SEPARATE LIVES

MAIN CHARACTERS LORI ANNE KEEFER Lori Anne Keefer is a shy 13-year old who has just moved to the big city of Memphis from Coffeeville, Mississippi. Her whole family stayed in Coffeeville with the mother’s sister in a spacious house until the Keefers decided they were crowding their relative’s family of six. The young Keefer couple moved to Memphis in June of 1979, got settled, saw a steady income coming in and two years later sent for five of their eight children. Lori Anne is the youngest girl and often boasts that she and her twin sister plus her nine-year-old little brother, Enoch, they call him Baby Brother, were the only ones born in a real hospital. The others were delivered by midwives or by her Aunt Emma. Her fraternal twin, Tori Anne is quite the opposite of Lori Anne. She is very independent and would often stay in her room reading for hours. Her other sister JessyeFaye at fourteen is very bright and tells everybody that she is going to be a scientist one day and discover a cure for the common cold. Their other brother Walter Jr. is sixteen years old and tries to keep everybody in line since he is now the oldest of this group. Lori Anne’s father, Mr. Walter Edward Keefer owns a successful upholstery business, Keefer’s Upholstery Company, in Midtown Memphis where he has steady customers and steady income. Lori’s mother, Mrs. Ollie Mary Keefer is a seamstress for a well-known uniform company in a high-end medical district of Memphis, called Raleigh. The three oldest children, John, 20, Nellgene, 18 and Luke, 17 stayed behind because of chores at home and down-home jobs. They visited on holidays or whenever they could get a ride; after all Memphis was only two hours away from Coffeeville, MS. Lori Anne was more than happy to get away from Mississippi. They moved into a shotgun-type house on a quiet street called North Dunbar. Lori Anne Keefer was a beautiful little girl. Her skin was the color of a cast iron skillet after a good seasoning and her hair was jet black and shiny like a stallion’s mane. She religiously used a bleaching product on her face for lightening purposes, but only she could see the difference. Her oval shaped face was smooth, but she hid 40% of it with her rolled up bangs. Once measured, those bangs were nine inches long. She was tall and lean, and all of her clothes seemed to hang off of her like bulky sweaters on a wire hanger. She loved clothes, but she had not developed a fashion sense yet, so she picked out whatever the magazine models were wearing and asked her mother to make something like it. Because she was shy, her walk was a hesitant one, almost like she was sneaking away from something. She didn’t particularly like school, but nonetheless she tolerated it because everybody else her age was there. When and if she let you be her friend, she would always be there. APRIL GAIL QUINCY April Gail Quincy is an outgoing 11-year old with 3 sisters and one brother. She is a caramel-colored little girl with sandy brown medium-length hair and blazing dark brown eyes to match. She keeps her hair in at least 3 ponytails and tries to match everything daily. Her three sisters, Adrianne, Alexandria, and Angela make sure she looks her best when she is going to school and to church. She loves to look through the Sears catalog, Wishbook and mark items for her “Wish List.” Her mother, Jean Marie Quincy, is a licensed practical nurse (LPN) at the local hospital. She works 7a – 3p and sometimes 3p – 11p. She is a single mother, but she makes sure her children have everything they need to be healthy and happy. April does not quite remember her father, since her mother divorced him when she was five years old. He was tall, dark, and handsome and people often said that her brother, Aldwin looked just like him. April does not think so, because now her father is a skinny man that comes over only once and a while. He never knows who is who and calls everybody the wrong name. April does not seem to miss having him around, because she doesn’t remember him. You cannot miss what you never had. April prefers to be called Gail, so around the house and in the neighborhood, everybody calls her Gail. When she is at school or church, everybody calls her April. Her oldest sister, Adrianne, who is 17 years old is in charge when Mom is at work or asleep. She likes to dress like hippies and wears her hair in natural styles like afro puffs. When she wears an afro, she thinks she looks like Angela Davis; the big hair is the only similarity. The next sister, Alexandria, is 15 going on 25. She was the one who always seemed to get in trouble for not being around of for not doing her chores. Angela, the 13-year-old sister is the feisty one. You did not want to get on her bad side because she could be very mean. She could also be extremely sweet. Even though her brother, Aldwin was the oldest, he was never home enough to be “in charge.” He was always out with his friends playing football or basketball, working at the community center, or hanging at the house of his girlfriend, Yolandalyn, affectionately called Tootie. Aldwin loved to tease Gail and would often bring her to tears doing so. He would tickle her non-stop or just annoy her with crazy questions. “Why do you have all those barrettes in your hair? What are those earrings matching? Why does your hair always look dirty? Why is your head so big? Why do you play jacks all the time? Why don’t you go play in the street? Why do you hold the refrigerator door open so long? Why do you have on socks with sandals?” April loved attention and she loved to be the center of it. When conversations were not about her, she often tried to shift attention to herself by mentioning something she was doing at school or about something that happened to her outside. Her mother would be the only one who appeared to be interested in her story. She would say, “What, wait a minute – everybody, listen to April Gail’s story.” April loved playing outside. Her mother would oftentimes have to call her in when it started to get dark. April would make up games for the small children and she would lead the games with kids her own age. She always had to oversee giving the rules or the directions. Everybody knew her as a good girl and as someone who had a good head on her shoulders. She loved school and the teachers often compared her to her siblings before her, but she soon proved to them that she had her own personality and separate aspirations. She was happy that school was just around the corner, because her mother did not have a car, nor did she know how to drive. Gail participated in every extracurricular activity that interested her. She was a cheerleader, edited the newspaper, sang in the Glee Club, worked on the yearbook staff, and ran track. Gail’s mother was proud that she could do all those things and still be a member of the National Honor Society.