Norman's Neighborhood

Spleen (because it's not an appendix!)

A/N: This is not a chapter, but rather a section of additional information about the characters.

WARNING: Characters in the spleen are listed in order of mention.

Bill & Marguerite Wusthof - next door neighbors. Bill is a retired forensic odontologist who still consults. He is somewhat tall and thin, with dark brown eyes and neatly parted straight grey hair. He is seventy-five and very active.
Marguerite is average height, with bright blue eyes and fluffy white hair. She is seventy-two. She loves to cook, makes desserts for a local coffee shop, and is a little plump. They have three grown children, all married, and seven grandchildren.

Kathy Benson - back neighbor, across vacant lot. Thirty-two years old, she is a widow with two adolescent children. Her husband died three years ago of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. She is office manager for a local hardware store. She is medium build, with thick, dark brown hair she wears in a French braid, and has hazel eyes. She is not a pushover. Has a large orange cat named Jasper.
Daisy Benson - Kathy's nine-year-old daughter, very outgoing. Looks like a miniature of her mother.
Todd Benson - Kathy's seven-year-old son. Has blond hair and hazel eyes. He is full of energy.
Wilford Smythe-Bonynge - owner of Hansel, a feisty red dachshund. Wilford is balding, with a sparse fringe of graying strawberry-blond hair, and light blue eyes. He has a sketchy reddish mustache. He is fifty-six. Short, pudgy, self-important, he lives down the road and walks Hansel in the neighborhood. He is an accountant.
Scott family - Norman's people:
Mike & Dena Scott - Mike is tall, big-boned, with slightly curly light brown hair and hazel eyes. He is a fifty-two-year-old structural engineer.
Dena is very energetic, a petite graying blond with bright blue-green eyes, forty-nine years old. She is a vet tech in a veterinary clinic down the street from their house. Maiden name is Etxeberri; she is one-eighth Basque. Her parents live nearby.
David - their nineteen-year-old son, in college.
Looks like his father. Had bacterial meningitis at fifteen, contracted while on a band trip. Was hospitalized for a week; home recovery took several months. His experience motivated him to study medicine; he intends to become an infectious disease specialist.
Logan - their fifteen-year-old son. Has his mother's coloring with father's height. Has artistic talent, enjoys woodworking, and wants to be an architect.
The family had a basset hound named Sadie, who lived almost fourteen years. She died just before David got sick. Owners of a giant schnauzer (patient at vet clinic) gave them a puppy from her litter when David was recovering.

Millie McKittrick - frail, elderly lady who never married; her fiancé was killed in WWII. She met him when she was in the WAC (from 1943 to 1945). Tall and trim, in her youth she was a pretty gray-eyed blond. At 95, she walks with a cane but still has a straight back. She can't stand for long. She has shining white hair; her eyes and her mind are still sharp. Her pets are Louie, a huge Maine Coon cat, and Jester, a black-headed caique parrot. She talks about her WAC days; when she mentions the invasion of Normandy, the dog seems to pay close attention. Since she doesn't know his name, she decides to call him Normandy.

Evelyn Uluivuya - live-in caregiver for Millie McKittrick. A tall, sturdy Fijian, fifty-nine years old, she has medium-dark skin, large chocolate brown eyes, and fuzzy dark brown hair. She is sensible, reliable, and kind. Favors practical denim skirts with traditional Fijian blouses, and wears large-framed glasses. Had two uncles who fought with Australia/New Zealand troops in WWII Pacific theater. She collects elephants.

Sam & Valerie Ganas - owners of Thessaloniki Aegean Market and Deli, a small establishment a few blocks down from Millie's house. Their house sits behind the market. Sam is a genial, broad, somewhat overweight man of mostly Greek heritage, with chestnut brown eyes, black, curly hair and a large mustache. He is forty-six, and the youngest of five children. He enjoys cooking, and has homemade daily specials in the deli.
His wife Valerie is a pale, nervous, skinny, blue-eyed redhead with a pencil skewering her bun. She is forty-five. She wears coppery wire-frame glasses.  She is very proud of all her children. She worries about what their youngest son will say next.
Zachary - their sixteen-year-old son. Has his father's coloring, and curly hair, but is thin like his mother. Works in the store with his parents. He is dependable.
Zoë - their fourteen-year-old daughter. Tall and thin,with waist-length straight black hair and brown eyes. She loves to sing and is in school choir. Thinks of family as orchestra instruments. Has a crush on Logan Scott.
Zane - their precocious, just barely seven-year-old son. Has curly dark red hair and freckles. Wears somewhat thick glasses that magnify his blue eyes. Has his father's stocky build. Classmate and friend of Todd Benson, he was at the Benson's house when Norman had the encounter with Hansel. When Norman shows up at the store, Zane recognizes that it's the same kind of dog. He is obsessed with the Greek language, and geology, particularly volcanoes.
Evamarie Ganas - Sam's eighty-five-year-old mother; she has dementia, and lives with them. She is half Greek and half Swedish. The children call her "Yaya" - except for Zane, who insists on explaining that she is really "γιαγιά". She has tightly curled white hair and blue eyes with brown flecks. She is quite mobile with the aid of her walker, and occasionally tries to get out and go back to her own house.

Rosalinda Matapang Smythe-Bonynge - Wilford Smythe-Bonynge's wife; has dark brown eyes and straight black hair. She is a tiny Filipina, forty-two years old, who controls Hansel better than her husband does. She frequently visits her family in the Philippines.

Ray & CC Etxeberri - Dena Scott's parents. Ray is eighty-four, medium height, with iron gray hair and blue-green eyes. He is a retired veterinarian who enjoys woodworking. CC (Cecilia Leonora Smith) is a talented artist who does book illustrations in colored pencil. She is eighty, small and lively, with blue eyes and wavy gray-white hair pulled straight back and clipped with an abalone shell barrette.

Perry & Anna Penrose - couple who are employed by Paul de Laurentiis, and live in a house on his property with their three young daughters. Perry, who is Cornish, is twenty-seven. He is medium height and build, with very curly black hair, pale skin, and hazel eyes. He is Paul's groundskeeper. Wears an outback hat whenever he's outside.
Anna is responsible for keeping house. She is also twenty-seven. She has long, brown hair and ice blue eyes. She wears flowing boho styles.
Sarah - their five-year-old daughter. Has straight brown hair and blue eyes. She is very motherly with her youngest sister.
Hannah - their three-year-old daughter. Has curly black hair, huge hazel eyes, and dimples. Smiles and laughs all the time.
Dinah - their ten-month-old daughter. Has curly black hair and dark blue eyes. She is very somber.

Paul de Laurentiis - wealthy bachelor with large property, half a mile down the road. Thirty-nine years old, extremely tall, thinnish, with dark blond hair and green eyes. Wears reading glasses, which he takes off and puts on constantly. He is a bit reserved. He inherited property and some money, but earned his own fortune as a graphic artist and textile designer with his own line of products.

Sylvia Messenger - Extremely extroverted woman who, along with her mother, is constantly trying to matchmake for her bachelor cousin Paul. Her husband Steve is a pilot who is frequently away for days at a time, leaving her at loose ends.

Gail Pfaff - Receptionist at Neuberger's Veterinary Clinic, where Dena works. She is disorganized yet very competent, cheerful, somewhat overweight and always intending to diet. She and Dena are good friends.