Characters in The Dreamers

“Of course. Do you remember the first test subject in the book I left you?” “Yes. Althea Gibson. A hairdresser. Looks to be about thirty.” “Good memory. Is it eidetic? Given your stenographic speed and your knowledge of Vietnamese, I think it might be.” So he had done some digging.

Mrs. Frobisher would call for Anne or Diane or Stella if it was an ordinary job. I mostly got court if someone was out sick.

The green door. We saw two more before the end came. The sixth, a woman named Annette Crosby, screamed herself awake.

Or eight thousand. But she took Elgin’s check. Why not? She earned it. Then came Burt Devereaux, a teacher of mathematics at Saint Dominic Academy in Lewiston.

When you say you’re the best at Temp-O—I’ve seen a couple of others from there, not just Diane Bissonette—how many words a minute are we talking about?” I told him. “I’m going to test you on that. I have to.

… a smart detective might have wondered if they found the remains of the Zippo in the kitchen, how Elgin could be on his subjects’ couch in the dining room. But I guess he wasn’t that smart. I worked at Temp-O until September, then quit and …

On the 1st of August a man named Hiram Gaskill came to the house at the end of Lake Road. He was a construction worker who had been laid off. He kicked away his boots and took the couch.

She didn’t wait for an answer, just pointed to a new woman I didn’t know. “You, Janelle. Chop-chop.” Pearson was done with the local section of the paper so I picked it up.

We had two more subjects in July. One was a female carpenter named Melissa Grant. She dreamed of the house but couldn’t get inside. The door was locked against her, she said.

There was a rooms for rent sign in the front window. I rang the bell and Mrs. Blake answered. “You again.” “Yes. Sign says you’ve got a room.” “That’s right, but not your room.

“And here we are. All roads lead to Temp-O.” Mrs. Frobisher came in. “Who wants a depo at Brune and Cathcart?” She didn’t wait for an answer, just pointed to a new woman I didn’t know. “You, Janelle.

There was one more July appointment on our schedule, a man named Norman Bilson, but he never showed up. On the 1st of August a man named Hiram Gaskill came to the house at the end of Lake Road.

Temping was a high-turnover job. They were all women except for Pearson, a tall drink of water with a bald spot he tried to cover and eczema around his nose and the corners of his mouth.

Mrs. Frobisher would call for Anne or Diane or Stella if it was an ordinary job. I mostly got court if someone was out sick.

He looked about forty-five. He asked me if I was William Davis. I said I was. He asked me if I had a steno pad. I said I had half a dozen in the backseat of my car. “You better get one.”