The Sheer Curtain: Earth Visitors

By Maria Elena Garza

This short novel is dedicated to my wonderful family: my children, Cathy, Fernando, Phillip; my grandchildren Jozette, Alaena, Phoenix; and my husband, Max.

The novel is especially written for an audience of young readers or adults who choose to have a childs imagination.

It was such fun for me to develop the characters and scenes of this mystery. It all starts with a womans silhouette that appears on the third-floor window of this old Victorian mansion. No one in the town of Sneila has ever seen her except when she stands behind the sheer curtain.

The children of the town look forward to Halloween every year. The children together walk down the dirt road to the mansion that sits at the edge of town behind enormously tall trees and a black iron fence. Every Halloween, the children know that, in front of the mansion outside the gate, there will be a mysterious white cauldron filled with magic candies for each child. The candies are in baggies with each childs name written on the front of the baggie. How does she know every childs name? Where does this candy come from? The children agree that the candy is very different, like its out of this world. These are only two of the mysteries that exist in the town of Sneila.

Much mystery lives in the town of Sneila. The number of people in this town never changes. When one person dies, another is born. People who die are not buried. The number 8 appears throughout the town. Sometimes you have to add two digits to find the 8. The infinity symbol appears throughout the novel.

Magic turtles surface and communicate with the two main characters, Samantha and Victoria. Flickering lights, hidden doors, basement, baskets, spaceships, magic turtles, mysterious bubbles, candles, and fairies create a magical kingdom.

Wrinkles and gray hair are witnesses to times past.

The surprise ending is sure to give you goose bumps!

Other books from the author include the following:
Sleepy Tears Laughing Tears
Sleepy Tears Miss You Tears
Gods Love is Real (poetry book)
Friends and Angels (poetry book)
The Secret Meeting of the Sworceracs

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524501365

Maria Elena Garza

Maria Elena Garza is a retire school principal. I adore my three grand children and value sharing stories about when I was a little girl.

Book preview

CHARACTERS

CHAPTER 1

Courthouse, City Hall, and Notebooks

S am and I walked up the eight stairs came to the landing then walked up another eight stairs. There was the address in front of us 800 Central Rd. Samantha has been my best friend since we were in elementary school(I call her Sam.) I opened the heavy entrance wooden door; it had carvings that appeared to be human faces, birds and infinity shapes throughout. There were letters carved and scattered throughout the door. We could see the letter’s s,r,a,t and some letters were doubled. We had no idea what that was. The main foyer had limited decorations. A few wall hangings showing the picture of the first mayor of Sneila, the picture of the first chief of police, and a picture of Mr. Morson who managed city hall and the courthouse. An enormous wooden staircase stood at the entrance in the center of the vast first floor. A chain hung from one huge wooden hand rail to the other hand rail and a sign Do Not Enter hung from the center. No one I knew had ever gone upstairs. We could see many picture frames hanging on each side of the walls. Who were the people in those pictures Sam and I asked each other. The ones we could see we couldn’t identify. We continued to walk around the staircase. Behind the staircase in the foyer was a door that had a sign on it Basement Entrance - Do Not Enter. I saw Mr Morson looking at us. The basement door was facing the long wooden counter where Mr. Morson conducted business.

Mr. Morson was the only person who worked in the courthouse and took care of city hall issues. Mr. Morson knew everything and everyone who lived in Sneila. He knew about all the properties in Sneila. It sounds like a lot of work for one person but there was very little to no new business in Sneila. The population remained the same for 800 years. When one person died a newborn arrived. People remained in their homes until they died then another family member lived there until he died and on and on and on. Properties were not ever for sale. There were 530 humans in Sneila. Oh yea then there was Ms Craine who lived in the beautiful mansion at the end of town. No one had ever seen her. Her story comes later. The number of humans in Sneila never changed one died one was born.

The Courthouse was closed from 12:32-1:34 for lunch and at 4:31 the courthouse closed for the day. Mr. Morson lived in a room in the courthouse; if something came up we knew where to find him. If someone died he would note it on the records. When someone was born he would add the name to the family notebook. Mr. Morson kept family records together. He had 531 very large notebooks. One for each family. There wasn’t a cemetery in Sneila, everyone who died was creameated. The ashes were kept by the family until they were ready to place the container with the ashes in the ratsrat room located in the courthouse basement. At least that’s what we kids were told when we were young children. Much later we found out that there was more to it; that wasn’t the entire truth!

Sneila business street had one bakery, one general store, one fabric store, one shoe store, one grocery store, one doctor and one couthouse/city hall. All stores were made of wood. Everyone in Sneila walked everywhere. My mom, myself and my siblings would go to town once or twice a year. We had everything we needed at home. There was one huge building Sneila’s terminal located in the outskirts of the town. We don’t know what that building was used for; but the building was huge blocks long.

The kids in town said that spaceships land in the terminal. Steven