Lyman Lamartine
Lyman is the narrator, a young Chippewa with a gift for making money and a joyfully innocent view of the world. He buys red Oldsmobile convertible that he and his brother take on a memorable summer trek across the top of the country all the way to Alaska. Later the car will become essential to a plan to snap his older brother out of a funk.
Henry Lamartine
Henry shares a mother with Lyman, but a different father which accounts for his much larger and imposing appearance. Despite that appearance, he also carefree and innocent when the boys are enjoying that summer drive with the hitchhiker with long hair they take home all the way to Alaska. When they return home, however, Henry’s draft notice is waiting. Three years later, released Vietnam POW Henry is not the same brother. Lyman’s innocence has gone nowhere, however, and so he is convinced all it will take to bring his brother back is to shift his attention to getting the convertible back in shape.
Susy
Susy is a hitchhiker the boys pick up that summer. Aside from being short, the most notable physical feature of Susy is that her hair is all done up around her ears. Later she will undo the bun to reveal that her hair nearly reaches down the ground. Susy is an important character for revealing how Henry’s personality changes so dramatically after he returns from Vietnam.
Mom
Henry and Lyman both live with their mother. Lyman relates a conversation with his mother about why they haven’t taken Henry to see a doctor about his change in personality. The reservation does not have a doctor and his mom tells him that regular doctors don’t fix anything, preferring to just pump people full of drugs.
Bonita Lamartine
Bonita is the eleven-year-old sister of Henry and Lyman and it is she who snaps a photograph of her brothers posing with the red convertible. That picture will become of great importance as it goes from being stored with others to being tacked onto Henry’s wall to being removed from the wall and stuffed inside a brown paper bag in the back of a closet.
