Characters
- Kenny Huldorf
- Kenny is a 12-year-old boy who moves from Los Angeles to Providence, Rhode Island, where, in his room, he is haunted by a ghost, who turns to be Caleb. He is small in stature, has light hair and freckles. He carries around a Los Angeles Dodgers keychain. He agrees to help Caleb find the murderer, and goes back in time. He learns that the slave traders want to send a message against the abolitionists, setting up the reason why Caleb was killed. But then Willinghast grabs Kenny's keychain and blackmails him into choosing whether to kill Caleb and return to his own time, or to save him and risk being a ghost forever in the past.
- Caleb
- Caleb is a slave boy estimated to be 16 years old in 1800, but is a ghost in the present time whose memories are strongly tied to the house. He was apparently killed in a room in the attic, after being asked to stay at the house while his masters, the Stilwells, were out. He is seen by Kenny crawling out of a blood stain and searching the walls for a way out. Caleb wants Kenny to find his murderer. He has a scar on his cheek and a blood stain on his back. Caleb initially doesn't trust Kenny, but decides to follow him after Kenny agrees to help out. When he and Kenny go back in time, Caleb loses his blood stain and appears to be alive.
- Pardon Willinghast
- Willinghast is a historian that Kenny encountered at the library, but in 1800, he was one of the slave traders who conspired to make a statement against the abolitionists. He knows about Kenny's investigation, and while he was originally helpful, he eventually reveals to Kenny that he is also a strong memory that wants the events to take place so that Caleb dies. He later reveals he plotted the murder of Caleb.
- Moses Brown
- An abolitionist in the 18th century. At one point in the story, he marks a wall and states that as long as the mark stays there, he will not allow slavery.
- Esek Ormsbee
- One of the slave traders. He asks Kenny to give a message to Mr. Seagrave concerning a meeting.
- Philip Seagrave
- One of the slave traders who meets with Ormsbee and Willinghast. His house has the mark that Mr. Brown placed.
- Avi
- The author introduces the story of Caleb and Kenny as coming from a visit by Kenny who wanted to share his story.
Read more about this topic: Something Upstairs
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“For the most part, only the light characters travel. Who are you that have no task to keep you at home?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.”
—Clifford Irving (b. 1930)
“There are characters which are continually creating collisions and nodes for themselves in dramas which nobody is prepared to act with them. Their susceptibilities will clash against objects that remain innocently quiet.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)