A Girl Named Ella

PROLOGUE

Bel stood by her car with her mouth wide open. She could not believe her eyes. Before her stood a giant Gothic-style mansion where she was to live for six weeks as caretaker. Located on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, the estate property was breathtaking. Bel could hear the roaring of the sea and the crashing of waves against the cliff wall. How beautiful and green everything was. How fresh, as only property aligned with the ocean can be. Beautiful pines and cedars grew parallel to the ten-foot-tall fence that ran from the farthest east point to the farthest west point, ending in cliffs above the sea. A field of new grass was peppered with the colors of wildflowers, and riotous clematis vines wrapped themselves around the fence, the blue flowers stretching their necks to the sunshine.

Mr. Detro, standing beside her, was silent and still. He was allowing Bel to view the property and take in the magnitude of the task that lay before her. He had investigated Bel completely and had found her to be an exemplary citizen who had worked for the US government for over thirty-five years. She had applied for this position after leaving the service, and he had hired her immediately. Now, he quietly watched her facial expressions, which were full of awe.

Bel looked up the long drive to the house. Her focus was taken to one of the wide windows, in which she could see a face looking down at her. Startled, she asked, Is someone still living in the house?

Mr. Detro replied, No one has lived in this house since Mr. Watkins passed away over six months ago. Ray Hunter, the estate keeper, lives in the small village ten miles east of here. Why?

I thought I saw a face at one of the windows. I guess I was mistaken.

The estate has been vacant since the death of Mr. Watkins. The only person who is allowed on the premises is the day gardener, Ray Hunter. I can assure you that no one is in residence here, nor has been, for several months.

Bel looked up at the sun. It must have been a reflection bouncing off of the glass. Sorry.

Well, ready to drive up to the house for a tour and one last briefing?

Yes, answered Bel. She continued to stare at the house, and a strange feeling came over her. There was something or someone in the house. She was sure of it. Something sad. She could feel the sadness come over her. She also could sense warmth. Whatever was in the house was not threatening.

Bel turned, got into her car, and followed Mr. Detro to the back of the house. The backyard was stunning. Flowers and plants in containers were set artfully all around the back terrace. A walled garden could be seen to the northeast, and a fruit orchard with a lovely shed lay beyond the enormous lawn north of the garden.

Mr. Detro signaled for Bel to park in front of the six-car garage that faced south and ran along the circular drive, north of the terrace. She did as directed, got out of the car, and called to the two little dogs she had brought with her. They followed closely on her footsteps to the back door, where Mr. Detro waited. Lucy was Bel’s beloved three-year-old shih tzu, and Annie was a terrier and Pomeranian stray she had adopted a year ago. She had brought them with Mr. Detro’s approval.

Do you want me to help you unpack the car? asked Mr. Detro. Bel turned to look at Mr. Detro. He was a very distinguished-looking older man. His hair was closely trimmed, with long sideburns; he also had a neat mustache. Silver strands had all but taken over what was once a thick head of brown hair. Mr. Detro was the attorney and executer of the Watkins’s estate. She had first met him early this morning in San Francisco, where he had his office. They had spent an hour or so going over the details of this assignment, and a contract was written up, agreed to, and signed.

Bel smiled and shook her head. No, thank you, she replied. I will unload the car after you leave. I just want to look around at everything first. This place is so beautiful and serene. It is going to be difficult to ignore this view and complete my tasks. I hope you don’t mind if I just look around and get acquainted with the property for a couple of days before I begin my work.

Mr. Detro looked around the property to see to what Bel was referring. The terrace with the tubs of flowers gave way to green lawns that eventually turned into deep green grass, too tall to be called a lawn. Trees bordered the sides, and the sky formed a backdrop at the end of the property. The property was approximately two hundred yards long. Mr. Detro knew the land ended there, above the crashing waves of the great northern Pacific Ocean. He turned his attention back to Bel, who was asking him something. I am sorry, he said, What did you say?

I was asking about the security system.

Mr. Detro looked at Bel quietly for a few moments. Bel was a good-looking woman. He knew she was elderly, but she didn’t look it. She obviously took good care of herself. Her hair was brown with blonde highlights. Her eyes were dark and deep set. She was about five feet five, and he guessed she weighed about one hundred fifty pounds. She could stand to lose a few pounds, he thought. But altogether, not bad.

Mr. Detro took a deep breath and then answered, I will explain all of the technicalities of the complex security system before I leave. Suffice to say that no one can get onto this property without setting off several alarms and alerting every police station within a hundred-mile radius. Let me reiterate once more that your most important task is to keep a constant eye on the property and supervise the activities of the evaluation teams that will be arriving a week from Monday. It is one of the strict requirements of the courts prior to probate. Other than that, you will be free to spend your days as you wish.

I understand, said Bel.

As Bel waited for Mr. Detro to unlock the back door, she took one last look at the terrace and where she knew the ocean lay below the cliffs. She turned her gaze back to the house and looked at the high walls rising above her. I wonder how many rooms this house has. Suddenly, the feeling she had experienced earlier returned. This time, it was stronger. There was someone or something in this house. She was sure of it.

Chapter 1

Retirement Begins

BEL LOOKED DOWN at the government badge she held in her hands. The formal name on her badge read Belinda Ann Stuart. Everyone called her Bel for short. She slowly and reluctantly handed the badge over to Susan, who had been chosen to escort her out of the government building where Bel had worked for over thirty-five years. She had finally taken the big step to retirement. She would no longer be able to access the building. She would no longer be an employee. Bel felt the heaviness of the depression she had been experiencing as the time for her retirement drew near. What would she do now? Jake, her husband, had passed away two years ago. All of Bel’s children were grown and on their own. What meaning would her life now have as a retired woman alone?

Well, said Susan, I guess this is it. Congratulations on your retirement. We are going to miss you.

Thanks, said Bel. I am going to miss all of you, too.

Bel slowly walked over to her car, got in, and drove out of the parking lot and through the security gates. The drive to her country home was eleven miles long. The route she took cut through various kinds of fruit and vegetable farms. Several fruit and vegetable stands selling local produce were lined up on both sides of the road. As she drove by the intersection at Jensen and Clovis, she decided to stop at the large country store located there. The store contained all of the produce grown on this large farm, ranging from berries to garlic. Home preserves, home-baked bread, pickles, candied fruit, and many more tempting foods were displayed among the fresh vegetables and fruit.

In order to celebrate my retirement, I think I will buy myself a large bouquet of fresh gladiolas, she thought, as she drove into the lot and parked in front of the store. She was tempted to buy more than the flowers as she viewed the various fruits and vegetables displayed on the trays up and down the many aisles. Shelves on the walls were lined with homemade fruit and vegetable products, including olives, pickles, honey, jam, and nuts. She resisted the urge to buy every tempting thing she saw and walked over to a large tub containing beautiful bunches of multicolored gladiolas and selected two large bunches. With her celebratory flowers, Bel resumed her drive home.

Bel had been born and raised in Fresno County in the small town of Fowler. Fresno County encompasses several small farming communities. California is the nation’s leading farm state; more than half of the United States’s fruits, nuts, and vegetables are grown in California. In the heart of California’s agricultural farmland, in the San Joaquin valley, is Fresno County. It includes small townships such as Selma, known as the Raisin Capital of the World; Kingsburg, known as the Fruit Basket of the World; and Fowler, Caruthers, Parlier, Reedley, and Sanger. It was an ideal place to live, as it was not far from large cities, such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, and only two hours from the ocean. When Jake, who was employed as a technician for the telephone company in San Francisco, was temporarily transferred to Fresno, he had decided to relocate to Fresno permanently. Shortly afterward, Jake and Bel met, fell in love, married, and raised four children. When they married, Jake had been thirty-one years old, and she had been nineteen.

As Bel drove her car through the gates, she was greeted by several barking dogs. Bel and Jake had loved animals and had adopted many a stray dog or cat. Bel loved all of the animals, but she especially loved her two small dogs, Lucy and Annie. Bel shook off the depression she had felt earlier. She had no right to be depressed or lonely. She had her animals, her comfortable home, her children, and the presence of Jesus in her life. What else did she need?

When Jake retired, he and Bel purchased a forty-acre vineyard, and Jake had farmed the vineyard for several years. Bel and Jake had parceled off one acre of the vineyard and built a house on it. They had not done any formal landscaping but had planted a lot of trees. Jake loved big shade trees, so he planted several fruitless mulberry trees. Bel had planted fruit trees, including several varieties of peaches, apricots, nectarines, almond, pecan, olive, pomegranate, and apples. They had allowed the Bermuda grass to become their lawn. Then Jake, fulfilling his lifetime dream to raise chickens, built three chicken coops. He ordered a flock of Plymouth Rock Hens to start his business. The hens did well and gave birth to brood after brood of chicks. Currently, Bel had thirty chickens and three roosters. The only produce they extracted from the chickens was eggs. Jake was too tenderhearted to do anything but allow the chickens to live until they died of old age. And even though the chickens cost a lot of time and money, Bel had kept on taking care of them after Jake died. The eggs came in handy, and Bel often cooked scrambled eggs for dinner, and at least once a week, she fixed them for the dogs. She had heard that eggs helped keep the dogs’ fur healthy, and since she had eggs in abundance, it was also cost effective.

Jake and Bel had fenced the entire large yard to protect the cats and dogs from coyotes and also to keep their pets off the street. They built a big barn to provide shelter for the farming equipment necessary to maintain a raisin-producing farm.

Jake had soon learned that farming vineyards to produce raisins was very hard work. In the winter, when the vines are dormant, the vines and canes have to be pruned and shaped. The vines are then wrapped around wire trellises. In the spring, when the vines sprout their leaves, a farmer must begin to irrigate the vines, spray for insects and mildew, fertilize the soil, and plow the berm over and over to keep down the weeds. At the end of summer, the harvesting of the grapes begins: filling tubs with bunches of grapes and laying them out in the sun to dry on paper trays. When the grapes dried into raisins, the trays of raisins are picked up and boxed.

When the work had become too difficult for Jake to do himself, he decided to lease the farm to another farmer. After two years of tending to the vineyard, the farmer leasing the farm asked permission to pull out the vines and plant a Japanese variety of mandarin oranges. Jake agreed, and now, instead of being surrounded by vineyards, their home was in the middle of a grove of mandarin oranges. Jake had not lived long enough to see the trees produce the mandarin oranges. Four years after the trees had been planted and grafted, Jake had a heart attack and passed away. Bel would miss him even more now that she was retired.

As Bel entered her house, her small dogs, Lucy and Annie, leaped at her in joy. Bel had adopted Lucy from her son Michael after Lucy had lost her left eye. Bel had found Annie walking down a country road, lost and scared. Annie was blonde and beautiful, and Bel thought she was probably just lost. So, Bel had advertised in the lost-and-found section of the Fresno Bee, but no one had come to claim Annie. Bel had been happy to keep her for herself. Bel also owned several big dogs that had either found their way to their home on their own or had been dropped off by people who no longer wanted to take care of them. With the dogs to keep watch over the homestead, Bel was not afraid to live alone in the country.

There were also a dozen or more cats that lived with Bel. The cats had the run of the large, fenced yard and were supposed to live in the barn or the garage. But somehow, some of them managed to come indoors and make themselves at home in the house with Bel.

The little dogs followed Bel enthusiastically as she went into the spacious living room and turned on the television. Leaving the television on for company, she went into the kitchen to look for a vase for the flowers. She found a large vase in the cupboard and filled it with water and placed the flowers in it. Bel decided to leave them on the kitchen counter until she decided on the perfect spot for them. She went back into the living room and sat in Jake’s old recliner. Mindlessly, Bel began to look at the television, not really seeing or hearing what was playing. However, Lucy and Annie were not going to allow her to ignore them. They jumped into her lap and started