October Novel Essential Information

Novel Title: Unforeseen Circumstances

Time Setting: 1987

Genre: Historical

Minimum Word Goal: 90,000

Timespan: 17 July–1 August

Locations: Edmonton, Fort Saskatchewan, and Sturgeon County, Alberta.

Main Characters: Weston Hazlett

Background Information: 

Born the only son and oldest of two children to his parents, a farmer and his city-raised wife, Weston’s early years were generally pleasant, as his father and grandfather were particularly glad of his birth, seeing it as an assurance that the family farm would continue for another generation.

During his early childhood Weston, his parents, and his little sister, Shannon, who was born when he was three spent a lot of time with the Lockhart family, as Weston’s father, Will, and Shaw Lockhart had been best friends for years. As it happened, Shaw and his wife’s youngest child, Darryl, was less than a year Weston’s senior, and it was anticipated that the two would become good friends as their fathers.

However, the opposite proved to be the case before they were even school aged, as Weston was a quiet, reserved child who — until Shannon was born — had been used to being on his own, while Darryl, having an older brother as well as being the youngest, was a bit of a rougher, rowdier personality as a result of his having to compete with his older siblings for attention, and withstanding the rougher play of his older brother.

Instead, after starting school, Weston was drawn to Shawn Meadows, who was something of an outcast from their Kindergarten days because Shawn’s father, Stan, and his father had fallen out years ago over how to manage the farm, and following Shawn’s grandfather having a farm accident that rendered him a quadriplegic, Stan had returned to run the farm his way now that his father couldn’t interfere, which displeased most of the community because of how well-respected his father was.

The friendship initially displeased Will and many others, but Weston didn’t feel that Shawn ought to be punished because of his father and grandfather’s inability to see eye-to-eye, and so Will eventually accepted the friendship.

Weston and Shawn’s friendship, however, prompted Darryl — who’d been apprised of the less-than-accepted status of Shawn’s father — to bully the two of them quite mercilessly, which only seemed to help forge Weston and Shawn’s friendship stronger.

When it came to Weston’s parents, however, things grew tense over the years, as Weston’s mother, having been raised in the city, found country life to be quite boring, and so would spend a lot of time with friends, often leaving Weston and Shannon with one set of grandparents or another, or with Weston’s paternal aunt, while she did so.

Furthermore, the economy started to look a little unsteady, prompting Will to desire financial caution owing to his father’s grim tales of life during the Great Depression. Even though the farm was financially secure — as Will’s father had striven to make sure it was on good footing in case a comparable depression should happen again — he wasn’t pleased with his wife’s habit of going shopping while out with her friends.

The two, as a result, started arguing about money, usually in their bedroom, but there were times when the tension spilled over into the presence of Weston and Shannon, even if never to the level that it got when they weren’t around.

Matters were only made worse when, shortly after Weston’s twelfth birthday, Shannon shared with him an observation that their mother seemed to be pregnant again. Weston soon observed this as well, and so, somewhat puzzled, consulted his father, who hadn’t noticed, and was by no means pleased at the news.

Soon Weston and Shannon were told by their father that he’d put their mother out of the house, as the baby she was carrying wasn’t his, and they were all shocked to learn that the baby’s father was, in fact, Shannon’s best friend’s father, who had been carrying on an affair with Weston and Shannon’s mother for some years.

Both couples soon were involved in divorce proceedings, which took about two years to get through, mostly because disagreement arose over how the children ought to be distributed. Weston made it clear from the first that he wanted to stay primarily with his father, and all of Shannon’s best friend’s siblings were inclined to remain with their mother, while Shannon didn’t say one way or the other.

In the end, Shannon and her best friend’s custody was given primarily to Weston and Shannon’s mother and the man who became their stepfather shortly after the divorce was finalised, in addition to the daughter who had come of the pregnancy that had led to the affair’s discovery. Weston was required to spend every other weekend with them while Shannon did the same with his father, with it being arranged so that Weston and Shannon saw each other every weekend.

During the divorce proceedings, it ended up that Weston’s stepfather lost his job which prompted him to move Shannon, Weston’s mother, stepsister, and half-sister to Edmonton in search of a job. The poor economy has forced Weston’s stepfather to take a lower-paying job, and thus the family make their home in a trailer park on the north edge of Edmonton, just twenty minutes’ drive from the Hazlett farm.

Over the two years since the divorce’s finalisation, Weston has found his stepfather to be highly annoying and disagreeable, with the two getting into frequent fights that have prompted Weston to take walks around the trailer park to regain his composure. On one of these walks, Weston ended up meeting a girl named Andie.

Andie lives with her mother and two older brothers since the death of her father in a vehicle accident a couple years ago, and Weston immediately took a liking to her, causing them to develop a romantically-inclined friendship that Weston has kept quite secret, as he doesn’t desire that his stepfather or Darryl should find out about it.

Around the same time that he met Andie, Darryl ended up winning the heart of Robin, the prettiest girl in school, whom even Weston had dreamed of dating until he’d noticed she was starting to fall for Darryl, and Darryl quickly started lording his success over Weston, as well as getting irritated at Weston’s lack of interest.

As a result, Weston disclosed to Darryl simply that he has a girlfriend, but not who she is or where she lives, and he’s observed over recent months that Darryl seems obsessed with finding out who she is, even if Weston won’t tell him, leading to his developing a stalker-like behaviour, following Weston whenever he sees him.

This is of great concern to Weston, as — now that he has his driver’s license — he means to bring Andie out to the farm for the first time, following his annual two-week visit to his mother and stepfather’s house that is his least favourite part of the summer, and he’s wary of what Darryl has in mind once he finds out who his girlfriend is and where she’s from, suspecting that Darryl might mean to hurt Andie, even though he has to admit he’s not altogether sure why Darryl seems to have such an obsession with Andie and himself.