Mara Louis; Girl of Mystery Read online

Jason and the rest of the cast and crew of the “Wish upon a Star” show. Mara got to meet the entire cast and was given a tour of the show’s sets.

  After breakfast, the director gave Mara a copy of the script with her lines highlighted.

  Then, Mara sat down at a table with the cast as everyone read their lines. Mara practiced her three lines repeatedly, until she had memorized them.

  At lunch, Mara and her parents met the rest of the Davis family. After lunch, Mara was taken to wardrobe and makeup. Her scene would be filmed that day since she would only be there for one day.

  At first, Mara was nervous in front of the camera, but after Ryan and Jason started making funny faces and cracking jokes, she became more relaxed. It was six o’clock P.M. by the time they finished filming for the day.

  Mara’s parents were driven back to the hotel while Mara, Ryan, and Jason were driven by limo to a teen club for dinner. It was a favorite hangout for young actors. Mara was able to meet many other young stars from other television shows as well. Throughout the entire day, and that evening at the club was no exception, a camera operator followed Mara around with a video camera and digital camera, filming her special day.

  At 10:30 P.M., Mara was driven back to her hotel and Ryan and Jason escorted her back to her room. Mara told them that it was the best day of her life, and that she would never forget it, or them. She then gave each of them a kiss on the cheek and this time it was Jason and Ryan who were blushing.

  That night, Mara again dreamed of Ryan and Jason, and it was the happiest dream she ever had.

  The next morning, while Mara and her parents were eating breakfast in the hotel restaurant, Mr. Gene Fisher, the director of “Wish upon a Star” brought them a DVD that had been made of Mara’s special day.

  He also gave them a photo album filled with photos of her with Jason and Ryan and the rest of the cast. There were also autographed photos from the entire cast of several other shows as well.

  Mr. Fisher informed Mara that when that episode aired, she would receive a personal copy of the show on DVD including the outtakes of her performance.

  While Mara and her parents were looking through the album, Mr. Fisher asked Mara for a personal favor. “Mara” he said, “I’ve read a lot about you and about the mysteries that you have solved. If you are interested, I have a mystery for you to solve.”

  Mara said “Yes,” immediately and then added, “that is, if my parents say it is okay.” Mr. Fisher told Mara that he owned a house that was over 130 years old that he wanted to sell. He was unable to find a buyer because people believed it was haunted. In fact, Mr. Fisher himself had noticed strange things happening in the house.

  He told Mara that he would pay all of her family’s expenses for the next week while she investigated the house and tried to solve the mystery.

  Mara was a little bit scared, but also somewhat excited. Her parents gave permission for Mara to take on the case.

  How did it turn out? Did Mara solve the mystery? Read the next chapter.

  The Mystery of the Haunted Mansion

  Mara was very excited. She had just spent the previous day with her favorite actors Jason and Ryan Davis, and now, she had a new mystery to solve.

  Gene Fisher, the director of “Wish upon a Star”, drove Mara and her parents to his mansion. Mr. Fisher was trying to sell the mansion, but he could not find any serious buyers, because the mansion was believed to be haunted. Mara was a little bit scared, but not too scared to accept the challenge of adventure and mystery.

  As Mr. Fisher told Mara everything that he knew about the mansion and its history, Mara wrote everything down in her notebook.

  Juan Garcia and his father built the mansion in 1870. They completed the construction of the house just in time for Juan’s wedding to Elena Rivera. Juan and Elena were married on June 3, 1871 at a big wedding in the front yard of their house, or hacienda as it was called back then.

  The house sat on a large estate located in what is now known as Beverly Hills, California. Juan and his family owned a vineyard and a winery, producing some of the best wine in the region.

  Three years later, in 1874, Elena gave birth to a baby girl whom they named Maria. Maria was the center of their life. Juan and Elena’s life revolved around their little angel. In fact, Juan’s nickname for Maria was ‘Angel Pocita’, or ‘Little Angel’ in English.

  Life for the Garcia family could not have been any happier. However, then, tragedy struck. In the summer of 1880, when Maria was six years old, she disappeared without a trace.

  As the story had been told to Mr. Fisher, Maria was playing behind the mansion. Elena heard Maria scream “no! No! Socorro!” which translated as “No! No! Help!” Elena ran out the back door, but Maria was not there. Elena called out for her daughter several times, but there was no answer.

  About that time, Juan rode up to the house. When he was informed what had happened, he rounded up all of the field hands and they started a massive search of the area. After two days of searching, they had found no signs of little Maria.

  Juan and Elena thought that Maria had been kidnapped. They kept waiting for a note demanding ransom, as they were quite wealthy, and they had a few enemies.

  Many days passed, with no ransom demands. After a month of waiting, Juan and Elena began to give up hope of ever seeing Maria again.

  Then, one afternoon, after awakening from a nap, Elena saw Maria standing in the doorway. When Elena ran to her daughter, she disappeared into thin air.

  It was then that Elena knew that Maria was no longer among the living. She realized that the kidnappers must have killed her little angel.

  Every day after that, Elena became more sad and depressed. She no longer had anything to live for.

  Juan had lost his daughter and did not want to lose his wife as well. He decided to get Elena far away from the mansion, since it was filled with sad memories.

  Juan felt that their wealth was responsible for the loss of their daughter, so he sold the house, vineyards and winery, and they moved to a small house in Los Angeles.

  Elena remained depressed and every day, she got worse. Two years later, Elena died of a broken heart. Juan was so sad, over the loss of his wife, that he also died of a broken heart, less than a year later.

  In the summer of 1883, Juan was laid to rest next to Elena in an old cemetery. That is when strange things started happening in the old mansion. Over the years, the disturbances got more frequent and more noticeable. People reported hearing crying, and footsteps in the house.

  Over the next hundred years, the house had many owners. None of them stayed for more than a few years. People claimed they felt a sense of sadness throughout the mansion and claimed that the ghosts of Juan and Elena Garcia haunted it.

  Mr. Fisher bought the house in the year 2000. He did not believe the rumors about the old mansion being haunted. He started the slow process of restoring the mansion to its original condition.

  After a few months, he began to hear strange noises coming from the back of the house. He also found that his tools would disappear from one room, only to reappear in another part of the house. He often heard faint footsteps and crying.

  Mr. Fisher decided to sell the mansion, but by then, the stories were so well known, that he could not find a buyer for the home.

  Mr. Fisher moved out of the mansion and it stayed vacant for several years. He hired a cleaning service to go in and clean it once a month, but they would only enter the mansion in the daytime.

  When Mara and her parents entered the mansion, everything was quiet. Mr. Fisher showed them to their rooms.

  Mara was taken to a room that was decorated as though it had been a girl’s room at one time.

  It was the only room that nobody had ever changed and it was exactly as it had been in 1880, when Maria had disappeare
d. It had, in fact, been Maria’s room.

  Mr. Fisher told them that he would be staying in the mansion as well so that they would not be alone.

  After a late dinner, everyone turned in for the evening. Shortly after one o’clock in the morning, someone crying awakened Mara. She sat up in her bed and slowly looked around the room. That is when she saw her. In one corner of the room, there appeared to be a small girl crying.

  Mara was not scared. She felt sad for the girl. She tried to talk to her, but the girl did not say anything. After a few minutes, the little girl disappeared, and after calming down, Mara went back to sleep.

  The next morning, Mara told Mr. Fisher and her parents what she had seen. “I think that it was the spirit of Maria, the little girl who was kidnapped,” said Mara.

  All morning long, Mara thought about the little girl’s spirit and tried to figure a way to communicate with her. All of a sudden, the answer came to her. Mara realized that the spirit could not understand Mara, because she was a Spanish speaking spirit and she did not understand English.

  Mara asked Mr. Fisher if he had a Spanish-American dictionary. He found one in the library and gave it to Mara. Mara spent the next couple of hours translating English phrases into Spanish phrases.

  That night, when it was time to go to bed, Mara could not wait to go to sleep. Her parents wanted to stay in the room with her, but Mara told them, “I’m not a baby.