So excited by writing this novella and by the prospect of The Howloween Ball...no time to journal as now time is needing tis story to be my focus over the next two weeks. i love being here now. i'd rather be here now. thank you for being alive. thank yoou for making me alive. if you can, please come to the ball, download the book, sing the sparty song, and celebrate with us. there really is a time to cry and the time is now and then we will have won. -howling to you from the holy road, Lizzie X=h/m (more at howloweenball.com)

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All characters in this story are fictional. Although they may be inspired, at times, by my travels along the holy road, they are, in fact, imagined, seeded and grown in the fields of my mind .

To my loving friends at The Agency who have given me the courage to finally tell this story.

The Wonderful Adventures... by Lizzie West
This is the story of ten little children who knew everything and nothing at the very same time. I’ll begin with Eva and the forgotten Church.

BOOK ONE: The Wonderful adventures of Eva and The Forgotten Church

“After all the tea and cakes and ices, shall I have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? For though I have wept and fasted and wept and prayed and though I have seen my head brought in upon a platter, I am no prophet and here is no great matter, for I have seen the eternal footman carry my coat and snicker and in short, I was afraid.” - T.S. Eliot

CHAPTER ONE: The Letters Behind The Mantle (or “Just in case something happens...”)

October 10, 2069
It’s now 5.23 a.m. and I’m in the October garden on St. Joseph Street, with my lantern lit, the fire warm and the outdoor chimney smoking. I am ninety six years old, just five years older then Heidi Lewis was the year that we, The Hucksters, bought her home and turned it into The Holy Road House. The red breasted robin is still picking seeds from the ground nearby and the ghosts are still singing our songs. I’ve been trying to tell this story for a long long time....