Andrea Wolkowicz_: (prounounced: wohl-koh-wicks)
27. Moral. Smart. Stylish. Well kept. Educated (NorthWestern). Middle management executive for a large marketing firm in Chicago. A transplant from the “boonies” (Plainview, Ohio). Strong family ties.  She is her father’s daughter. Deep Polish Catholic upbringing. Could’ve  been a world class athlete. Couldn’t wait to get out of her home town.
 
Motivated to succeed. Dedicated to career. Competitive. No time for  meaningful love in her life. Besides, no one could measure up to the relationship that exists between her parents. Not afraid to stand-up for herself. Can’t cook. Never had to learn. Racks up a large monthly overhead with her big city lifestyle. Has a few buttons that can be pushed, if you can find them.
 
Driven to prove herself capable of succeeding.  
Has an Identical Twin Sister.
  
 
Peter Guthrie__
30. 4th generation Guthrie in Plainview. Now President of  Guthrie Foods.  Struggling to keep it afloat. It was once the largest grocery store in the county, until they built the new Interstate Hwy just  outside of town.
 
High School Varsity Football. Private local college. Married the most eligible girl around.  She, however, ran off with a Sheik from some God forsaken country a few years ago. Hasn’t heard from her since. He still wears the ring and keeps her picture on his desk.  Hope springs eternal. 
 
Overwhelmed by competition from the new Big Box Chain Stores out on the Interstate. Even more overwhelmed by his father… as was his mother, who travels now mostly year-round to very remote locations.
 
Peter’s sedentary new executive lifestyle is starting to show around the midriff. But damn, it’s hard to put down those Mallomar’s!
 
Stymied from success. Abandoned in marriage.
 
Hiding a sensitive soul.
    

 
Walt Wolkowicz__
Retired. Andrea’s father. Looks great for his age. Ex-Marine.  Once owner of  Plainview’s only hand car wash for 47 years. Until they built the new Interstate. Married a local high school girl upon returning from Vietnam.
 
They have two daughters. Identical Twins:  Andrea and Angela.
 
A fair man, a plain man, but hardly dumb. Generous of heart and practical with advice. He’s charming, just don’t get on his bad side.  Family man, through and through. Walt bought the car wash on  the GI Bill.
 
He now volunteers time with the family church and does handyman  jobs around town. Respects and loves his daughters, wants only the  best for both of them, to live  independent lives.
 
Also loves his Ford F150 Truck, classic rock ‘n roll and bowling.
Still full of life and wanting to live it.
 
  
 
 
 
 
Angela Wolkowicz_ 
27. Identical twin sister to Andrea. Spontaneous, innocent.   Mentally”misabled”.  Complications of birth. It’s a slight retardation, not enough to keep her out of mainstream life, and often times gets her into mischief. 
 
Her sardonic wit is framed within a very innocent face.  She loves to quote episodes of Law and Order. Her uncanny insights into the problems of  others others’ leaves many of them speechless over the simplistic solutions.
 

She’s agile and active, love’s to “shoot hoops”, and  known to resort to less than fair tactics to get her way. Thanks to Andrea’s constant guidance and help growing up, she has a lot of normal sensibilities in a daily life. Even has a part-time job. But her survival depends on the unyielding love and support of her parents and the community that knows her. She has special a very special gift, she can sing. And she has stirrings. Ebullient, effervescent sensations, that start to tingle, every time she is with her friend since forever. She’s the only one who really knows what she wants, and maneuvers a way to get it.

 
  
 
Cher-L_: (“No, not Cheryl, Cher-elle!”)
19. Any ethnicity. The X, Y, and Z generation and then some. A gypsy. A child of the road, hormones on full tap. The “layered” look, a steampunk or grunge with a ‘tude.
 
Underneath it all, a beauty in her soul.
 
By confession, a part time cocktail waitress at men’s clubs. She blew into Plainview on the tailcoats of her “man”. Somewhere along the way he departed surreptitiously in the night, leaving her stranded and working minimum wage.
 
She loves her music, hates her luck, and is definitely in needs something else in her  life. Doesn’t speak with standard American diction. Any standard for that matter.  Knows what she’s got and not afraid to flaunt it.
 
At the bottom of it all, just a young runaway, and some wrong turns,  and looking for love in all the wrong places. Without trust, but with infectious heart, hope and zest, which keeps her a springboard for any possibility.
 
A guiding hand in her life would work just right.
    

 
 
Hank Guthrie: THE MAIN ANTAGONIST

Retired. 3rd Generation Guthrie. Peter’s father. A man’s man. Or so he likes to  think. President of Guthrie Foods all his adult years, those being mostly after the age of 30. Married the Miss Ohio state finalist in the Miss USA pageant.

 
He has lived on the top of the food chain in Clark County his whole life. Even after   being voted out as President of Guthrie Foods by his son and his wife. He now serves as a City Alderman, wielding considerable political power over the downtown commercial district and the ebb and flow of politics in Plainview. 
 
Hank is a conservative at best. He’s rude, a rapscallion, a flirt, a bigot,a sexist, a   philanthropist, and a damn good player of golf. His dislike for  women who “don’t know their place” is well documented, and confirmed  by long absenses  of his wife. The relationship with his son is constrained.
 
Hank has a volatile temper, ready to blow. He is never wrong. Yet over his lifetime he has managed to produce a long line of good deeds for the church and the city, and his support base is quite strong.  And vocal! 
 
The only thing Hank really needs is to get his ass kicked good once in his life.
 
  

 
Rachel Joffee_
60’s looking like 45. Grew up in Plainview. Conservative Irish Jewish  descent. A bondage from which she broke in the late 80’s. Widowed. Vibrant. Outwardly gracious. Quietly powerful. Excellent business sense. Now President and COO of downtown’s Joffee’s Manhattan Department Store. It’s still the largest in Clark County.
 
The only woman on an all-white, white-haired, good old boy, City Council. Takes no guff from any of them. A staunch ally for breakingthe “glass ceiling” and deadly foe to   Plainview’s political shenanigans. To know her is to admire her.
Works out, keeps fit (uses the Joffee sports department equipment on display). Has her only child, a son, as VP in the store.Convinced to come out of the closet about real love in her life.
  

 
Tiff_
Mid 30’s. Full time mother, part-time waitress at the downtown diner. Separated from her alcoholic husband. Fraught with inadequacies of raising her son  alone. Local girl, no education beyond high school, but real smart, worldly wise.
 
Works hard. Doesn’t mince words. Helpful. Looks in remarkable shape in her 50’s waitress outfit. Gets the job done. Friendly. Country all the way. Someone you would want in your circle of friends. Loyal. Protective of those she loves.
 
Doesn’t ask for much. Just a chance at a decent life for her son.