Here’s the second installment sharing the work of my homeless writing workshop from my days of volunteering with the Open Door Shelter at The Night Ministry. The first post which gave the background of the two main protagonists can be read here.

I was so pleased with the group as we worked to come up with these interesting characters.

Symbolic Characters

DUMOS is an Asian store clerk who is absolutely in love with the store. It is his life. He works 90 hours a week. The dairy is his favorite, though he likes fruits, too. At home he reads drug store flyers?? and organizes and restocks his cabinets (food stuffs).

DUMOS is also the gatekeeper to good in the mystical back story His obsessed world will be thrown out of whack by the race to beat the window of time offered to Brian and Brew. His actions are calculated by forces beyond him to provide windows of opportunity for success and an end to the cycle.

JOSE is a bicycling ice cream vendor. He is an immigrant who came to America 2 years ago. At night he drinks like there’s no tomorrow. He is unemployed in the winter and thinks people are stupid for buying his stuff. He has secret fantasies of being a drug or arms dealer, but is content with his simplified life and his fantasies.

JOSE  is also the Gatekeeper to evil. His actions (by direction of forces beyond himself) set up or complicate obstacles to success.

THE CATHOLIC GIRLS are symbolic of a higher power, but remain inactive, and vague though they appear in EVERY scene as a group. Can also be used individually, but never as a main character or plot participant.