Characters in The House on Maple Street

… That it was, in fact, almost as though Bill Bradbury had come back from the dead to confront his ill-tempered replacement.

… What he saw beyond the tip of his little sister’s pointing finger drove all thoughts of television from Brian Bradbury’s mind. “Now swear again!” Lissa whispered. “Never tell anyone, Daddy Lew or anyone, or hope to die!” “Hope to die,” Brian agreed …

… It seemed that Catherine Evans (who had never wished more bitterly to be Catherine Bradbury again) had been lying to everyone. She had been in the grip of a screaming-blue migraine for not just a day or two days this time but for the last two weeks.

… “Hope to die,” Brian agreed, still staring, and it was a half-hour before he told his big sister, Laurie, who was unpacking in her room. Laurie was possessive of her room as only an eleven-year-old girl can be, and she gave Brian the very dickens for coming in without knocking …

That Lewis Evans clearly did not like this—found it vaguely impertinent, in fact—simply added to Laurie and Trent’s unspoken but powerful conviction that it was the right way to address the man their mother (uck!) slept with these days.

… any of the Bradbury children “got up to foolishness” (that was how he always put it), and he had decided that Melissa was the prime offender in that area. Lissa, who was stupid no more than she was blind, was aware of Lew’s prejudices, and had become wary of them.

… Mr. Slattery from across the street joined them. He didn’t have much hair, but what he did have was plastered to his gleaming skull in tight little bunches. “What happened?” he screamed over the thunder, which was almost constant now. “What happened here?”

“It’s just a sprained knee. Mrs. Kitt asked if you could come and bring me home early. I don’t know if I can walk on it. It really hurts.”

… When they saw their mother on the floor in a circle of kneeling, concerned faculty members (Mrs. Krutchmer was not there; she had run for the kitchen, wanting to get some cold water on the front of her dress before the sauce-stains could set) …

The three of you go behind Mrs. Redland’s hedge there and wait for Lew to pass. Then you can come up the street, but don’t go in the house and don’t let them, either. Wait for me outside.”

… She had been serving canapés to Stephen Krutchmer, the head of the History Department, and his wife when the colors went out of everything and the world suddenly swam away from her.

… if you want me to play hookey and help you, you better tell me what it is, Trent Bradbury!” “Mellow out, I’ll tell you,” Trent said.