Nancy Ruhling's Astoria Characters

It’s a custom in Hawaii to take your shoes off when you enter, so Jeff and Suzi Nauser are in their stocking feet when they answer the door. The framed memorabilia in the narrow entry hall that leads to the heart of their compact three-room apartment is a time capsule of their lives, which inexplicably intersected and intertwined some 15 years ago in the land of the waving palm trees. The black-and-white photos of the hula dancers make Suzi happy when she gets lonely for home; the state pins…

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Veronica Devine is padding around in her bare feet. She’s a morning person, a really funny thing for a bar owner to be. She’s shucked her sky-high silver sandals, which she swears on a bottle of Smirnoff are as comfortable as house slippers. She went to a customer’s wake last night and didn’t put her pretty blond head to pillow until 11 p.m., long past her 8 p.m. bedtime. Her blue eyes look like faded jeans. It’s not yet 9 o’clock, and she’s been cleaning…

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Lordy, lordy, things could have taken quite a different turn if Maureen McGowan hadn’t hated Irish step-dancing so much. In a burst of ill-conceived patriotism, her immigrant parents made her take lessons so she could learn the culture of their homeland. What’s worse, they signed her and her three older siblings up with a group that went around performing in nursing homes and way stations for wayward children. That’s why at age 10 Maureen found herself in Peekskill, New York, dancing…

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It’s a microchip, one-bedroom apartment, and they are a family of four, so there are certain compromises that must be made. They’re in the living room/office/playroom/dining room/family room. Jarda Nehybka is cutting some whole-wheat bread to go with the salad he’s made. Martina, his wife, is holding one-year-old Simonek, who is hurling magnetized alphabet letters off the filing cabinet like missiles. Maximek, who is nearly three, is racing cars on the carpet. Jarda smiles. He…

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It’s Thanksgiving time, and Kim Parshley is getting ready to make her famous pumpkin pie. She wishes the recipe had been handed down from her grandmother to her mother to her. It wasn’t; she was left to concoct it all by herself. It’s the brown sugar that makes it so famous. And the shortbread-crumb crust. Kim also wishes she were celebrating with the family members God gave her; instead, she’ll be getting together with the circle of friends she has chosen to stand in their…

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