David
David is the protagonist of the story. He tells the story of his life from his early childhood till time when he is nineteen. His character is very complicated, he is not very clever boy, but still his way of thinking is unusual and interesting. He never had friends except his mother and Aunt Mae and it never bothered him. He loved just once in his life and the girl left him. He cared of the things too much and wanted to be happy like on that Christmas day when Mother bought him a train. David loved trains, he loved both toy and real trains. They calmed him down, trains were good, not like people, trains couldn’t hurt his feelings like people did. David was not ready for the adult life, he couldn’t imagine how he would live alone with his sick mother without Aunt Mae, and when she actually left he was lost. His mother died in his hands and David didn’t know what to do, he was thinking too hard but it didn’t help. He was a big kid who wanted the world just to leave him alone, but the world didn’t. some stupid preacher came to his place to take his mother to the crazy house and David killed him because it seemed to be the best decision for him. And now he is in the train, hiding away from the world, looking for the perfect place to hide away, to find the job and move forward.
Mother’s Aunt Mae
“Next to the train, I remember Aunt Mae most” – says David. And it means that she was an extremely important person in his life. and she was indeed. The lady was around 60 years old, heavy but tot fat, and she smelled so strong of perfume that sometimes “you couldn't get near her without your nose stinging and having a hard time getting air”, her hair was shiny and yellow. David loved her and they spent a lot of time together because they boy never had a friend of his age, so his best friend was his aunt. She used to work in night clubs as a singer and her past was full of not very pleasant adventures. She has passed through many difficulties and her life was not a pleasure. David also remembers that she wore short skirts and open blouses and all women around didn’t like her. She dated one man, but he appeared to be a crazy perpetrator. During the war time Aunt Mae started singing with a band again and it was a kind of revival for her soul because she was very talented. She got the opportunity to sing in another town and earn good money, so she decided to leave and left David with his sick mother, but she was going to help them to move to her place. She was a kind woman, sometimes, sarcastic, sometimes nice, but always sincere. She loved David and his mother and hoped that one day they all will be happy like then when she just moved to their place.
Jo Lynne
Jo Lynne came to the town to look after her sick grandfather. She was around sixteen, with long curly black hair and magnificent white skin. David saw her at the store where he was working. It was love, he felt at the moment when he looked at her. He has never seen the prettier girl in his life: “She was pretty and could have been on the front of a magazine if it wasn't for her mouth. It was just a little too big, but I liked the way her lips curved. She had on a pretty color lipstick that looked red when the light was on her lips but looked purple when she was in the dark. I liked it with her eyes and hair”. He asked her out and they spent a great time together but soon she had to left because her grandfather was better. David couldn’t believe that she could have left him. He was going to propose her but when he told that she slapped him in his face and said that he was insane. Their relationships didn’t matter for her, kissing didn’t matter, dates didn’t matter also because she never loved him.
Poppa
David wasn’t in good relations with his father but it happened after Poppa decided to meet David with the boy of his age. He left the children together at boy’s place and it was one of the most terrible days in David’s life and when father came to take his son home he saw him sitting on the near the house, with caked vomit and blood, crying. He didn’t say anything to David and he didn’t feel sorry for it, after that he didn’t care about growing up of his son, Aunt Mae and mother cared of him. Poppa worked at the factory and earned enough money to provide the family with all they needed. But later he had lost his job and they had to move into the cheaper place to live. There was a hill near the house and Poppa wanted to grow plants there so he spent all their money for the seeds. When his wife found this out there was a big scandal, he kicked her and left the house. But later he sold part of the seeds and came back, he started growing plants on the hill but then the war started so he went to Europe. He was a soldier in Italy and in each his letter to home, he told his wife to look after his plants. Unfortunately, he was killed there and he never made a farm on the hill which was his dream.
Mother
David’s mother was a kind woman, who was a good hostess, loved her family and his son was the best man in the world for her. Sometimes she lied, like it was in case with a fruit Christmas cake, but still, she never did any crime or other inappropriate actions. She cared about her family and when she found out that her husband spent all their money on seeds she made a scandal and then he kicked her in her face so she lost consciousness. But she forgive him and looked after those “stupid” plants because she really loved him and the death of her husband was the thing that killed her. She went crazy, didn’t care of her son anymore, and everyday she was just sitting and talking about her husband, looking forward to her from him. She became skinner and skinner every day, slowly fading away.
