Frawny and the Family Secret

By Sonia Ruiz

The discovery of a mystery of great proportion in the eyes of a nine-year-old girl, and a family secret that she suspected existed since an early age, became her constant obsession. Was it her intuition or her hidden powers, unknown to her, that made her susceptible to an apparition and made her a hero to so many in her life? Frawny's determination and constant search for the mystery at the blue lake helped her find the truth of a twenty-five-year-old case and find some of its clues at an old abandoned mansion. An incredible instinct and a talent for details in our girl, Frawny, became a reliable source for Detective Carlson in his pursuit to find the real kidnapper and murderer. Her vision became her constant companion and one that would help her throughout her teenage life and into adulthood. In many ways, she became guardian to her family and friends, and prevented downfalls and tragedies. This is the story of a young girl that will make you wonder about the truth of the spiritual world. Is it factual or a mystical illusion in the mind of little Frawny?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644168790

Book preview

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Frawny and the Family Secret

Sonia C. Ruiz

Copyright © 2018 by Sonia C. Ruiz

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Writer’s Notes

This story is a work of pure fiction. The names, story characters, businesses, organizations, places, or events are the product of the writer’s imagination and are used fictitiously in the story with incidents only purely imaginary. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, and mentioned localities are entirely coincidental.

Part 1

The Beginning: Frawny and the Small Farm

In a small town in Virginia called Ashburn’s in the year 1922 lived a little girl named Frawny. She lived in a tiny farmhouse in the outskirt of the small town. She lived alone with her mother, Victoria, and her dog, Wolfy. Her father had passed away two years back and left them in a poor financial condition. Because her mother was always sick, her father did not want her to work outside her home, so she worked as a seamstress for people in town and for a neighbor named Frida Reigns.

Before her father, Alfred William Wellington, died, they lived in town and in a very modest house. Her father, with his low earning salary as an accountant, was not able to afford to buy clothing or any birthday gifts for her. When it came to Christmas and any other holidays, her mother used to make her drag dolls, or her father will make her handmade toys for her to play. Her mother made her new dresses out of the scraps of materials she had around. She only had a couple of pair of shoes, which needed fixing all the time.

Frawny was a very sweet and understanding little girl and never complained or asked for anything. She was always in a good mood and was always helping her mother and father with house chores. Frawny had very few friends in school, but the few she had were very nice to her and protected her from other kids that liked to tease and bully her. She never had a bad word even for those kids that used to tease her. After a while, because of her pleasant attitude toward them, they left her alone. She also helped many of these kids with their homework and schoolwork. Frawny was very smart, and teachers praised her for her schoolwork.

After Frawny’s father died, her mother went through his personal belonging and found a letter from a lawyer in Virginia City telling her husband about the death of his great-grandfather, Henry Alfred Wellington Sr. In addition to the letter, the lawyer sent a large envelope. In the large envelope, Victoria found a property deed of a small farm and a house in the outskirt of their town. The letter was letting her husband know that, as his great-grandfather’s only descendant, he had inherited this property along with an estate estimated at half a million dollars. It also stipulated that as a condition, he would have to live in the small farmhouse and take care of the property until his death or that of his descendants.

The estate consisted of a few properties in town as well as a bank account from which funds were to be distributed to the heir on a monthly basis, once the heir presented proof of identity. In the letter, it was confirmed that the will only mentioned Alfred as the sole heir. Victoria was totally surprised and wondered why her husband did not claim his inheritance at the time he received the news or why he did not do it once he was aware of his pending death, especially knowing that his wife and daughter will be left in a poor financial situation.

Victoria notified the lawyer, Mr. Kelley Bronson, as soon as she could. She received the reply with the instructions to go to the Property Claim Office in town with the deed to claim the property and to have them transfer the ownership to her name and to bring her husband’s death certificate with her as proof. After she made a few trips to the Property Claim Office, everything was in order and she was given the key to the small farmhouse, along with all the necessary papers. She was given instructions by Mr. Bronson to go to the local Central Bank and bring all her papers with her to the bank manager, Mr. Willower, that he, Mr. Bronson, as the estate attorney, gave the approval to transfer the estate funds to her name. He notified Mr. Willower to open a new account under Victoria Wellington after confirmation of identity and all the necessary paper as proof and transfer the funds from the old account to her new account.

Once Victoria got the bank account established, she was going to receive a monthly amount of $500 as stipulated in the original will. Mr. Willower told Victoria that this amount could be higher depending on what she needed to live on and to cover all of her expenses. Mr. Willower told her to let him know. Victoria thanked him and told him that the amount was fine until she could figure out otherwise.

Once they moved to the small farmhouse, Victoria realized that the house needed a lot of repairs; it was in a very poor state. Also, it was a very long and treacherous path to get to it from town. Thanks to Frida’s husband, Edgar, she was able to get all of her belongings moved to his truck. She, of course, offered to pay him, but he refused.

Frawny found herself liking the little farmhouse and so did Wolfy. She planned to take Wolfy with her to look around and venture into the wilderness, which stretched for miles around the farmhouse. She missed her friends from town, especially Mixie, her best friend. She realized that the move was better for her mother because ever since their move, her mother has been happy and her health seemed to improve. She said that her mother told her that because of the inheritance, there was no more need for her to sew clothes or clean houses for a living; that the inheritance from her father’s great-grandfather will take care of them for a long time.

Frawny helped her mother clean the house and set up all their personal belongings. Mixie’s family came to help, and her father moved all of the furniture and fixed the house’s windows that were stuck from not being open for a long time. He also helped fix the roof with a group of local workers. The paint came later as Victoria contracted a professional house painter from town, who was referred by Mr. Reigns, Mixie’s father. He apparently was a very good person and had been a good friend to Frawny’s dad, and Victoria appreciated his input and suggestions.

A month went by and Victoria and Frawny had settled in already, and their new life in the small farmhouse was quiet and pleasant. In the front of the porch, there was a small swing that Frawny had asked her mother not to remove, like she had intended to do when they first moved in. She was glad it was still there. She sat on the swing with Wolfy moving around her as she moved up and down on the swing. She felt a nice breeze coming from her back, and she felt being pushed harder by it. It was silly to think that the wind was pushing her, so she tried to stop swinging, but she could not. The force from the wind continued to move the swing, with no efforts from her. It was like someone pushing her but in a non-menacing way.

Frawny let the wind continue to move the swing in an up-and-down motion. Her dog, Wolfy, started to bark loudly at whatever was behind her. Suddenly the swing stopped and was not moving at all. Frawny got off from it and started to look around in amazement. She told herself. What was that all about? Was it my imagination or was I being pushed by something? It could not be the wind; it was too strong of a push for that!

Victoria was calling Frawny for dinner; she ran inside the house followed by her dog, Wolfy, who looked puzzled as well. Victoria asked, Why was Wolfy barking so loud?

Frawny replied, I don’t know. I was just swinging in the porch and he started to bark. I guess maybe he did not like me to do it. Frawny did not wanted to tell her mother about what had occurred, because she really did not know what to say to her. She remembered the days before her move to the farmhouse; she had dreams of being in a small house in a wild forest and she felt herself flying over the wilderness and around a small meadow by a mysterious-looking lake. In her dream, she saw many white butterflies following her and circling around her. She felt something touching her face, and when she looked to see what it was, she saw a blue satin scarf pass by her, and away with the wind it flew. It was a strange dream, and she did not know what to make of it. It was very strange, and she did not realize until now that the house on the dream was the same as her farmhouse.

That same night after the incident with the swing, she dreamed again but this time she was flying over a larger field of flowers and she was dressed in a white gown with a ribbon tied to her long hair. It was early in the morning, and she felt the dew of the morning on her hair and the breeze on her face caressing her. She felt happy and free, and as she got closer to the little farmhouse, she heard a voice calling a name—it was not her name, but she could not hear well what it was. The voice was young and that of a child. She woke up feeling tired like she had flown all day. She got up from her bed and as she was putting on her slippers, she saw something on the floor; when she picked it up, she could not believe her eyes. It’s the blue scarf from the dream! How did it get here? she spoke aloud in the room. Wolfy got up from his space beside the bed and looked at her in dismay. I cannot believe this, Wolfy. Where did this scarf come from? Wolfy made a funny sound, like he was responding to her question.

Frawny went to wash her face and teeth and got dressed. She always made the breakfast for herself and her mother; so she went directly to the kitchen and started to put a baking sheet with dough to make bread in the oven and started cooking the scrambled eggs. They had ran out of molasses and blueberries to make the pancakes, so she will skip it and stick to bread and eggs. She boiled up the milk and added a little chocolate bar to it for flavor. Her mother likes hot chocolate, so she will not miss the blueberry pancakes. Wolfy was looking at her with sad eyes, waiting for her to remember his morning milk. She smiled at him and said, Okay, Wolfy, here is your milk with a little butter like you prefer. Wolfy barked back at her with delight.

For the first time since they moved to the farmhouse, she felt a presence in the kitchen. Frawny looked around and saw no one. Her mother, Victoria, walked in as she was looking around and asked her, Were you looking for me, Frawny? Sorry, I am late getting up, but I felt very tired last night. I felt like I had been in a long trip somewhere. Maybe it was my dream, she said.

Frawny asked her, What was the dream about, Mother?

Her mother replied, Oh, it was nothing, but it sure felt real to me! she said. I will tell you all about it after breakfast. I am really hungry for your wonderful breakfast, and it smells good!

Frawny was anxious to find out about the dream, for she also had a very peculiar dream and felt tired this morning as well. They both felt good after eating and her mother told her that her friend Frida and the kids were coming over later during the day. She asked Frawny to bake some cookies for the kids. Frawny prepared the dough and fixed two batches of cinnamon cookies to place in the oven. She likes that part of home chores. She always did the baking when her father was alive. He loved her cinnamon cookies. She missed her dad and wish he was here with them. He was a good husband and father and always talked to her when she was feeling sad, which was not very often, only during Christmastime. The reasons were obvious since they did not have money to buy the things that she really wanted, but she never complained to her parents about it. This was all in the past and she does not regret not having those things now because she learned to appreciate what she was giving with love from her parents.

After breakfast her mother stayed in the