Who the Heck is Harvey Stingle? Excerpt

Book 2 in the Willy and Tommy Series

SUMMER

Wilhelmina Snodgrass and her best friend Tomasina Andretti were laying on their backs in Willy’s front yard watching the clouds roll by. Summer was coming to a quick end and school would start in just two more days. Both girls were going into the seventh grade at Watusi Junior High in Watusi, Texas.

Willy had recently moved to Texas three months earlier and immediately made friends with her new neighbor, Tommy. Both the Snodgrass and Andretti families lived on Mongoose Road which was a lovely street located on the perimeter of town. The houses were all old farm-style homes with huge yards and great big front porches. Texas summers could be so hot that once the cool evenings came, the residents liked nothing better than to sit on their porch swings and sip sweet iced-tea while catching a cool breeze. The front porch is where many families caught up on the busy goings on of their summer lives. Kids talked about swimming, bike riding and little league, while mothers and fathers talked about their jobs, the heat, and how they wished they could be kids again for just one summer.

Willy and Tommy had just had the most wonderful summer of their lives. They spent most of their days helping Willy’s great Aunt Georgie clean up an old wig factory that she had run until she’d closed it down in the 1960’s. Even Tommy, who lived in Watusi most of her life, never heard about the factory until Aunt Georgie told the girls about it in June. With the help of three ghosts (would you believe), the girls were able to convince Georgianna Carbunkle that the citizens of Watusi needed her and the wig factory. Aunt Georgie was delighted to reopen the factory now that she had her great niece, Willy, and her good friend Tommy to help out.

Watusi never looked as good as it did in the last two weeks. Even Belinda Smoot from the pharmacy looked like a fashion plate, what with her new, sleek, auburn wig. Ladies from towns as far away as Smithville were looking pretty snappy, all thanks to the reopening of “The Watusi Wig Factory.”

You might be wondering about the ghosts who not only helped the girls, but also recruited them. In the first place, their names were Bella Bennet, the original proprietor of “The Watusi Wig Factory” and great grandmother to Aunt Georgie. Then there was Bella’s daughter Aurelia, and Aurelia’s daughter Athena, who happened to be Aunt Georgie’s Mom. These spirits were at the center of all the summer’s activities. They didn’t actually haunt the factory. According to Aurelia, they were more like angels who were sent on a mission to help their beloved family member, Georgianna, get purpose back in her life. The only people who ever saw them were Willy and Tommy, that is until two days ago when the angelic trio were bidding farewell to the girls. It was then that they discovered Bella, Aurelia, and Athena had another helper by the name of Harvey Stingle.

Harvey was one of the employees at the factory and as far as Willy and Tommy knew, that’s all he was. It wasn’t until they came upon him actually talking with Willy’s other worldly relatives that they really noticed him. Before that moment they thought he was just a quiet, balding, chubby guy from New York who looked remarkably like the George character from that old TV show “Seinfeld.” Now they had to wonder who he really was. When Bella bid farewell to the girls she told them that if they ever needed her, Aurelia, or Athena, they should tell Harvey and he would get the message to them. What?! Why Harvey? But Bella wouldn’t tell them. She merely said that if they wanted to know Harvey’s story, they would have to get it from him.

So now, not only were Willy and Tommy going into a new grade and had great new jobs working the coffee bar in the front room of the wig factory, they also had a mystery to solve. Before the year was out, they were going to discover the answer to the biggest conundrum they had ever encountered. Who the heck was Harvey Stingle?