So Eagerly Awaiting

by Fritz Windstein

In the year 1965, Saul Wise was sixty-five-years-old, with two sons, a grandson, four granddaughters, and an estranged wife. Having survived WWI with the U.S. 4th Marine Brigade at the Belleau Wood, and other battles to follow, his post-war return to New Orleans became almost as contentious. Some of this had to do to his best friend marrying the girl of his dreams, the enactment of Prohibition, and the horrific dreams of combat that wouldn’t go away. The only places he found some relief occurred in the French Quarter speakeasys, or out in the isolation of a brackish water marsh hunting ducks, catching fish, or trapping muskrats. This didn’t mention his passion for motorcycles, or when in speeding those machines to and from these most disconnected venues, a flight of freedom was also found. The Roaring Twenties saw Saul making more money than most, set in the lifestyle of a confirmed bachelor, and sowing wild oats with all the Roxie Hart’s the Vieux Carré had to offer. That was until Alison Plaisance reenters the scene. This happenstance ensues the misfortune of 1929s Great Depression, the collapse of the fur market, and the attempt at settling down. For a while it almost appeared to work from an outsider’s perspective. The interior disclosure, however, revealed a vastly different picture. In So Eagerly Awaiting, the story of a man in exile weaves a narrative through the burgeoning years of the Twentieth Century, revisiting the first appearances of electric light, automobiles, radio, movie pictures, airplanes, and air conditioning. This chronicle told through the remembrances of a group of neighborhood ruffians soon to also experience the War To End All Wars, the Jazz Age, hard economic times, a second World War, followed by America under the spell of science and technology. For Saul and Allison, 1950 became the vertex when twenty years of suspicion resulted in an act a manslaughter. The rumors of infidelity were equally mortal, ending a marriage, and leaving a family at unresolved loyalties. Proving most humans were creatures of habit, Saul returned to the marsh, whereas Allison used her devotion to the Catholic Church, teaching grammar school, gardening, and grandchildren as a facade to avoid the real issues. Sixty miles of roads maintained a nonconfrontational peace for fifteen years. Until an unforeseen event forces the answers both of them are So Eagerly Awaiting to hear.

455 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2018