Vera Chipmunk-5 Zappa

Vera Chipmunk-5 Zappa was a farmer, miller, and distiller in the Turtle Bay area along the shores of eastern Manhattan after its depopulation by The Green Death. She was the nearest neighbor of Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain, who lived a kilometer and half away at the Empire State Building.

Vera was once married to Lee Razorclam-13 Zappa, an abusive alcoholic. For a time, the two lived in Indianapolis, working at the local Thirteen club as a waitress and bartender. It had a broadly ghoulish, horror theme like all Thirteen clubs, and she wore net stockings, spike heels, a mask, and, along with the bouncer and the bartender, vampire fangs. However, she remarked that it was never a very popular club, even though there were many Thirteens in the city, since Indianapolis "was a Daffodil town". The two then joined the army of the King of Michigan, with Lee serving as a field cook. They were present at the Battle of Lake Maxincuckee, which was witnessed from a helicopter by Swain, then still nominally President of the United States. He later remarked that, had he known her then, he would have liked to try to save her from the battle, but she replied that would be like trying to rescue a germ from millions of others. During the battle, her husband beat her, blackening both her eyes and breaking her jaw. After throwing her out of a tent into the mud, he was killed by an enemy soldier. To Vera, the moral of this tale was to never marry.

The Headquarters of the United Nations in Turtle Bay, with the Empire State Building in the distance on the left

When she first arrived in Manhattan, she was the given the antidote to The Green Death by the Raspberry family, in hopes that she would be Wilbur's nurse, which she was for a while before starting her farm. With her well-treated slaves, she raised cattle, pigs, chickens, goats, corn, wheat, vegetables, fruits, and grapes. They also labored in what was formerly United Nations Park, planting watermelons, corn, and sunflowers, and Vera, who loved hard work, often labored along side them. All her slaves, two-thirds of whom were former Raspberries, had to change their middle name to Chipmunk-5. Her slaves would also catch turtles, who had returned to the bay, to make soup. Her slave quarters were in the Swain's old townhouse. When Wilbur's granddaughter Melody Oriole-2 von Peterswald and her lover Isadore Raspberry-19 Cohen would mention how much they hoped to become her slaves one day, she would try to explain "that slavery wasn't for everybody". She was concerned about what would happen to her slaves when she died, but Wilbur attempted to console her with a quote from Matthew 6:34, that the troubles of the present cause enough worry. People on the island brought her precious stones in the way Wilbur was brought candlesticks. Although her collection would have been worth millions previously, like the candlesticks they were now virtually useless.

Vera and Wilbur would maintain a close friendship until his death, with him once remarking that she loved life and was better at it than anyone he knew, as well as being strong, warm-hearted, and hard working. At one time he told her that if she wrote a new Declaration of Independence, she would be the modern Thomas Jefferson. She would often provide food and supplies for Wilbur and his household. For his one hundredth birthday, she gave him a Daffodil Family Directory. With Isadore and Melody, she planned a party for Wilbur's one hundred and first birthday, for which she made new costumes for herself and her slaves from the copious cloth in her storerooms. One of her slaves found a microscope and, thinking it a kind of fancy candlestick, was going to gift it to Wilbur at the party. When he caught Vera experimenting with it, ruining the surprise, he said that what she'd see would sadden her as a woman of conscience, since it would be all the microorganisms that cause The Green Death, which everyone on the island killed by the trillions whenever they took the antidote. Vera arrived at Wilbur's party encrusted with diamonds and borne by her slaves in a sedan chair, bringing beer and wine which got him more drunk that he intended, as well as one thousand candles made in a colonial-era mold which were placed in his collection and lit.