The Guardian Angel

By Laura Oliver

Madelene was born in 1955 in the Guatemalan city of Las Cruces and grew up as happy and free as a gazelle in nature. Bathing every day in the delicious waters of the La Pasión river; stealing fruit from the neighbors orchard and being caught and fleeing from the angry peasants; chasing her brothers Lucas and Freddy in endless pranks and mischiefs. Her childhood memories were calm and stunning, but there was a dreadful shadow lurking in the shadows. It finally put its claws on her and caught her for good. This novel is, above all, a narrative of naive love, just waiting for the appropriate time to seize her heart just at the moment of the great affliction, when she needed it the most. This tale is also a metaphor in several ways of how we experience our daily life. How indeed, we make decisions in a pessimistic, realistic, or hopeful way, and their impact. Finally, it is a model on how to remain afloat even while engulfed in awful miseries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clube de Autores
• Release date: Dec 14, 2021

Book preview

THE GUARDIAN ANGEL

We may not have control over the events in our life, however we do over how we respond to them. Life is neither good nor evil, fair nor unjust. Life is just a moment of living.

Laura Oliver

ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED.

No permission is given for any part of this book to be reproduced, transmitted in any form or means; electronic or mechanical, stored in a retrieval system, photocopied, recorded, scanned, or otherwise. Any of these actions require the proper written permission of the author.

Laura Oliver, Independent Publishing

My Email:

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I speak Quiché………………………………………………….      Chapter 1

Flames of Las Cruces………………………………………...      Chapter 2

Self-pity, a double-edged sword………………………..      Chapter 3

The devil's instrument……………………………………...      Chapter 4

A missing excuse……………………………………………...      Chapter 5

The beast is circling…………………………………………..      Chapter 6

What does God Look Like?..................................      Chapter 7

The working trap……………………………………………...      Chapter 8

The mighty arms of Hypnos……………………………...      Chapter 9

Four paws outside…………………………………………..      Chapter 10

A creep frustration………………………………………….      Chapter 11

The Carbon Steel Handcuffs…………………………...      Chapter 12

The old goat…………………………………………………...      Chapter 13

As long as it's not fish……………………………………..      Chapter 14

Kissing time…………………………………………………..      Chapter 15

At last, I found you………………………………………….      Chapter 16

A flaming arrow……………………………………………...      Chapter 17

Mom, my head ache……………………………………….      Chapter 18

Melissa, a piccolina paladin…………………………….      Chapter 19

The peak of fame…………………………………………...      Chapter 20

Preface

Madelene could not imagine what life had reserved for her, but when faced with the crooked paths of destiny, she decided to reach her own steps.

On the streets, after the tragic death of her parents, when she was still 17 years old, she knew the terrifying face of the enemy; but conquers great friends, who teach her that, even among the thorns, life also offers the flowers, and even amidst terrible setbacks of fate, she learns to deal with the pain, imposed by life.

Always resorting to the teachings of her hand, and thus she manages to overcome her fears.

In this stunning novel, the author shows that no matter how hard life is, there is always the possibility of change and overcoming difficulties.

Laura Oliver

The  Guardian Angel

Great floods have flown from simple sources, and great seas have dried when miracles have by the greatest been denied.

—William Shakespeare

Chapter 1 – I speak Quiché

Simone Echoed in the air, the cry of despair from that mother who saw her five-year-old little girl running toward that busy avenue.

The child wasn't warned of the danger; she thought that she was dashing her mother.

Simone, stop now. For God’s sake! Madelene screamed, anticipating herself over poor Simone's mutilated body, and these thoughts put her in a very despair, and thereupon she tried to run quicker.

However her leg did not help, she had undergone an operation on the herniated disc and her steps were still painful and imprecise…

Suddenly, Madelene imagined herself at seventeen once she lost her parents; they dwelt in a small town called Las Cruces, in Guatemala, and she had two younger brothers, Lucas and Freddy.

She was nearer to fifteen-year-old Lucas, a giant boy as long as bamboo, curling red hair, forever too long.

It was crystal clear that he was very likable wearing that basket over his head. He had invariably been a lot like his father, Pedro de la Guardia, a quiet, serious, introverted man.

Almost every day, they went to the stream that ran a couple of hundred meters from their house, La Pasión, and were so proud of it is the lengthiest stream in Guatemala, 160 kilometers long.

It crosses many cities, and right there, it created a sharp curve and went back nearly within the same direction. This curve bent the river many times, making it almost a lake. The middle part of the watery belly was quite profound. In some places, it reached 5 meters deep.

Her mother, Angela de la Guardia, aged forty-seven, had plenty of expertise with that lake, for being born and raised therein region, she knew well the hazards of the treacherous waters of that tributary.

There have already been several occurrences of deaths from drowning. Generally, it had been those who did not live in the town. Therefore they failed to grasp its dangers.

On the surface, the water may be running in one direction; however, four inches below may be kind of a muscle in another. Even the opposite.

The swimmers who didn't grasp that characteristic, when reaching these reflex zones, they ended up being twisted and had to swim against two forces that exhausted their strength in minutes.

Those who dwelt there and frequently swam, over time, recognized the slight signs that shaped on the surface, indicating that there was flow and counter flow there, and kept far from these points.

Fishermen also had sure losses once they didn't notice these signs, as some submerged descending reflux and finished up sucking their nets into underwater caves. And it became impossible to urge them out, but once rescuing them, a certainty was imposed: there would be several meters of the patch.

That's why they did not enable them to be just one of the kids. They knew that as a team might pay attention to each other, they grew up terribly connected and dependent on one another.

This didn't mean that they didn't have a close look by their or the constant vigil of the father, however as they were usually in peril too, they knew that if that had been while not the company of their siblings, they might have died, not if risked too usually.

Every day there was forever an excellent excuse to leap in, as they asserted to each other.

Madelene and Lucas were expert swimmers and had great ability in free-diving fishing. She reached 3 minutes, Lucas virtually four.

Freddy simply swam. He wasn't there to show off.

Downtown Las Vegas absolutely was quite busy and prosperous. However, the Soledad neighborhood was more sort of a village, with homes and simple people.

Her parents were merchants, selling grain, such as corn, beans, pepitoria, herb, and fish that they bought from neighbors, farmers, and fishermen who sold within the Central Market.

This warehouse was thriving with many small merchants who displayed their merchandise on wooden counters. Several of them with some picket structure and plastic canvas, others more affluent with cars or canvas tents.

They transported their merchandise there in minibuses that were hanging on the super slim highways of death, where, in some stretches, just one vehicle might fit. 

And after they met, the juggling was correct: or they turned back, to a wider point, that required plenty of ability from the driver, driving backward, they were typically beneath thirty, or they squished and rubbed against one another fighting every square inch of the lane to keep going on their journey.