Ken and Jordan

Ken Ashton and Jordan are partners who live together in St. Nacho’s, and the novel introduces their relationship through both a photograph and practical details about their lives. Their easy companionship in the image is reinforced by Mary Catherine Jensen’s account of their shared home and schedules, making the relationship a quiet example of rooted, everyday connection in the town.

Introduction Through a Photograph

While sitting with Mary Catherine Jensen, the narrator sees a photograph of Ken Ashton and Jordan on her computer desktop. The image shows them dressed for camping, each carrying a pack and making peace signs at the camera. Ken wears a bucket hat and holds trekking poles; Jordan wears a floppy-brimmed hat. The photograph gives their partnership a relaxed, companionable presence before the conversation supplies its context.

The narrator remarks on a resemblance between Jordan and the person beside him, and Mary Catherine identifies Jordan as her son. Her response locates the pair within a family relationship as well as a romantic one: Jordan is her child, while the photograph shows him sharing an outing with Ken. When asked whether they camp often, she says they go when they can, suggesting an activity they enjoy together but fit around work.

Shared Life in St. Nacho’s

Mary Catherine later tells the narrator that Ken lives with his partner on the far side of the highway, in the part of St. Nacho’s the narrator has not yet explored. This detail establishes that Ken and Jordan’s connection is not limited to the camping photograph: they share a home. It also places their domestic life beyond the motel and the beach-side area familiar to the narrator, in a town with no public transportation and no cabs.

Their circumstances are described through ordinary obligations rather than dramatic declarations. Jordan works full-time at a gym, and the couple camps when their schedules permit. The small details make the relationship legible as an existing, practical partnership—one with a shared home and leisure, shaped by the demands of work.

Narrative Significance

Ken and Jordan enter the story indirectly, through the narrator’s view of a photograph and Mary Catherine’s brief explanations. The image makes their closeness visible; the later mention of their shared home confirms its place in daily life. Together, these details present partnership as something embedded in family, work, and local routine, rather than as a separate spectacle. Their relationship also gives the narrator a glimpse of the wider community around St. Nacho’s, beyond the places he has so far visited.