Professor Josiah Longfellow is very proud of his aristocratic roots. His family used to have money... at least until his father lost it all on gambling and alcohol. The Professor still lives with his aging mother in the rundown Victorian that used to be the finest house in town. His father disappeared one day. Ran out. His mother has a rather large life insurance policy, but of course, he doesn’t want to collect on it any time soon, no matter how nice the money would be.
Professor Longfellow knows Ox, Flash, and Heather from the university. Brandon is his paperboy. Peter mows the yard and takes care of other petty chores around the house.
The Professor’s greatest fear is that he will lose everything he has, proving to everyone that he’s no better than his deadbeat father.

Missy can’t remember wanting to be anything except for a doctor. Her favourite gift ever in the whole wide world was her first doctor’s kit. She practices ‘medicine’ on anyone who will let her. She even cuts up dead frogs and stuff she finds in her yard. But sometimes that gets bad, and she dreams of dead frogs hip-hopping into her bed at night and smothering her.
Then she screams.
Missy knows Peter (and his gross bug collection) from school. She knows Father Rhinehardt from Sunday school (he talks funny and smells like chocolate). Missy lives in the same neighbourhood as Brandon. He delivers her family’s paper, but she doesn’t really know him. (She thinks he’s cute, though.) Missy’s greatest fear is of dead things coming back to life and hunting her.

Peter’s two favourite places in the world are the basketball court and under his house. He likes the basketball court
because that’s where he can play his favourite game. He likes being under the house because it’s a great place to hunt for bugs, plus it’s a good place to avoid his five older brothers. Sure, all older brothers pick on their younger siblings, but Peter’s brothers really pick on him. But what’s a few broken bones among family? Peter loves
bugs and wants to be an entomologist when he grows up – an entomologist who never has to speak to his brothers.
Peter earns extra money taking care of Professor Longfellow’s yard (and finding cool bugs – bonus!). He knows Missy from school. She likes to do pretend medical exams on him and check out his real broken bones, but she doesn’t like it when he shows her his bug collection.
Peter’s greatest fear is that he’ll get trapped somewhere and never be able to escape.

Vivian’s perfect day is to get up late, have coffee and doughnuts, and then ride one of her horses all day. Unfortunately, she doesn’t get to spend too many days like that, since she’s so busy trying to keep her little used book store from going under. Some days she gets so frustrated she just feels like burning the place down, or maybe just burning the little shed out back... or the school. But she’d never do anything like that.
Still, sometimes she has nightmares about striking the match...
Vivian is a friend of Heather’s mother, Sarah. She also knows Madame Zostra and Father Rhinehardt as customers at her little book store, Something Written.
For extra money, Vivian has been babysitting Missy Dubourde at least once a month for the past few years.
Vivian’s greatest fear is of fire... and her fascination with it.