The Christmas Angel

About the Book

Shannon and Mignon, like most young couples, are spending Shannon’s fat paycheck faster than he can deposit it, and when Exxon downsized, and Shannon was terminated, even a moderate income wasn’t enough to pay their house notes, car notes, and seven credit card notes. With winter approaching, Shannon is desperate. He loses his home, his two Mercedes, and the credit card companies force him to take bankruptcy. He remembers the happy visits he enjoyed with his grandparents in their majestic plantation home, although his mother and father never visited Riveroaks after his Grandfather had died ten years. Moreover, his father and uncles treated Grandmother Burns more like a hated step-mother, than their mother, and he didn’t understand why. Shannon works at a supermarket long enough to acquire money to buy a second hand Honda, then he tells Mignon they are visiting Grandmother Burns at Riveroaks

Although Mignon loves the plantation and Grandmother Burns, and her Black cook, Charlsey, she is skeptical, and tells him it will be embarrassing to “bum” off the old lady, but Shannon shakes it off, and informs Mignon that even during the Great Depression his Grandmother actually made good money selling fruit cakes - and she even sent a large one to President Franklin Roosevelt. My father grudgingly admitted she is a super bright woman. I knew she had lots of money, and wondered where it came from, since she no longer grew cotton and soy beans. Mignon knew she was glad to see us, and she and Chelsea really enjoyed each other. She didn’t ask me why I was now driving a second hand Honda, or vacationing in the autumn. As always, Charlsey prepared a sumptuous meal, and my spirits picked up, although, after the second day at Riveroaks, Mignon wanted to know when I was going to tell Grandmother how destitute we were, and I shook my head, told Mignon that Grandmother didn’t need to know. I know now that she already knew, because she had the business contacts. But she never mentioned it. Grandmother spent a lot of time with Chelsea, but it was always in the late afternoons and nights. Very early in the morning she went into her large office adjacent to her parlor, and I could hear her talking on the phone. She never invited anyone to enter her office. Finally, I got up the courage to ask her what work she was doing, meaning to offer her my help, and she told me she was trading in futures - you know, pork bellies, cotton, soy beans, corn, and then I have my high-tech stocks. I was astounded at first, then she volunteered and let me she was quite wealthy; that she also bought timberland, and now owned thousands of acres. I didn’t tell her I was jobless, dead broke.

Grandmother Burns believed in education. The second week after we’d arrived, she told me I must enroll Chelsea in the St. Johns private school in Delta City, which I did, and each day, her driver took Chelsea to school in one of Grandmother’s Lincoln Town Cars, and went back and got her when school was out. It was then I told the old lady how my company had down-sized, and I was out of work, and she then sent me to see after the timber sale on what she called the old Gorman place, letting me know that I would keep the timber company from cheating her. To my astonishment the timber sale amounted to several million dollars, and on my return, she transferred a million dollars into an account she’d set up for me at the First National Bank. Mignon was much happier. I had earned the money - at least, I had followed Grandmother’s guidelines and kept her from being cheated.

After that, I did other jobs for her which required traveling. I noticed that she was no longer a hearty eater like she used to be, but she never failed to go early to her office, and I was finally invited to her inner sanctum, which was not posh, but on her large desk, I counted seven telephones - each a different color. Even so, she never told me how rich she was, but I didn’t think about it. I only thou

About the Author

George Harmon Smith, born in the Louisiana swamp country, won literary recognition with his first YA novel, BAYOU BOY, which won many top awards, and was made into a Walt Disney movie. He has also written several YA novels, five of which are in the process of being re-published He is the author of many soft cover novels, most, under various pseudonyms. YA readers have urged George to write more novels for them. WHERE THE PALE LILIES BLOOM was written by popular request