Incessant Expectations by Kenneth Fenter
In the novel Incessant Expectations Jim Howard has given up trying to interact with girls and then women after constant rejection in high school. He is now in a Oregon, far from his Southwestern childhood home. On his second day on the coast he takes a charter, gets seasick, catches a salmon, and is back safely at shore. He goes back to the Sportsman Cafe run by the Charter Company and sees the waitress who helped him get his ticket.
A tired, but happy, Jim stepped into the Sportsman Café at ten that morning. He sat down in a booth where he could look out at the dock where the McPherson I was getting ready for its next trip.
A line of people, who all wanted to get on a boat, was lined up at the ticket counter at the charter office, where the secretary patiently explained they might work in another trip, because the first trip had come back early. Otherwise, there was no way they could get on. One man bitterly complained that the only time you could get on a “puker” was when there were no fish biting.
Hattie stopped at Jim’s table. She winked and said, “You didn’t take the pills did you?”
Jim shook his head sheepishly.
She brought him a bowl of clam chowder, an extra cup of coffee and joined him for her break. “Was it worth it?” she asked.
“Certainly was,” he said and smiled at the memory.
“You still look a little peaked around the gills. I would suggest you take those the next time you go out.” She reached across the booth and poked his shirt pocket where she had seen him put the Dramamine.
“Believe me, I will. Does it ever go away?” he asked.
“For most people it does. There are a few tricks to keep it from coming on. You probably won’t have trouble with it again, especially if you take the pills,” she said. “It’s worse on a charter boat. Boats like Dad’s are built wider to take passengers and to give them room to keep their gear from tangling. They are flat bottomed, so they respond to the sea more. They are lighter and faster, so they can get out and back, and spend their time fishing. The deep sea trawlers are heavier, have a low center of gravity and have stabilizers to keep the hooks from rising and falling so much with rougher seas. The commercials have big diesel engines that plug along, but are efficient.”
Jim listening while he sipped the steaming hot clam chowder. “This is amazing,” he commented. “You make this?”
“It’s the only thing, I do cook in here. I guess you could say, it’s my specialty,” she blushed.
“You could patent it, if there is such a thing as patenting food.”
She smiled at his compliment.
“You know a lot about boats,” Jim said.
“I’ve lived around them all my life,” she said.
When he finished the chowder, he asked, “Do you know if a man by the name of Charlie Reed has a boat here?”
“Charlie? Yes, he has a boat here. The Madilin. He keeps her over on ‘C’ dock. How do you know Charlie?” Hattie asked.
“It’s a long story,” Jim said.
“My break is over for now, but I want to hear it. My shift is over, and I have lunch at 1:30. If you haven’t had lunch by then, come on back, join me and tell me the story,” she invited.
Incessant Expectations by Kenneth Fenter autographed copies available at arborwoodpress.com print and kindle copies available at amazon.com print copies available at online books stores worldwide.
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