Chapter 5

“The best laid plans”

Earl Shamus, now forty, average height and build, graduated from high school, but never attended college. He didn’t have any money saved, and not even a penny in his pockets yet he always believed that one day his ship would come in. It did, in the form of a woman named Meredith Buchanan, daughter of West Buchanan, the insurance tycoon. Earl was the concierge of the chic Bel Glades Hotel when he met Meredith, who was attending a wedding reception there.

Meredith was twenty-two when she met Earl, who was twenty-four. She was sheltered all of her young life, had never even been on a date. No one ever asked her out except the shy boy who lived next door. He asked her if he could take her to the prom and she turned him down immediately as there was nothing about him that appealed to her. To Meredith, it was better that her father, whom she was very close to, take her rather than settle for the bookworm next door.

Meredith was very bright and found college to be a bit boring. She loved to read and learn new things, but no one asked her out. She hoped college would offer more opportunities to meet interesting men who would appreciate her chaste attitude and change her into the swan she knew she could be—with the right man, of course. While other college girls were going on dates and to football games, Meredith went to the library and read the classics with her free time, which she had plenty of. She dreamed about the knight in shining armor who would one day come along and sweep her off her feet.

When Earl opened the glass door of the Bel Glades for Meredith, she believed her knight had finally come to rescue the lonely damsel who wanted nothing more than to be seen as a desirable woman. Earl looked dashing in the gray doorman’s suit with its shiny brass buttons and burgundy braids, which were attached to the shoulder strap of his uniform. He almost looked like a West Point graduate. Meredith offered him an inviting smile. She felt a little electricity between them when he smiled at her.

Earl, however, wasn’t the least bit attracted to Meredith, even though he sensed she was attracted to him and was quite possibly an easy lay. He didn’t think she was anything special until one of the desk clerks told him her father was West Buchanan. The clerk went on to explain that West was a former salesman who defied the odds and built Buchanan Mutual Insurance Company. When the clerk said that Meredith was the sole heir to his fortune, suddenly Meredith became very attractive—at least her money was.

Meredith was sitting in the reception hall bored to tears. She couldn’t help thinking of the charming doorman with the kind face. She wondered if he was still in the lobby at the door. She left the reception and entered the lobby to see if he was there. She saw him standing near the door with his dark gray doorman’s uniform on. She walked near the door to get his attention.

“Leaving the party so soon?” Earl asked when he turned around.

“Yes, it’s quite boring in there,” she told him. “I’m Meredith Buchanan. Pleased to meet you.”

“Earl Shamus. Pleased to meet you also.”

The two of them talked for hours in the lobby. She gave him her telephone number and told him she’d love to talk again some time. Earl wanted to talk again too, but not for the reasons she wanted to. He saw dollar signs when he looked into her plain Jane face. There was nothing physically attractive about Meredith, but she did have a wholesomeness about her that made her the sort of woman men brought home to their mothers.

Earl began formulating his plan to seduce and marry Meredith. He believed that if she were pregnant with his child, her father would be forced to take him and the baby into the fold. What he didn’t know was that West didn’t have anything against him and his lowly stature in life as a doorman. West didn’t like rich people. He thought they were self-righteous and they tended to look down on the people who made it possible for them to have the wealth they enjoyed. He hoped Meredith wouldn’t fall in love and marry one of the sons of those affluent bigots.

West wanted Meredith to marry a working stiff, someone more like himself. He wanted her to be with someone who knew what it was like to be poor and not have ends meet. His plan was to have one of her sons take over the family business. When he found out about Earl, he had him investigated. The investigation showed him to be a modern day nomad. Earl couldn’t seem to keep a steady job and he had a problem with authority.

This was definitely not the man for Meredith, West thought. She could certainly do better than him. Unfortunately, it was too late. Meredith was pregnant and she had her heart set on marrying Earl. West strictly forbade her to marry Earl, promising he would take care of her and her child and they wouldn’t want for anything. West even offered Earl ten thousand dollars to leave Meredith.

But Earl wanted it all, so he gambled on West’s love for his daughter. He assumed West would take care of them because Meredith was his flesh and blood. West knew this and promptly disinherited Meredith. Earl and Meredith hoped West would change his mind when the baby came, and he would have if the baby had been a boy. But it was a girl. They named her Janet, now sixteen.

The couple kept trying, but ended up with two more girls, Stacy, fourteen, and Marjorie, thirteen. They weren’t able to have a boy until twelve years later, West Buchanan Shamus. Only then did West end the cold war between the couple.

West was quite fond of his grandson. He called him Little Buck, short for Buchanan. He treated Little Buck like he was his own son. He couldn’t stand having him live just a notch above the indigent, so he bought Meredith and Earl a sixteen-room home in an exclusive area of New Orleans called Rivera Heights. The home had six bedrooms, four bathrooms, living room, formal dining room, island kitchen, den, library, laundry room, full finished basement, and a three-car attached garage. West even gave them both brand new Cadillacs.

After Little Buck’s birth, West hired Earl at Buchanan Mutual. He told Earl he was grooming him to take over the company, but in reality, West only wanted Earl to run things long enough for Little Buck to take over. After all, Little Buck was blood; Earl wasn’t. He was just an opportunist who took advantage of a young woman who didn’t know any better. Most importantly, West knew Little Buck needed a role model in the home to look up to.

Therefore, grooming Earl to run the company was not just a shrewd move. It was essential for Little Buck to see his father running a business and to hear business conversations at the dinner table. West wanted Little Buck to be thoroughly ingrained in business during his formative years so that it would become a part of his being.

Little did West know that his granddaughters would learn to detest him for the way he made them live when they were their brother’s age. They also resented Little Buck because of all the attention West lavished on him. Whenever West visited, and he visited often, he would spend virtually all of his time with Little Buck, telling him how handsome and how smart he was.

Janet, Stacy, and Marjorie felt like the family mascots. Meredith didn’t help matters as far as the girls were concerned. She was so passive that the girls didn’t bother to tell her how they felt. Instead, they talked among themselves and their jealousy began to fester. They often found themselves wishing something terrible would happen to their baby brother.