Nancy Ruhling's Astoria Characters

The sound of silence in James Cruz‘ apartment is deafening. “Do you mind if I put on some music?” he pleads rather than asks. James fine-tunes the sounds on recordings. His apartment — home to him, his wife, Melissa, their 5-year-old son, Henry, and 11-month-old daughter, Stella, and thousands of CDs and vinyl records — is just too damn quiet for him to think even with a full cup of coffee in hand. James, a Grammy-winning mastering engineer, is used to listening to…

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The rush-hour regulars are lined up when John Zizzo steps behind the deli counter at Andrew & Frank’s Catering. John is the owner of Andrew & Frank’s Catering. He smiles, the happiness drawing little lines at the corners of his black eyes. There is no place he would rather be. In fact, there is no other workplace that he has ever been. Andrew & Frank’s and John came into this world together 48 years ago. Andrew, John’s father, and Frank, John’s uncle,…

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I live around the corner from a private high school. If I ever need to be reminded of this fact, all I have to do is look up in the sky. Are they lonely at the top? There, dangling dangerously on the high wires of the telephone poles, are sneakers strung up like Christmas tree lights. They look as though they’re running away. From what, I don’t know. I can’t help but wonder why the shoes were so callously tossed to the sky. I suspect it has something to do with marking off territory…

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If you don’t know anything about Pedro Fernandez de Unamuno, and most of the world doesn’t, look at his hat. He’s wearing it so you’ll ask him about it. Ask Pedro about his Boina. It’s a black Boina, a Basque-style beret that he sets rakishly atop of what’s left of his wispy white hair. It, and the Spanish flag unfurled across the living room bookcase like a banquet banner, remind him of the homeland he was forced to flee. Pedro, an Old World charmer who kisses…

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The cats didn’t do it. Paul Santell wants that to be perfectly clear before he bares his left arm. The cat didn’t scratch Paul. It is covered in a river of red ruts. He got them when he gouged it against a trap while trying to stop one of his rescues from bolting. It was, he says, a small price to pay to contain the cat. There’s a pause then the paws. Gucci, Vita, Nino and Luca gather around his feet, purring and prancing. Nino jumps on top of the running dishwasher then cranes…

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