Annie's Curse

By Juanita Ratz

A book of mystery, danger, and suspense as a young girl tries to solve the meaning of the ghostly apparitions that appear to her in her sleep as she struggles to be happy in her new life and with her newly found love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 4, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512740417

Juanita Ratz

I have read books all my life and know what keeps a persons interest. I was a newspaper reporter for a couple of years until the business folded. I reported on board meetings, but a personal column, which I introduced to the paper was the most enjoyable. People liked to see their name in print and it helped sell copies. I enjoy composing books with mystery and intrigue in them which keep you wanting to read up to a surprise ending. One little thing can spark a whole book from my imagination. The book I am having printed I actually wrote thirty years ago, but never did anything with it until now. I am married and my husband and I owned a bar for seventeen years until we retired to our present address in 2013. I enjoy working in my yard and keeping active.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Fantasy or Insight

I am truly a princess, she mumbled drowsily, half in and half out of sleep. In her mind, she saw the fine clothes, racks of shoes, and matching handbags. No, wait. There’s something wrong. These fine things should not be here. Ah, now I see it. This is how it should be. She sank once again into her dream world.

She imagined waking from a gigantic bed with a frilly canopy above and just lying there, snuggling under the thick, warm comforter. Across the room was an entire wall of closet doors. Slowly, she got up from bed and walked over to them. After throwing them wide open, she selected one of the many expensive dresses that hung there. She also chose a pair of shoes and a matching handbag that complemented the dress.

I’m worried about that girl. There’s something wrong with her. Her father’s voice interrupted her delightful fantasy.

In a haze she heard her mother answer, No, there’s nothing wrong with her. She lives in an imaginary world to escape the meager existence we give her. Lord knows I’d worry about her if she didn’t know the difference between her dreams and reality. Let her have her dreams. Maybe someday they will come true.

What is she talking about? Annie questioned, puzzled.

She knew she should get up, but she didn’t want to, so she forced herself back into her imaginary life. A limousine was outside, the chauffeur patiently waiting. She didn’t care. The maid had drawn her bath, and she intended to soak in the luxurious bubbles.

After dressing, she carefully descended the long staircase. The butler was there to open the massive wooden doors.

Walter, she commanded the chauffeur, take me to Millie’s. My ball gown is ready.

Annie, come and eat! she heard her father calling.

Yuck. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of cabbage and potatoes, but she knew dessert was rice pudding, which she did like.

After eating, she left the table to wander back to her tiny room. Along the way, she heard her father say, It’s unnatural. All she does is read and dream. She has no friends to run around with.

Leave her be, her mother answered. Soon enough she will have to deal with the real world. Let her have her fairy-tale life while she can.

She was twelve years old then.

Annie retained her dreams and fantasies as she grew older, and at her graduation from high school, her mother said, You are a woman now. There’s nothing for you here. Go. Make your dreams come true.

Annie applied for and was hired as a file clerk at one of the biggest businesses in Milwaukee.

Returning home to pack her few belongings, she told her parents she had found a room in a boarding house for women. It’s not the best part of town, but it’s close to work. It’ll do for now.

Working diligently, she was soon promoted to a secretarial position. She found a nice apartment on the south side of Milwaukee that was close to a bus stop and enrolled in a small business course at night school. As she was an accomplished seamstress, she hoped to open her own shop someday, but she didn’t know about business at all.

She was happy in her new life, but then she was suddenly called home by her mother’s untimely death. She realized she would have to stay, as her father had suffered a stroke some time before and could not take care of himself. Her dreams would have to be put on hold … once again.

The funeral was small. Only a handful of neighbors her mother had talked with were there—the lady across the street whom her mother had always said was nosey and a few others.

Annie remembered how her mother had believed in her and the conversations with her father. It had seemed like only yesterday. I wish it was, she cried silently. Then Mother would still be here.

She watched tearfully as the coffin was lowered into the ground.

It was a lonely life, especially considering how miserable her childhood had been. She had never made any friends at school, and though she had been a bright student, everyone thought she was simpleminded. They had taunted her for a while but then just ignored her. She didn’t care then, and she didn’t care now.

You shouldn’t drink so much, she scolded her father as she tried to wrestle the bottle of whiskey away from him.

What do I have left? he cried, tears clouding his eyes. My job is gone because of my health … and now Mama.

Annie stopped fighting him and retreated to her room.

Falling asleep as she was reading a book, her fantasy came back to her. She was the mistress of a huge mansion, giving the servants orders and keeping the household running smoothly. She was busy with charity events, luncheons, the opera, and balls, and all the while, her handsome husband was beside her. She was deeply in love and enormously happy.

Awakened by voices outside, she jumped out of bed and rushed to the window. Rubbing her eyes, she thought she was still dreaming. A sleek black limousine was parked on the road in front of the broken-up concrete that led to their house.

I am awake, she said wondrously.

She was about to run downstairs when a movement caught her eye. A tall, distinguished gentleman in a dark suit was walking toward the car, and it was very apparent he had come from their house.

Now she ran downstairs, full of questions for her father, but she stopped suddenly when she saw him sitting there, his head in his hands and his body wracked by sobs! With concern overshadowing her curiosity, she gently cradled him.

He finally lifted his tear-stained face, and in his soft, brown eyes, there was the saddest look. He said, I’m going to lose you too.

I don’t know what you are talking about, Annie said, I’m not going anywhere.

Ah Annie, you don’t understand. Your hopes and dreams can come true now.

No, I don’t understand. Who was that man anyhow?

His face took on a dreamy expression as he began explaining. It was thirty years ago I met your mother. She was your age then—nineteen. The sky had been overcast that day—gray and lifeless—but when she smiled, the world brightened. She was so beautiful. I knew I shouldn’t talk to her, because she was the daughter of the master of the house, and I was only a handyman, an immigrant from Scotland. After that, she would sneak away, and we would meet in a small clearing in the woods quite a distance from the mansion.

Annie was listening in amazed disbelief as he continued. "I knew she had many beaus and to love her would be futile, but I couldn’t help it. We laughed together a lot. There was always such a sadness in her eyes though.

"One day she said to me, ‘Harvey, I am in love with you. You make me laugh and smile. Let’s run away from here, away from this useless existence.’

"‘Sarah, do you know what you’re saying? What about all of this—your fine clothes, your beaus, your style of life? I cannot give you this. All I can give you is my love,’ I told her.

"She said, ‘That’s all I need to be happy.’

"So we arranged to meet in the clearing one night. She brought one suitcase with essentials, and we left together, never to return. All those years, she never complained. I knew we had a difficult life together, but she kept saying, ‘Without love, there is no life. I am happy.’

I knew that wasn’t entirely true all the time, as we struggled when money was scarce, and I could see the aggravation.

Confused, Annie said, Okay. You’re telling me this, which I never knew anything about, but what does that have to do with our life now?

The man who just left is your grandfather’s lawyer—

Wait a minute, Annie interrupted. My grandfather?

Yes, he has kept track of our family for years. He was at your mother’s funeral, watching, but still too stubborn to let us know. Well, anyway, that lawyer, Mr. Robbins, advised me that your grandfather wants you to come live with him. He is dying and wants to get to know his only granddaughter.

Now her father said bitterly, I know what’s in his mind though. He wants to take you away from me just as I took his daughter from him!

I won’t go, Annie said stubbornly. I have to stay here and take care of you! Maybe you couldn’t give me money and pretty clothes. But you gave me love, and this is my home.

Annie’s father shook his head. You are so much like your mother, but you have to go. It’s been all arranged. A nurse will come and stay with me and take care of everything. Annie, I love you very much, and I will miss you. But this is your destiny. All those dreams you had—you knew. It was born in you. I don’t have much longer for this earth. You have your whole life ahead of you. You have to go and take what is rightfully yours, but if it doesn’t work out, you can always come home. This is what your mother would have wanted for you.

Annie had a week to spend with her father before she was expected at her grandfather’s mansion. She had to keep reminding herself of that. Father had said he was a very rich man.

The nurse who had been hired was a pleasant woman and very capable of taking care of his many needs. She was settled in before Annie left for her new life.

It was May 1970. Annie was waiting for a limousine to arrive and take her to meet a grandfather she had thought was dead. She didn’t want to go, but now she was beginning to feel a nervous anticipation for what awaited her.

The limousine arrived, and Annie could see the neighbor across the road peeking out of her window. Annie smiled. She knew the neighbor would be over to their house in a matter of minutes. Her mother had always said she was the worst on the block.

After saying her tearful good-byes, Annie walked out to where the chauffeur was waiting for her. He made sure she was comfortably settled inside before closing the door. Surprisingly, Annie felt relaxed in the limousine as if she had ridden in one many times before. It was uncanny.

On a sudden impulse, she flicked the button on the speaker, Excuse me, please.

Yes, Miss?

Would your name by any chance be Walter?

No, Miss. That was the chauffeur before me. My name is Niles.

Annie was a little unsettled by his answer, and pondering the meaning of it, she concluded that it was just a coincidence that the previous chauffeur had the same name as that of the one in her youthful dreams.

Now she sat back to take in the scenery. They had exited the freeway and were traveling on a country road. She knew the ride only took about an hour. She had been surprised to find her grandfather had lived so close, and she had not known anything about him. Morris—that had been her mother’s maiden name, but she had never connected it to this Morris!

The road they were traveling on had been steadily climbing. She had glimpsed a road sign that read, Sheboygan. Now the road flattened out for about a mile, she estimated, before they came to a tall stone wall with ornate iron gates.

Niles reached out of the window and opened a box. Annie saw him speaking on a telephone, and then the gates opened up for them to pass through.

The road wound around for about another mile through woods and deep ravines before passing through neatly pruned hedges. On the other side of these was an expansive green lawn, and Annie could see a mansion in the distance. She had arrived to her new and uncertain future!

The road finally ended in a circular drive by a long set of concrete steps, and on each side of these was a column on which a stone lion rested. The concrete appeared to be crumbling in spots, and the mansion, which was stone covered with ivy, appeared to have been there for centuries, but Annie knew this wasn’t so. Her father had given her a little of the history of the house and the family.

Although it was a hot day, Annie found herself shivering all of a sudden. She had never been here, but she knew she had seen this place before!

She dismissed it from her mind as the massive oak doors swung open, revealing a maid in a black uniform. She had short, curly dark hair, and she appeared to be around Annie’s age.

As she entered the huge foyer, Annie saw a tall, striking woman descending a long, marble staircase, her hand resting lightly on the banister. For just an instant, a vision of a much younger and more beautiful woman flashed into Annie’s mind, but she had an evil expression on her face.

Miss Annabelle, she said, your grandfather is anxious to meet you, but I’m afraid he is resting just now. When he wakes, you will be sent for. I am Elsa Hodges, the head housekeeper. If you have any problems or questions, you are to come to me. Now Lizzie will show you to your room, as I am sure you would like to freshen up.

She said all of this as if it had been rehearsed. There was no hint of a smile or warmth in her voice.

Thank you, Annie said politely before she followed the maid upstairs.

The long, dimly lit hallway had doors on either side. The maid showed her to the third one on the right and silently opened the door for her.

Would you like me to unpack your bags now or later? she asked Annie.

Noticing that her bags had been put in her room, Annie said, I can do my own unpacking.

Seeing the expression on Lizzie’s face, Annie explained, I’m just not used to having people do things for me.

Well, can I draw a bath for you? Lizzie