Frederick and the Enchanted Garden

By Marcela Paz de Gargani

Frederick is a young boy who lives very happily in an old apartment building with a garden in the back. He spent most of his childhood playing in the garden. One day, he finds out that they will have to move. The building is scheduled to be demolished where a highway will be built. Frederick is devastated and refuses to let that happen. For this, he engages himself in a mission to save the garden.

The garden has many inhabitants, and some are the legendary trees, the beautiful flowers, and the animals that came to live there. They are all from different origins but together in sharing their vivid lives. They have served for years to protect each other and protect the children while playing there. The garden also kept all memories and secrets of all the people who set foot in there.

In this journey, Frederick meets Eloise, who will become his partner and friend. Eloise and Frederick love nature and animals. They both engage in the mission of saving the garden. This experience will help them grow up together and appreciate the world better. What they don’t know is that this friendship is the beginning of many adventures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781532025662

Marcela Paz de Gargani

I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on October 11, 1963 in a typical middle class family of four. My father was born in Spain in the 1900. My mother, born in Argentina, was the youngest of 11 siblings born in Italy. My brother, a bohemian artist, 19 years older than me, left the house when I was just 13. He got married and had 2 daughters then moved to Spain a year later. It was very hard to grow up far from him but later in life we recover that bond again by mail, electronic mail, and through the phone. We keep in touch and I know I will see him again soon. He writes too and has some very good poems I remember reading after he left. I grew up in an apartment building in a very traditional neighbor near an important train Station. There were 6 apartments in every floor. I knew every person in that building. We were like a big family. I remember, a soldier or a marine who died in war. I also recall the people upstairs because they used to send candy from the balcony with a rope or a thread. They loved kids and they would spoil us. The most important neighbor was the one next door. It was also a family of 4 but the man died when I was very little and I can't remember much about him. However, the widow became like a second mother for me. She had 2 daughters who both became teachers. One got married and the other one stayed with her mother. The children born from the daughter who got married were like my brothers. We grew up together and played all the time. Their relatives were like my relatives. They loved me and I loved them. I could not imagine my childhood without them. They are and will always be my family although we are apart now. From kinder garden to High School, I studied in the Institute Lenguas Vivas, a very well known language school in Buenos Aires. There, I learned French as my second language which became the source of my original career after high school. I took a bachelor in education to become a teacher of French language. The bachelor program for Education in Argentina is a broad program. I had 4 years of Psychology, 1 year of Logic,

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FREDERICK

AND THE

ENCHANTED GARDEN

MARCELA PAZ DE GARGANI

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FREDERICK AND THE ENCHANTED GARDEN

Copyright © 2016 Marcela Paz de Gargani.

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.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-5320-2565-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-2566-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020919100

iUniverse rev. date: 09/30/2020

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 The News

Chapter 2 The Surprise

Chapter 3 The Enchanted Garden

Chapter 4 A New Friend

Chapter 5 The Mirrors

Chapter 6 The Encounter

Chapter 7 A New World

Chapter 8 A New Life

Chapter 9 The Return

Chapter 10 What is Next?

About The Author

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CHAPTER 1

THE NEWS

Frederick got up on a crisp winter morning to go to school knowing that he wouldn’t be in his house for much longer. The night before, he heard his parents talking about moving. They were looking for new apartments but he knew it would never be the same. The house was going to be demolished. The City Government was planning to start the construction of a highway and one of the bridges would have to pass by the apartment building where he was born. All his childhood memories would be buried underneath a highway.

This was a very nice apartment building with marble floors and a beautiful staircase that would take you to a 1st level and to a terrace at the top. The building was home for 8 families. There were 4 apartments in the ground floor and 4 in the first level. The building had a very tall ceiling. It was very nice to look down the corridor and see the view of the garden at the end. In the long corridor, there was also a maintenance room with a door and a little window. That room was built underneath a huge marble staircase. It was a very dark and scary, but a nice room to play in. That room had a window that would face Frederick’s indoor patio. Often, he would try to get in through that window but he would not fit.

The garden was like an oasis in the city. It had beautiful flowers and trees and was the heart of the building. Everyone in the place had magical stories and exciting adventures to remember. However, the enchanted garden, as Frederick would see it was going to be destroyed. All of those adventures will be buried with the garden. Everyone was