Fred Wilson
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Frederick Augustus Wilson, Jr. (born April 1, 1949) is the head librarian at the Sadie Public Library, who meets Cash when he visits the library to review old newspapers. Wilson has spent most of his life in Sadie, except while going to college in Baton Rouge and working in Covington for a few years. He has led an increasingly reclusive life, one founded on a false nostalgia, in the house his parents owned.
Wilson is motivated by stability and consistency nostalgia gives him. Wilson wants to live a quiet, simple life. Wilson is challenged by his connection to Hal and Verge. Wilson will discover that Hal's friendship is more about control.
When Wilson first meets Cash and realizes that he is looking for Verge, he pretends to be helpful but also calls Hal, who sends the two police offers to scare off Cash. The violence by the cops reminds Wilson of the brutality Hal is capable of. In response, he begins talking to Verge about freeing themselves from Hal's grip.
Biography
Early life
The only child of older parents, Wilson grew up as both a spoiled child and a heavily disciplined one. Both of Wilson's parents, natives of the region, were young adults during the Great Depression and carried that mindset with them until their deaths.
Wilson's childhood was fairly uneventful. He was known to be a bookish and reserved child, but his friendship with the older Hal Gremillion, whose family lived down the street from his family, often brought out the troublemaker in him. Hal's stubborn and rebellious nature was attractive to the reticent Wilson. While Hal seemed highly judgemental of others, Wilson never felt that Hal was judging him, as he felt so many other people were.
Wilson was a strong student throughout school, often surprising his parents who did not consider him to be particularly intelligent. He remained largely inactive socially. After graduating from high school, Wilson was classified 4-F for the draft due to a history of stomach ulcers. He enrolled at LSU as an Education major in 1967.
Professional life
After completing his Master's degree in 1974, Wilson quickly found a job working in the St. Tammany Parish Library in Covington, Louisiana. He stayed at that job, without any real highs or lows, for six years, when he was hired to take over as the school librarian at his alma mater, Sadie High School.
During his first year at the high school, Wilson had an affair with Henrietta Dupont, the chair of the Science Department, who was both married and several years older than Wilson. Dupont regretted the six-month affair and ended it on the morning of that year's commencement ceremony. Wilson, having little experience with romantic relationships, took it badly and spent the summer in a deep depression, while Dupont refocused her energies on her teaching. Wilson, with the help of Hal and Charly, pulled himself together by the end of the summer, embracing a more stoic attitude.
Wilson would spend the rest of the decade attempting to keep the school library as traditional as possible, often sparring with the administration over technological improvements they felt should be implemented. In 1989, Wilson quit the school after the principal received a grant to install six Apple SE computers in the library.
Within a few months, Wilson was hired by the Sadie Public Library as the head librarian, a job he would keep for the next thirty years, during which he would continue to resist any technological development. During the late 1990s, he considered his crusade justified as the librarian remained untouched by the Y2k panic, but in 2002, the Board of Directors forced him to have two computers installed for public use and to adopt an electronic catalog and management system.
Relationships
Throughout high school, Wilson never felt romantically or sexually attracted to anyone. He was shy and fairly withdrawn. During his sophomore year at LSU, he became infatuated with another Education major named Marshall. While they maintained a close friendship for the next two years, Wilson never admitted to Marshall how he actually felt about him. On May 4, 1970, at the end of Wilson's junior year, during a party on the day of the Kent State massacre, Wilson attempted to explain his feelings, but Marshall thought his exclamations of love were just drunken nonsense. A few days later, Marshall fled to Canada to avoid the draft.
Wilson remained celibate for next decade, completing his Master's degree and working in Covington. Although he occasionally struggled to understand his feelings for Mitch, he focused on his studies, his work, and his budding collections of first edition books and German beer steins.
Henrietta Dupont
In 1980, he moved back to Sadie and began work as the librarian at the high school, where he met Henrietta Dupont, the chair of the school's Science Department. Henrietta was nine years older than Wilson and married. Almost instantly, Wilson had the same feelings for Henrietta as he had for Mitch. Throughout the fall semester, he pined after her, finding any excuse to interact with her. On December 19, two days after Henrietta's 40th birthday, they both drank to much at the staff Christmas party. That evening, they had sex in Wilson's office. Afterwards, Wilson admitted to Henrietta that it had been his first time. Their affair would continue throughout the spring semester, and would be ended by Henrietta on the morning of the high school commencement. Her husband had become increasinly suspicious and she worried that maintaining the relationship over the summer break would be too difficult.
Wilson sank into a deep depression that lasted throughout the summer. He was supported during that time by his old friend Hal and Hal's cousin Charly. Much of their efforts to boost Wilson's morale were built around criticism of moral collapse of American culture. By the end of the summer, Wilson had suppressed his heartbreak by expanding his desire to see the America of his childhood restored.
Henrietta's husband died of throat cancer in 2004, the same year that Wilson's mother died. Not long after, Wilson began visiting Henrietta, often the evening at her house, drinking cocktails and playing games well into the night.
Characteristics
Physical Appearance
Wilson is tall (6'1") and heavy-set (200 lbs) and has been since the 9th grade. Throughout high school, he had terrible acne, which left his face pock-marked as an adult. Since his thirties, he has usually worn some form of facial hair to cover up the scarring.
Other than embarassment about the pock-marks, Wilson has never much cared about his appearance. His hair, whether short as a young man or longer once it started going gray, is generally unkempt. When he started balding, he took to wearing British driving caps. This style spread, so that for the past twenty years, he has typically worn a tweed cap, a tweed vest, and blue Oxford shirt whenever he leaves the house.
Personality
At the library, Wilson has a very goofy persona, the nerdy old librarian. He is friendly with everyone in the library, but those who know him well, his employees and his few friends, know that the facade can break easily, revealing a short temper. Even so, such outbursts are short-lived and nothing but hot air.
In his free time, Wilson tends to his rose garden, reads, writes, and corresponds by mail with a number of people around the country, including his college friend Marshall.
Health
Wilson's shy, nervous personality contributed to the early onset of stomach ulcers, which have plagued him throughout his life, casuing him to eat a fairly bland diet. Due to his large size and heavy weight since high school, Wilson suffers from a number of other health problems, including heart problems, sleep apnea, and kidney problems.
Plot Synopsis
Get It All Back
When Wilson first meets Cash, he thinks he is a writer doing research for a book and is quickly taken with the idea. He quickly learns though that Cash is looking for information about his friend Verge. As a result, his helpfulness becomes a ruse. He calls Hal who then sends two police officers to scare off Cash. When Cash returns after getting roughed up, Wilson is lost as how to proceed, and when Cash leaves shortly afterwards, Wilson hopes it is the last he will see of the investigator.
Wilson spends the next week keeping to his routine, having put the matter out of his mind. He checks in on Verge and has dinner with Henrietta on Sundays. Wilson decides to say nothing to Verge about someone asking questions about him, but finds him in an agitated state. Verge, though, won't say clearly what has upset him, but talks more than usual about feeling trapped in the shack.
When Cash appears at his house the following Thursday, Wilson is still uncertain what Cash is trying to accomplish, but by engaging with him, he gets a better sense of what Cash wants. After Cash leaves and Wilson regains consciousness, he calls Hal and meets with him at the Hardee's. Hal tells him to check in on Verge and then to go about his business, that he will take care of things. Wilson, skeptical, obeys as he always has with Hal.
Again, Wilson finds Verge riled, talking about things like ungrateful children, but also in worse health, tired and coughing. Wilson tells Verge he needs to be extra careful now that they know someone is trying to find information on him. Verge dismisses Wilson's concerns, talking about getting out and setting things straight. After Wilson leaves, he again meets with Hal, this time at Big Boy's Barbecue, to tell him about his concerns about Verge. Hal says Charly has also been making noise recently. Wilson then takes dinner to Henrietta's and spends the evening playing Trivial Pursuit with her.
The next day while at work, Wilson gets a call from Hal to meet him at Verge's shack. Wilson protests but ultimately gives in to Hal's demands. At the shack, he finds Cash tied up by Hal and Verge almost delirious from fever. Verge is ranting about random things throughout his life, and both Hal and Cash are arguing with him about the truth of those things. At one point, Cash makes a run for it and busts through the front door, but Hal and Wilson are able to drag him back inside. Wilson is troubled by Hal's talk, which is increasingly violent about bouth Verge and Charly. When they hear gunfire outside, all are startled, and Wilson flees, apologizing as he does so. He sees another car driving up the road as he exits the property.
