Edward Jones- Husband of Sondra, tax accountant, met her two years after I did so I got all the details, we have maintained a friendly if distant relationship, we don’t really have that much in common, and he hasn’t really forgiven me for the time Sondra cheated on him (four and a half years ago Sondra had a brief affair, she confided in me about it and then decided to tell her husband (which I advised her to do), at some point during her confession it became clear to him that I already knew (I wasn’t there or anything) and he was annoyed that she told me before him, he has since forgiven her for the entire incident) he doesn’t hate me, and appreciates the things I do for him and Sondra, but we’re more acquaintances than friends, dinner party guest
Timothy Jones- 2 ¾ year old son of Sondra and Edward, I babysit him quite a bit, he calls me “Uncle Ralph,” we get along well, he is an intelligent and well-behaved child but still enjoys playing, I enjoy babysitting him, he is probably the closest I will come to having a child of my own
Tyronne Zurdjief- fellow dealer in rare-books, he showed me a lot of the tricks of the trade, we have become close friends while maintaining a friendly rivalry, dinner party guest
Helen Zurdjief- wife of Tyronne, artist and mother, an amicable and friendly woman who puts people at ease, she is easy to get along with and we have become friends, she has a good sense of humour along with an (unfortunate) love of puns, dinner party guest
Lucy Teuma- ex-girlfriend, probably the only woman I really loved, the last woman I slept with (the last person I slept with was a brief encounter with some guy I picked up in a bar, but the story doesn’t sound as good that way), we maintained an on-again-off-again relationship for two and a half years, it wasn’t perfect but we stayed together, however our lives were tainted by the heroin, I’d given up but she could never make it stick, eventually I decided to get out for good, the last thing I remember of her is that needle going into her arm and that look of ecstasy on her face, I still think about her sometimes, it wasn’t long after that that I swore to give up drugs, drinking and sex, at least until I had my life figured out, it’s been over ten years now, I don’t know where she is, what she’s doing, or even if she’s alive
Philip Christophe- my sponsor in Alcoholics Anonymous, dentist, his wife left with his daughter, he lost a thriving practice, all because of his alcoholism, since then he has put his life back together, started a new practice, been given visitation rights on his daughter, I find him a great source of strength when things get hard, although I wasn’t just an alcoholic I find the meetings useful, dinner party guest
Michael Smithson- father, retired, I was the only child of Catholic parents, I was closer to my mother than my father, just before my fifteenth birthday my mother died of liver cancer, with just me and my father in the house I rebelled, I rebelled against my Catholic upbringing, questioning wether an all-wise all-powerful God would allow such things to happen, I declared myself an atheist, I rebelled against my father, he had always been the strong silent type, but now I saw him as the harsh symbol of authority, I drifted into booze and drugs, I left home as soon as I could, we didn’t talk for eight years, sometime after I swore my vow I tried to re-establish contact but too much time had passed, and too many things had been said, if he didn’t approve of my wild youth he also didn’t approve of my newfound celibacy (if I’d been a priest that would have been one thing, but I was an atheist), we have both of us tried to bridge the gap between us but neither of us really knows how
