Title:
Buried Appearances
Author:
D.E. Haggerty
Release
date: November 4th, 2013
Genre:
Contemporary
Book
Description:
Skylar Dewitt
has been ostracized her entire life due to her grandfather’s well-known
sympathies with the Nazis. But now her grandfather’s body has been recovered in
the Netherlands in an area famous for being a Nazi killing ground. Why would
her grandfather be buried in a place legendary for assassinations of resistance
members? Skylar jets off to Holland in search of answers about her
grandfather’s demise. Along the way she finds long-lost family and old friends
but will she solve the mystery of what happened to her grandfather? And maybe
she discovers something more valuable than resolving any mystery could be:
herself
Excerpt from Buried Appearances
By D.E. Haggerty
After I
hang up the phone, I sit and stare at my computer for a while. I still have no
clue how to carry on. I am completely and utterly stuck. I am at a loose end
and don’t know what to do. I do have one promise, however, that I made to Griet
before I left Michigan that I have to fulfill. I head off to the Wertheim park
to fulfill that promise.
I stand at
the Auschwitz memorial in the park and try to hold back my tears. It is so
breathtakingly sad here. The smashed mirrors dominating this tiny park are
heartbreaking. The memorial epitomizes the dichotomy that is the war and
Holland. On the one hand, I am standing in front of a heart wrenching monument
to the Dutch victims of the Holocaust that died in Auschwitz but in the
background I hear the tram rumble by, dogs barking as they run around the grass
of the park and children playing soccer on the other side of the fence.
The Dutch
continue with their lives as I slowly kneel and place white tulips on the
memorial. I have one tulip for each member of Griet’s family that perished in
the camps. As I stand, I can’t help but let the tears fall. I don’t know how
Griet has survived such sadness, such heartbreak. “Gaat het me u,” I hear
behind me.
I run the
back of my arm across my eyes before turning. I don’t want anyone to see my
tears. Tears I normally never let fall. “Sorry,” I start. “Ik spreek geen
Nederlands.” I don’t speak Dutch being one of the few phrases I do speak in
Dutch.
He smiles
gently at me. “I asked if you are okay.”
I try to
smile at him but I’m sure my smile wobbles. “It’s just so sad.” I lamely
comment.
The
stranger nods and looks at my tulips. “Your family?” He asks.
I shake my
head. “No, it’s for Griet.”
“Griet?”
“She’s my
friend or rather Oma’s friend back home.” I explain rather dumbly.
He nods.
“For not speaking Dutch, your pronunciation is good.”
“My dad was
Dutch. Oma emigrated with dad to America after the war.” Why am I telling the
stranger these things? I shrug. “I guess I’m half-Dutch but I grew up in
America. Oma didn’t teach me Dutch. I try to forget I was Dutch or at least I
used to.”
“Why would
you want to forget who you are? Where you came from?” He looks genuinely
interested.
I shrug and
try to act nonchalant. “My family was bad during the war. I got bullied about
it.”
“Bad? What
does that mean?”
“My
grandfather was a NSBer,” I start. “But now I’m here because it looks like he
might have been killed by the Nazis. I’m trying to figure out what happened but
I’m getting nowhere.”
He tilts
his head and stares intensely at me. “Do you want to go get a coffee and tell
me all about it?” His request shocks me. Although the Dutch are nice and
outwardly friendly, I haven’t experienced any instant friendships like in
America.
I look
intently at the man. He is a stranger but it’s broad daylight and for some
reason I don’t feel threatened by him. He looks to be my age, maybe older. He
doesn’t look like a psycho killer but I guess that psycho killers never look
like psycho killers either. This trip is all about taking chances and leaving
my comfort zone so I shrug and hold out my hand. “I’m Skylar.”
He takes my
hand and shakes it firmly but gently. “Nicolaas.”
About
the Author:
I was born and raised in Wisconsin
but think I’m a European (a cloggy to be exact). After spending my senior year
of high school in Germany, I developed a bad case of wanderlust that is yet to
be cured. After high school I returned to the U.S. to go to college ending up
with a Bachelor’s degree in History at the tender age of 20 while still
managing to spend time bouncing back and forth to Europe during my vacations
(oh the benefits of a long-distance relationship). Unable to find a job after
college and still suffering from wanderlust, I joined the U.S. Army as a
Military Policewoman for 5 years (the Peace Corps was too much paperwork).
While stationed in Heidelberg, Germany, I met my future husband, a flying
Dutchman (literally). After being given my freedom from the Army, I went off to
law school. I finished law school and moved to the Netherlands with my husband
and became a commercial lawyer for more than a decade. During a six month break
from the lawyering world, I wrote Unforeseen Consequences. Although I finished
the book, I went back to the law until I could no longer take it and upped
stakes and moved to Germany to start a B&B. Three years after starting the
B&B, I got the itch to try something else and decided to pull the
manuscript for Unforeseen Consequences out of the attic and get it published as
an e-book. Between tennis, running, traveling, singing off tune, reading,
playing part-time lawyer and running the B&B, I’m working on my 3rd book.
Official Website: http://www.dehaggerty.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dehaggerty?ref_type=bookmark
Twitter: https://twitter.com/denaehaggerty
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