When Will I See You Again: The Prodigal Son

By S. Jane DeFrancesco

The Prodigal Son returns! The religious zeolot learns the power of the written word! The "Die Is Cast" for Leland and Paula Strout. Apart for years, each finds his and her own separate peace. Paula's mental illness and Leland's unorthodox infidelity culminate tragically in a triangle of love, hate, and unspeakable regret.

Paula Strout dabbles in Feminism with an eye toward the improbable and the rediculous. Her daughters help her to overcome almost impossible odds. A twist at the end of the book will surprise and leave the reader wondering!.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 27, 2009
• ISBN: 9781467053310

S. Jane DeFrancesco

Executive Secretary turned author. Several years working in the health field, I learned how to bring together diverse people suffering a variety of health problems under one book cover. This is my second attempt at writing fiction which I hope emphasizes my love of writing and my feel for the characters I write about. Now in my mid seventies, I find it's not too late to realize the dream of becoming a published author of books. Ms. DeFrancesco is the author of another published book, ADAM. She lives alone in a Townhouse in Hawthorne's Crossing in Swampscott, Ma. She is a graduate of the FAMOUS WRITER'S SCHOOL of Westport, Ct. In addition, she has completed a course, Foundations In Humanities, originating from England in Open College at Salem State College in Salem, Ma. Though never married, she enjoys interpersonal relationships with all people, especially people younger than herself.

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AuthorHouse™

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© 2009 S. Jane DeFrancesco. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 4/20/2009

ISBN: 978-1-4389-3932-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-5331-0 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

To Karen:

My friend, my moral supporter, and my mentor.

CHAPTER ONE

The magnificence of a Summer’s day, the smell of the open sea, the muffled sounds of a community waking to another morning of barter and tender…garbled voices converged into the atmosphere of Pebble Beach.

Betrayal, insanity and small miracles, Paula Pruitt’s wedding day ironically foretold of such events. For the moment, her destiny seemed in her own hands. She was betrothed to Leland Strout, a studious young man of nineteen, a college boy who labored on Pebble Beach as a bus boy in one of the Beach resort restaurants.

In the small chapel at the very end of the beach, away from the milling crowd, organ music played and a choir lifted their voices to the strains of OH PROMISE ME. The windows of the church flung wide, a refreshingly cool breeze entered the chapel. June, the month of weddings, Paula Pruitt fit every bit the ideal of a beautiful young bride. It was Sunday morning and vacationers bustled to and from breakfast and looked toward sunning on the sand and swimming in the cold Atlantic Ocean waters.

The daughter of a minister, Paula’s parents owned and operated a house on Pebble Beach where the Pruitt family had lived for generations. They took in lodgers. Paula had been the town brat in adolescence, scurrying along the beach, collecting rediculous souvenirs which she paid one dollar for, and during her spare time she helped with chores in her parent’s lodging house in off season and summer months. She had met Leland Strout the previous summer when he had come East to subsidize his way through the nearby college.

The chapel silent, at last Paula’s dad, the minister, performed the wedding ceremony. Her brother-in-law, George Russell, walked her down the aisle. Leland waited, with a proud smile on his youthful face. They seemed the perfect couple. Paula extended her left hand for Leland’s wedding ring, her bouquet of violets passed to her older sister, Betsy Russell, her matron of honor. With a burst of organ music, the ceremony ended, and after a brief wedding reception, the couple left for a ten day cruise to the Bahamas.

How exciting, Leland, Paula said. My first experience flying. Mom and dad are the best parents a girl could ever hope for. Paula and Leland, now Mr. & Mrs. Strout, held hands tightly as the jet liner leveled off high above the earth.

I’ll repay your dad…I mean Reverend Pruitt, for our honeymoon trip, Leland said with sincerity.

Please, Leland, call him dad. He’s very down-to-earth. Really! And the honeymoon trip is a wedding gift from my parents

As soon as I graduate college, I’ll support you in the way you’ve been used to.

Will we have many children, Leland? Paula asked. I want at least one boy and one girl.

You’re still pretty young, honey. Let’s wait until we’re really settled.

God will decide. It’s his decision.

I’m just his instrument, Leland said with a trace of defiance.

Paula laughed. You are an old stick, Leland. Be happy. We’re on our honeymoon. They drew closer in their seats, a boy and a girl still in their teens embarking on a new life together.

The first few years of their marriage were uneventful with the exception of the birth of their daughter, Kimberly. Leland continued his studies at the University twenty miles away from Pebble Beach. The Strout family of three lived with Reverend and Mrs. Pruitt, Paula’s parents. When not attending University, Leland overseed the Pruitt’s enormous lodging house. Reverend Pruitt considered him a valued employee as well as a beloved son-in-law. Not discussed was Leland’s atheism. Reverend Pruitt chose not to press the issue, his daughter’s happiness of utmost importance to him. A Christian marriage ceremony had been performed primarily to please Paula, whom Leland loved very much. He wanted a marriage which would be legal and binding. He had no illusions about the law. He wasn’t sold on it, but he obeyed it when it suited his purposes.

History his major, Leland expected a professorship upon graduation and completion of a five-year Master’s Degree program in education. During four years of marriage, a second daughter, Kathleen, was born. An opportunity to teach history at the University of Chicago arose. The Strout family planned their move. Paula’s remarkable transformation from a young eighteen-year-old newlywed to a doting mother of two girls pleased Leland. Her striking green eyes, large and luminous, marbled her beautiful face, and those who came in contact with her marvelled at their beauty.

Pebble Beach has been good to us, Paula said, as they packed their belongings for their move to Chicago. I’ll miss mom and dad and all the flurry and activity of the lodging house.

You knew we might have to relocate when we married. Pebble Beach is fine for the young set and folks like your parents. It’s different with my folks. They’ve only known a farmhouse and the rocky cliffs of Nova Scotia. I don’t imagine they’ll ever know our daughters.

Paula stopped her packing. You don’t say much about them. I only know you’re an only child. What was it like living in Halifax?

A lot of fish. A lot of water. We lived on farm land. My dad cultivated it for the purposes of a livlihood.

Are they churchgoing people?

The sum total of my upbringing were the pigs, the hogs, and the sheep. Breeding and slaughtering left no time for anything else.

How do you feel about death, Leland?

The heart stops beating. The brain dies. It’s over.

And what about the human spirit?

That dies, too. That’s what I believe, Paula. Don’t question me further. My people don’t understand me either.

They moved to Chicago to a cold drafty Victorian house on the outskirts of the city. The eight-room house needed considerable repair, and Leland remodeled the first floor so that it became more modern. Eventually, they replaced the faulty heating system and added a two-car garage. Besides being a brilliant scholar, Leland was an excellent carpenter. This, together with his duties at the University, left little time for his wife and daughters. When he wasn’t working on the house, he secluded himself in his study writing.

Paula’s resentment took shape. She caught Leland in an off moment when he wasn’t buried in his work. How is your work at the University? Has it become more than we bargained for?

Are you sorry I accepted the position?

Of course not. I’m content.

Content?

She frowned. I just wish you wouldn’t work so hard.

Leland placed his hands playfully on her shoulders and shook her. Paula, Paula, you’re much to principled…concerned with how you think everything ought to be. Relax, darling. Things will iron themselves out.

Despite his reassurances, she soon discovered that the creamy smoothness of a sip of brandy had turned into a serious problem. She enjoyed an after-dinner cocktail; and at bedtime a glass of brandy to help her sleep. Slowly the cocktail and the brandy turned into a tumbler of Scotch whiskey. The drinking began as medicinal until she drank in earnest when she found lovemaking not enough to fill the void of an absent husband. Leland had come into a substantial sum of money at the age of twenty-one from his father which had helped provide funds for the purchase of their home in Chicago. He never discussed the source of the large sum of money; but she assumed that his Scottish father had hoarded the money all of his life. He must have loved his son very much to work so hard and save so frugally. She felt drawn to his parents despite her husband’s coldness toward them. She tried to find a clue in his writing as to why he felt as he did about religion. Instead she felt drawn to the written word. Writing opened doors, forced a person to think about things outside their every-day lives. Comfortable financially, she decided quite suddenly to attempt a writing career of her own. She asked Leland one day about financing her studies. The clash of ideas began.

You know I would like a son.

I don’t want another child for you to ignore, I want to write.

Why? You have the girls. Our home.

I notice, at every opportunity, you take to the pen. Won’t you open your mind to my being something other than a mother?

We don’t need additional income.

"Do I need an excuse? I want to do something worthwhile; to hold my head up and say…see, I’m not just a wife and mother…I make a difference. I have something to contribute, and I want people talking about it.’’

They’re already talking, Paula, about your drinking. Am I so unlovable?

Paula studied his impeccable features. He was tall, and strong, and intelligent. Every woman’s dream. What she found unlikeable about him were his unsavory convictions. She had been so much in love that she had overlooked the issue of God and religion. After all, she was a minister’s daughter. If you won’t finance my studies, I’ll go to my parents.

No need. I’ll look into classes available at the University. Evening classes, perhaps. Kim and Kath should have their mother present for them during the day.

Thank you, Leland, she said gracefully. I’ll try to cut down on my drinking. George and Betsy are hopeful a writing career might relieve some of the tension I’ve been experiencing.

You told your sister about your drinking?

Her letters keep me informed about the health of mom and dad. I tell Betsy everything about our lives here in Chicago. She misses us and likes to hear about Kim and Kath and their school work Betsy is unbeatable as an older sister. She never burdens my parents with unimportant details. One would never believe she’s only four years older than me. Mom and dad had both of us late in life.

Unimportant details? I should have put my foot down years ago with that first sip of brandy at night. My late work in the lodging house kept you awake. You wanted me at your side. We’ll try to make it back to Pebble Beach for Thanksgiving, He didn’t want to think of his wife as an alcoholic.

I’d hoped Kim and Kath might spend several weeks during the summer there. I had such a happy childhood. Did you know Pebble Beach got its name because of all the pebbles being washed up to shore by the tides?

I chose well. The University and that little stretch of island beach is the best thing that could have happened to me. I met you, Paula. He looked at her affectionately and with more understanding. When the girls are older, we’ll make that trip back to Connecticut. Seven and nine are still young for them to fully appreciate the benefits of travel.

I wish, Leland, you would stop putting things off. In two years I’ll see that dreaded thirtieth mark and we’ve seen nothing of the world.

A University professor’s life is dull, I admit. Writing volumes of historical minutia isn’t what I had planned I want to do some serious writing…something nobody else has ever written.

Paula felt a mild fury. Why was it so important that Leland have what he wanted — what he needed! Her anger confused her.

Late in the evening, the girls tucked in their beds sleeping, Leland appeared restless and uncomfortable. The night, windy and cold in Chicago, the month of October proved tolerable though they found themselves in limbo neither happy nor unhappy and rather lost after ten years of marriage. Their daughters had kept it afloat and functioning.

Paula got up from her chair and turned the television set off. It’s late I’m going to bed. Are you coming?

Leland shifted in his chair. I think I’ll go for a drive. I’m not tired.

At this hour! It’s eleven o’clock.

Please, Paula, I want to think.

What you mean is that I’m a distraction.

Leland went to the hall closet and got into his Windbreaker. I won’t be long. Lock up. I’ll use my key. The front door closed resolutely behind him. The clock ticked on for hours At three o’clock in the morning, Leland climbed into bed beside Paula, who pretended sleep. His first class at the University was scheduled for eight o’clock.

The wind subsiding, the next day drizzling rain sprinkled the lawns and hardly touched the surfaces of the pavement. Paula sent a bleary-eyed Leland off with little breakfast, avoiding any mention of his nighttime excursion. Several similar episodes followed with Leland leaving the house late at night and not returning until the early hours of the morning. His work suffered, his writing diminished, and he neglected the house. A light snow fell in November, just glazing the leaves, and the girls, Kim and Kath, spoke excitedly of the approaching holidays. Leland made no further mention of a trip to Pebble Beach.

Mom, Kimberly said to Paula on a Saturday morning after she and Kath had finished tidying up their rooms, why is dad always so tired? He promised us burgers at McDonald’s today but now he’s locked in his study buried in work.

Kath, the younger of the two girls, had Paula’s green