Lois
A character in the story "Death by Landscape". The story is told from her point of view as an older woman looking back at an incident that happened when she was 13. In the present day, she is widowed with adult sons and lives alone in a condo in the city. Even though the incident happened many years ago, she feels haunted by the memory and it has overshadowed all of the major events of her life since then, such as getting married and becoming a mother.
Lucy
A character in the story "Death by Landscape". Lucy is Lois’ best friend from summer camp. Since Lucy lives in Chicago and Lois in Canada, they only see each other during the summer each year. As the girls enter teenagehood, Lucy hints that her home life has become less stable and she complains about her new stepfather. While on a canoe trip, the girls hike up to a summit and Lucy disappears and her body is never found. Lois never knows whether Lucy jumped off the cliff or simply slipped and fell, and she is haunted by this memory for the rest of her life.
Cappie
A character in the story "Death by Landscape". Cappie is the owner of Camp Manitou, which was founded by her parents. Her age is vague, with the campers not sure exactly how old she looks. She is described as having “fawn-coloured hair that looked as if it was cut with a bowl”. She is admired and trusted by the campers because she is genuinely passionate about the camp. She desperately wants to keep the camp alive and tries to manipulate Lois into saying that she pushed Lucy off the cliff. As Cappie feared, the incident is too big for the camp to recover from and it soon closes permanently.
Loulou
A character in the story “Loulou; or, The Domestic Life of the Language”. She is a potter and lives with five male poets. She has been married to two of the poets (Bob and Phil) and is currently married to another (Calvin). The remaining two poets are former lovers. She financially supports the poets, with none of them paying rent to live in her home. She also cooks for them while they sit around the kitchen, often writing about her. An accountant points out to her that she is being taken advantage of by the poets and she further muses about her identity. Loulou is described physically as “short, thick, and stubborn-jawed”, yet the poets have a hard time reconciling this with the images her name originally conjures in their minds, such as that of a flirty, blond French woman.
