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Characters in the
Skeeter Kitefly Books
(presented more-or-less in the order of their appearance)
The Wunderlichs
The Ups and Downs of
Skeeter Kitefly
Skeeter Kitefly's Sugardaddy Confessor
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Skeeter Kitefly's
Titular Assets
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COMPACTIFICATION
behind the scenes
RoBynne O'Ring's
GRUNTS OF
PASSION
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Last Updated
February 05, 2010
Grandma Frieda
Grandmother of Skeeter's Gramma Addie and
Great-Aunt Emmy: a no-nonsense, maxim-
coining hausfrau matriarch.
...She was turning to go when Skeeter asked, “What was the second thing?” “Hum?” “The other home truth your Grandma said to know.” “Oh—ha! ‘You can always catch a husband, but with men so lazy you’d best get an education first.’ Remember that, hawney, and study hard...”
Gustav (Gus)
Frieda's carpenter husband, who built the
House With All The Porches on four acres
alongside a railroad spur near Tawe
Street
in Marble Orchard.
...Sixty showery Aprils later, and the trees were taller. Some superannuated, like the twin oaks out back. Other planted by Gustav Wunderlich, whose abruptly-pointed chin had been passed down unto the fourth generation and sharpened even Skeeter’s roundish jaw...
George
Gus and Frieda's eldest, dead at age ten.
...That big shade tree on the front lawn: planted in memory of firstborn George, who’d died of typhoid...
Aunt Livy
Spent her life caring for others, assisting
her mother (and later her niece) with the
housekeeping and childraising.
Her little
bedroom by the linen closet would become
Skeeter's.
...I inherited them all—bed, quilt, pillowfluff—from Gramma Otto’s Aunt Livy. Who would be my great-great- (or maybe it’s great-great-great-) aunt, if you’re still trying to follow this. Everything in that room, practically, had been hers. And as I was reminded umpty times, “Aunt Livy kept it in apple-pie order every day of her life, even when she was over eighty...”
Aunt Claudia
Bookkeeper at the Market Square dry goods
shop; a brusque take-charge type, frowning
on lightheartedness. In middle age, married
a lackluster fireman.
...Look at Aunt Claudia! Abrasive teetotal temperament. Chivvying that dull tool Uncle Ned into an early grave; then went more than a little batty herself. Took to visiting Rosewood Cemetery every day, joining all the funerals and acting as permanent star mourner. Umm umm umm...
Louis (Lou)
Emmy and Addie's father: imposing,
obstinate,
gruff. Ran the Wunderlich Bros. grocery when
his baseball
hopes were dashed; chafed away
the rest of his life out of sheer
frustration.
“...More than anything else, my Dad wanted to be a pro baseball player. And he was good, too, good enough to play in the county league. But all that came to an end when he tried to steal third sliding and tore up his whole left side—hip, leg, foot. Broke his foot something awful. They wanted to fetch a doctor, but Dad wouldn’t have it—said just to take him home, he’d ‘sleep it off...’ He was that mule-stubborn...”
Margaret (Maggie)
Emmy and Addie's mother: had a calming
effect on Lou, but died of heart failure at
only twenty-seven.
...I had to leave Whippy behind when I moved to Demortuis ‘cause she was a country cat and didn’t care for city life. Gramma renamed her “Margaret,” which incidentally was her mother’s name (Gramma’s, that is; Whippy’s mother was named “Puff”...)
CHARACTERS:
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Page Five
Page Six
The Wunderlichs
"The original" Emily
Gus and Frieda's youngest daughter, who
died
of tuberculosis at the age of twelve.
...Those Hungerfords. They convinced me that a little girl who “looked just like me” had coughed herself to death in Gramma’s bedroom closet, years ago, and that her ghost would swoop out around midnight and smell like rotten eggs and so on. I tried to catch her doing it a bunch of times, but never managed once...
Uncle Willie
Lou's partner in the Wunderlich Bros.
grocery,
and founder of the Family Quartet. Enjoyed a
long happy
carefree life; was considered
"frivolous" by his mother and sister Claudia.
...They say he was a real charmer. Taught himself to play the piano and mandolin and saxophone, and wore boutonnieres in the Lutheran church on Sundays that weren’t Easter, and belonged to every social club in town and escorted lots of eligible widows around, but never married any of them so got chalked up as a “fickle lazybones”...
Uncle Stanley
Youngest of seven: spoiled by Frieda and
Livy, hated by Lou. Practiced dentistry in
Demortuis, and being "the
most boring person
in the state of Nilnisi"—
“...Well, they did take Dad home—couldn’t get him up the stairs, so they put him on the horsehair sofa in the parlor, and there he lay groaning. Uncle Stanley came down to complain about the noise, took one look at Dad’s foot and fainted away. Dad never let him forget it, of course...”
Aunt Minnie
—unless that
was his wife Minnie.
“...Minnie! Was she a mouse?” “No, she was a pill. A Real Pill. And they put on airs. Would phone you up of a Sunday afternoon and hold forth till heck wouldn’t have it...”
The Wunderlich Family Quartet
Performed at many weddings, funerals, and
county fairs: Willie the pianist and tenor, Livy
the soprano, Claudia the
contralto, and Lou
the bass-baritone.
...They also had a professional family quartet back in the olden days, and would sing things like “Go Tell Aunt Rhody Her Old Grey Goose Is Cooked” at funerals all over Booth County...
Uncle Murgatroyd
Added to the family tree by Skeeter Kitefly.
“...Like Uncle Murgatroyd?” I say, and ad-lib this neat-o story about a mythical uncle who had hanged himself on the treehouse rope after getting jilted by a cruel figure skater named Heidi.
Boy, did I lay it on—even had the Creep half-believing it, till I went “Heavens to Murgatroyd” in a Snagglepuss voice...
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by P. S. Ehrlich; All Rights Reserved. Proceed to Characters: Page Two Return to Top