She is Don Gately’s mother and is an alcoholic, her “Comrade in Arms” being Stolichnaya vodka with bits of carrots and peppers (a habit she picks up from Gately’s father (See Below)). She drinks in front of the television and goes on nightly rants and complaints to Gately. She suffers a cirrhotic hemorrhage when Gately is a Sophomore in high school, a scene that Gately comes home to after school one day.
Bulat Gately
He is Don Gately’s father, an Estonian immigrant wrought-iron worker who breaks Gately’s mother’s (See Above) jaw before leaving her when she is pregnant with Gately.
Mrs. Waite
She is Don Gately’s neighbor who is found dead by the meter-guy when Gately is nine (the same age as when his mother is diagnosed with cirrhosis). Prior to her death, Mrs. Waite is not liked or trusted by the adults in the neighborhood, who all think she has something seriously wrong with her. The kids all assume she is a witch, and would play pranks on her to which she would never retaliate. During Don Gately’s ninth birthday party (which is a combined birthday with three other boys in the neighborhood), Mrs. Waite brings over a cake. The mother at the party doesn’t allow any of the kids to eat the cake, and she later throws the cake out. Gately thinks the gesture is nice, though he doesn’t defy the rule and eat the cake. She (Mrs. Waite) is later found dead after hanging herself.
She is Don Gately’s former alcoholic girlfriend who used to scream while shaving her legs. She is an unhealthy, directionless, passive Danvers girl who works in Purchasing for a hospital-supply company in Swampscott. She drinks bright drinks with umbrellas in them, and she calls her drinks “highballs”, just like her own mother does. She also calls passing out “swooning”. Gene Fackelmann (See Below) introduces Pamela and Don Gately to each other, and she falls in love with Gately when she “swoons” and he doesn’t take advantage of her when taking her home. She passes out daily, and Gately finds her to look infant-like and serene whilst sleeping.
He is a North Shore bookmaker and titty club owner who is always under ultraviolet lamps as a cluster-headache-treatment regimen. Don Gately works full-time for Sorkin after he drops out of high school, as does Gene Fackelmann (See Below). Sorkin calls Gately and Fackelmann his Twin Towers, and they are the ones who intervene when situations with clients aren’t getting paid off in time. Dr. Wo and Bobby C. also work under Sorkin. He initiates the de-mapping of Fackelmann once he realizes Fackelmann’s been conning him (See Gwendine O’Shay) out of money.
Eugene Fackelmann
“Gene”. He is a Dilauded addict Lynn, Massachusetts educational system dropout (getting his drugs from Dr. Wo) with access to I.D. manufacturing equipment who joins forces with Trent Kite (See Below) to create fake persons with ideal credit scores to rent luxury North Shore apartments. Once inside the apartments, they sell all of the items for cash, and then get high in the apartments with Don Gately. Fackelmann eventually attempts to con Whitey Sorkin (See Above) out of money (See Gwendine O’Shay), though Sorkin finds out and decides to de-map Fackelmann.
Trent Kite
“Quo Vadis”. He is one of Don Gately’s associates. When he is younger, he turns vacationing parents’ homes into drug labs. It is during these times that he invents “QuoVadis”, his version of the Quaalude. He gets kicked out of Salem State and joins forces with Gately and Gene Fackelmann (See Above) to create fake I.D.s of fake persons with perfect credit scores in order to rent out luxury apartments and eventually sell all of the belongings for drug money. He also assists Gately in the burglary and subsequent murder of Guillaume DuPlessis.
Two Lesbian House-Cleaning-and-Key-Copying-and-Burglary Operatives
They are cocaine addicts recruited by Don Gately to join him and Trent Kite (See Above) and Gene Fackelmann (See Above) under Whitey Sorkin (See Above).
He is the hat-wearing ADA with whom Gately has a history, and whom Gately exacts revenge by shoving the ADA’s wife‘s toothbrush up his ass and photographing the event. The ADA cannot go on watching Tooty, his wife, go on obsessively cleaning her mouth because of the event, and so he sits outside of Gately’s hospital room hoping to gather the courage to forgive him for what he’s done (which means dropping the charges and throwing away the case files), but he hasn’t yet been able to do it.
Speed Addict From New Bedford
When Don Gately first enters Ennet House, he teams up with a speed addict from New Bedford and they put a sign on one of the clinics doors that says Closed Until Further Notice by Order of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A riot ensues among the people who line up outside the streets, and someone drops a pair of professional binocular from the fire escape upon which they are standing to watch the riot and it smashes into Calvin Thrust’s prized corvette and it gets Gately into trouble. She (the speed addict) eventually gets kicked out of Ennet house for having dirty urine.
Stavros Lobokulas
He is Don Gately’s partner at his janitorial job at Shattuck Shelter For Homeless Males. He owns the company that contracts for the Commonwealth for the Shattuck maintenance. He is forty or fifty, has a large collection of women’s-shoes magazines in his cab, and dreams of one day owning a women’s shoe department store.
Vinnie Nucci
He is a Dildaudid addict who knows Don Gately. He is tall and skinny, and eventually looks like two cheek bones. He is also in association with Gene Fackelmann (See Above) and Whitey Sorkin (See Above).
Blond Debtor
He is a guy Don Gately accidentally murders while under Whitey Sorkin (See Above) after the guy sprays Gately in the eyes with Mace, setting Gately off.
A Bouncer in Danvers, Massachusetts
Don Gately beats this guy up with the unconscious body of another bouncer.
“Bob Death”. He is a biker member of the Tough Shit But You Still Can’t Drink Group. He has BOB DEATH printed on his leather vest. He thanks Don Gately for speaking at their meeting, and for admitting that he is struggling with the Higher Being component of A.A.
RN Cathy/Kathy
She is one of the nurses caring for Don Gately while he recovers from his gunshot wound after the Nucks and Lenz fiasco (See Partiers/Nucks) She is a gorgeous nurse whom Gately finds attractive.
MD Pressburger/Prissburger
He is the MD accompanying C/Kathy (See Above). He tries to impress C/Kathy with his medical knowledge, but Don Gately finds it pathetic and C/Kathy doesn’t bite.
Pakistani MD at St. Elizabeth’s Trauma Wing
He is one of Gately’s MD’s who keeps trying to prescribe Gately with medicine despite Gately being an addict.
Black Nurse
She is one of Don Gately’s nurses who calls him “Baby”.
Beautiful Nurse
She is one of Gately’s nurses who reminds him of a racy nurse-wear catalogue model.
Egede/Egette
She is a dead-eyed German-accented nurse who sells Don Gately sampler bottles of Demerol. After selling the Demerol, she allows Gately to have sex with her and asks him to burn her with cigarettes whilst doing it.
Addicted Nursing-Student
She is the closest person to a celebrity Don Gately’s ever had sex with. He claims she looks like Dean Martin.
Maura Duffy
When Don Gately is younger, he tells her to look down her shirt and spell attic.
Mrs. Lopate
She is an objay dart from the Shed (building #5 in the complex with Ennet House, called the Shed because all of the patients are catatonic and are more-or-less stored there) across from Ennet House who Don Gately used to see touching the tree outside building #5. She is now completely catatonic. He imagines her coming to the hospital room where is recovering from his gunshot wound, though he knows it is an hallucination.
Beverly Middle School Coach
It is rumored that when this coach sees Don Gately’s adolescent self run a 4.4 in 40, he runs even faster into the bathroom to jerk off over the stopwatch.
North Reading Kid
This kid hits the adolescent Don Gately with a sock full of nickels under the eye. To this day, Gately still has a scar.
Orkin Man
He is a man who hooks up Don Gately and his friends with screwdrivers while they are underage and tells them about Zog and The Turner Diaries while they get drunk.
BSHS Athletic Department-hired English Tutor
He tries to tutor Don Gately in English during Gately’s Sophomore year. However, by the end of the year the tutor is hooked on drugs and winds up in juvenile rehab.
Gary Carty
He is someone with whom Don Gately used to lobster fish.
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