Spirits and Demons

                                                                 Part One

      St. Louis, Missouri .. May 16, 1957 .. Virginia was discovered passed out in her volkswagon. She'd wrecked right off  the side of the highway north of St. Louis. Pregnant, drunk, and drugged up .. she'd lost a lot of blood and was rushed to the hospital. No one knew if they could save her or her newly born child. She delivered soon after her arrival to emergency, not waking  for 13 days. A kind nurse named the child two angels names .. James Michael. Newborns were required to be named within 72 hours of birth. She was knocked out for nearly two weeks and the child had to be named by someone. Thirteen days after giving birth, she came to and saw her child for the first time. Though neither were expected to live, both managed to survive by no small miracle.

       James Michael had been in ICU since birth, born with an enlarged heart, a hole in it, leaking .. which wouldn't be discovered until he was in the 1st grade. Also a closed valve, it's no wonder he was being called the miracle child. Virginia had also been in ICU the entire time, upon waking .. both were assigned a hospital room where both could hopefully recover. Hospital personnel went through her personal effects, finding her boyfriend's phone number. His name is Max Yee, he's Chinese and Virginia is of Cherokee ancestry. Once called and notified, Max rushed to the hospital from where he was living in Flint, Michigan. He'd prepared well for the long drive ahead of him. Upon arriving at the hospital, Max was presented with a birth card form that required his signature as parent of James Michael. He signed it, yet the child's name on the birth card still only showed two names, James Michael. No last name and almost being killed was only the beginning of James Michael's troubles that lie ahead. The hospital was forced to give James Michael his mother's maiden name as his last name so that he was allowed to leave the hospital. Finally, James Michael Sherrill was named after two weeks and he was allowed to leave the hospital with his mother. Virginia immediately drove north to Flint, Michigan to join Max and her other son Jimmy Don. She'd left Jimmy Don with her sister Edna in Flint while she'd driven to Monroe, Louisiana to visit relatives before she'd headed back north to only go into labor and give birth to James Michael. Everyone would be surprised when Virginia and James Michael would arrive in Flint. Max had left the hospital early and already driven back to Flint to go back to work. He'd not been in the states a year, he'd arrived on a boat from China. Twenty dollars in his pocket when he'd arrived to the states, he'd been bussing tables at a restaurant to make a living. Saving what he could, Max had a plan to open his own photography studio as soon as possible.  Supporting a family of four would certainly not be easy. It's also why Max, Virginia, Jimmy Don, and James Michael lived with Virginia's sister Edna and her husband Jimmy Rodgers in a duplex apartment.  Edna and Jimmy had two daughters, Cyndi and Debbie. Virginia had divorced Jimmy Don's dad Jimmy Harmon. She and Jimmy had lived as sharecroppers on an Arkansas cotton plantation when they were married, Jimmy had been the overseer. Living in the overseer's appointed wooden house had been too much on Virginia, so she'd divorced and moved on to begin a new life full of promise in Michigan.