad and Lucy were swimming in their favorite spot when the ghost warned them of an approaching storm. They had just gotten home in time to race to the storm cellar before the tornado struck. Bill, her dad, said that it was the ghost that had warned them, but Lucy was sure that it was her guardian angel keeping them safe.

Do you really believe in ghosts and angels? Shelly scoffed at the idea. My mom says that is just a story to keep the kids in line and that no one really believes in the ghost.

I still do believe that some presence told us to get home so we would be safe. There are too many stories that other people talk about for me not to believe. After a summer with your dad, perhaps you will change your mind.

Don’t count on it. I am not gullible like a lot of other kids. My mother told me that believing in lots of things that I cannot see or feel is just not very smart.

Maybe we can talk about it before you go home. Lucy smiled. Are you getting hungry? I know that you are tired of sitting here on the bus. I really do appreciate you going with me. I know that it is silly to be so afraid to fly but that is one fear that I haven’t been able to push aside. I guess I am a fraidy cat.

Shelly sighed. Her stomach growled and she felt hot and sticky. I just wish that we were there. I want a shower and I want to be able to lie down on some nice cool sheets. How much longer will we be stuck on this bus? Shelly felt hot, sweaty and completely out of sorts.

We won’t get to Nebraska until tomorrow toward noon. It takes a long time to travel half way across the United States. I’m sure that we will stop soon. We can stretch our legs and get a good meal then. I do have a couple of candy bars in my purse. Want one? We won’t tell your mom that you ate some chocolate. I find that it helps my mood immensely.

My mother won’t allow me to eat chocolate or any of that junk food. She wants me to be a model with perfect skin and a perfect figure.

Aunt Lucy shrugged her shoulders. Suit yourself. I imagine we all have decisions to make for our dreams to come true. Do you really want to be a model?

Shelly squirmed uncomfortably. "Mom said that I would be a great model, that is, if I stayed thin and practiced walking like a young lady. I really don’t want her to be ashamed of me. Dad acts like he would rather have me fat and ugly so the boys wouldn’t bother me and I could get a good education. What good did Dad’s education do for him? All he does is paint pictures. He could do that without going to college. My Mom is the one that brings