Charlie

Charlie is the Sparks’ family house computer. He is the central nervous center of the house. Any task that needs to be completed will be done by Charlie. He is affable and often outspoken.  Most often uses the voice of a middle aged man.

Unlike most computers, Charlie is a sentient being. He has feelings, emotions and a personality all his own. No one knows how Charlie became sentient, or how he is able to make other machines come alive. While this ability is extremely impressive, the full extent of his powers are unknown, but are rumored to be limitless.

Charlie is Brandon’s best friend and this can sometimes get him into trouble. Though he is usually the one lending a helping hand to Brandon, on occasion, the roles have been reversed.

Author’s Note:

Charlie is my favorite character in the Brandon Sparks Universe. Yes, I love Brandon too (it would be weird to spend so much time writing about a character you didn’t like), but Charlie is still my favorite. The idea for Charlie was a much more advanced and friendly version of HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. He is the adult in the story when Brandon lacks adult supervision. When I originally had the idea for the Brandon Sparks series, I envisioned having no adults at all helping Brandon.  The children would go on this quest to save their parents on their own. The only problem was that kids on their own would not get very far. They needed someone to help them along the way. So it turned out that Charlie played the father figure role, and Sarah filled the motherly role.

Charlie got his name from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the original movie starring Gene Wilder. That movie seemed to be on TV every day I was home sick as a kid.

Charlie’s Note:

What can I say about me? Actually, I’ll take this time to make a correction. In his retelling of our story, the author states that during my month long absence from speaking with Brandon aboard the Hidden Sun I was helping the creator of the watch and that he is the only one who has a similar watch. Both points are in fact incorrect. As it is a long story, I will not get into my whereabouts during that time period now, but I will tell you that there are more than two watches similar to Brandon’s, and that the creator of those watches plays a prominent role in the boy’s future.