David Lowe
David Lowe, nicknamed David al-Hajar by Haroun the Thrice Cursed, was a man who lived in the same apartment building as Jenny Everywhere and Kim, and apparently a friend of the latter, in one universe. Like Kim, he insisted with intentionally comical stringency that he was a perfectly normal human being despite some evidence to the contrary.
Description
Physical appearance
David was outwardly ordinary-looking. He wore a sweater. However, underneath the latter, he apparently had “a surprising amount of chest-hair”. (PROSE: The Absquatulation of Jenny Everywhere)
Personality
David was a quiet, ever-unfazed man, who reacted with equanimity and mild amusement to the improbable adventures that came of being Jenny Everywhere's neighbour. (PROSE: Morning After) He had a philosophical bent, once muttering when a mortal child pressed him to “do something” about an apparent emergency: “Something, it’s always something. Easy to do something, harder to do the right thing”. He seemed to also have an understated nostalgia for the old world, able to function in the modern world but finding it all a little too much for him. (PROSE: The Absquatulation of Jenny Everywhere)
Powers & abilities
In addition to his apparent immortality, David also seemed to be unnaturally resilient, able to take multiple blows from a feral Kim without flinching. (PROSE: The Absquatulation of Jenny Everywhere)
Biography
Origins
David once made a comment to Eric suggesting that he was unnaturally old. (PROSE: The Absquatulation of Jenny Everywhere) He lived through the heights of macaroni fashion, though he never partook himself, and he also lived through the 1970s, during which he did wear bell bottoms. (PROSE: Morning After) Haroun the Thrice Cursed considered him worth paying his respects to, and seemed to know of his true nature, whatever it was. (PROSE: Morning After) David once stated that he “never had the pleasure, [him]self” of having a father, in a manner suggesting that he had not merely grown up without knowing his father but genuinely had never had one at a sheer biological level. (PROSE: Morning After)
In the 21st century
In the early 21st century, David lived in an apartment in the same building as that shared by Jenny Everywhere and the vampire-by-any-other-name Kim. He worked from home as a sofer. (PROSE: The Absquatulation of Jenny Everywhere) He mounted several ham-radio antennae on the roof of the building. (PROSE: Watch the Skies)
When she suffered from shifter hangover, Jenny dropped in on David to warn him that things might become especially strange around her in the immediate future — with David reacting with wry amusement at the idea that Jenny's life could get any stranger than it already was. She also gave him Haroun's regards. A little later, while Jenny was beginning to recover, David spoke with Kim about what he'd learned about Jenny. Their chatting awoke the napping Jenny, who began to tell them about a few more of the alternative lifetimes she'd remembered due to the hangover, ending with an impromptu a cappella performance of a preposterous disco song known to a 1970s Jenny. (PROSE: Morning After)
Driving an old Beetle, he sometimes picked up groceries for Kim as well as himself at the butcher, Morrie Greenberg's. He was driving by with just such a cargo when Kim and Jenny picked up the broken dream spinner of Jenny Everywhere, which was blocking the driveway in the parking lot. After parking, David headed back into the building alongside Kim with what he had bought. This included a number of pastrami sandwiches, some of which were shared between Jenny's friends and the extradimensional visitors. After the latter left (their ship having been repaired by Eric), but before David could go home, however, another misadventure began, in the form of an Angel appearing in the parking lot with much fracas. (PROSE: Pit Stop)
Kim once told Eric that David had a story he could tell Eric that would serve as a cautionary tale about the dangers of building a girlfriend for oneself, something Kim was afraid the budding mad scientist might try to do. She noted that Eric had better wait until he was older to ask David for the story, and also that it wasn't Kim's story to share. (PROSE: Misunderstandings)
One day, after Jenny mysteriously disappeared, a worried Eric broke into Kim and Jenny's apartment with the help of the Robot Toaster. Finding an unmoving, unresponsive Kim on the bed, he panicked and called David for help. Being aware of Kim's nature, David was not worried about Kim's apparent catatonia himself, but he agreed that Jenny's disappearance was concerning enough to warrant waking her up in the daytime. Recalling what she'd told him about the bottle of Jenny's blood, David located the hideaway and dribbled some of the precious liquid into Kim's mouth. She woke up with a start, lashing out like a wounded animal at David, with her claws out, until her higher brain functions came back online and she calmed down.
She was worried when David told her what blood he'd made her drink, as she couldn't actually feel Jenny's presence as she should have — not “her” Jenny, and not any of the other infinite Jennies in the Multiverse either. Before long, however, she felt their presences all returning, and her roommate reappeared with a “Pop” in the middle of the room. Jenny explained that she was never in any danger: (PROSE: The Absquatulation of Jenny Everywhere) her and all her other selves' temporary disappearance was something that occasionally happened to Jenny, serving to resynchronise the mental connection between them all. (PROSE: The Absquatulation of Jenny Everywhere, The Disappearance of Jenny Everywhere)
David got along with Eric's mother. Noting that the boy didn't seem to have many friends his age, they agreed to have David drive Eric to a “dinner thing” at the Emanuel temple on Sukkot week. After the meal, Eric was initially bored, but then ran into Herbie Popnecker and Sophie Everytime, taking a shine to the latter. When he caught up with them to take Eric home, David greeted Herbie casually, having known him for “some time”, but was surprised at Sophie, perceiving that she was someone “special” but never having met the likes of her before. As he and Eric drove home, David told him what little he knew about Herbie, but confessed to her that he was unfamiliar with Sophie, though he seemed optimistic about the young mad scientist's chances of figuring out how to to contact her. (PROSE: How Jenny First Met…)
Behind the scenes
The implications in Parallax and Camera Shy point to Kim being some form of vampire. It is as yet unclear if David is another vampire, or a different sort of supernatural creature In the author's commentary on Pit Stop, Scott Sanford highlighted the mystery of David's nature: “Why does David talk like some Borscht Belt alter kocker? How old is he, anyway? Good questions”. The title Haroun the Thrice Cursed gives him in Morning After, which is pointed out in the next chapter as potentially significant, translates to “the Rock”, suggesting David may somehow be a living stone creation, such as some kind of golem. This is also consistent with some hints in David's dialogue in Morning After towards the idea that David did not have a father in a conventional sense.
