Charlene Roberta McGee

Charlene Roberta McGee, known as Charlie, is a child whose ability to start fires makes her both extraordinarily powerful and afraid of what she might do. Her memories of hurting her mother turn that ability into a moral burden, while her care for her father shows how attentively she responds to the people she loves, even in the uncertainty of flight.

Identity and Power

Charlie understands her firestarting ability through the name pyrokinesis, a word that clangs in her mind with fear. When she and her father, Andy McGee, once believed they were safe in Port City, he tried to make the power seem ordinary by calling her a firestarter and comparing her to a giant lighter. The joking comparison had once made her giggle; in danger, it no longer comforts her.

Her power is distinct from Andy’s mental ability, which he calls the push. Charlie can push harder than he can, and she does not suffer the headaches he experiences afterward. But fires sometimes follow her use of it. The contrast leaves her with a capacity that seems physically easier for her to wield than her father’s, yet far more frightening in its possible consequences.

Fear, Guilt, and Secrecy

Charlie’s fear is rooted in an earlier injury to her mother. She remembers her mother’s screams and bandages, and thinks of herself as the one who caused that pain. In her mind, the Bad Thing is dangerous partly because, once released, it goes everywhere. Her resolve not to do it again is therefore bound to guilt as well as fear: she does not want to make her mother suffer again, and she is frightened by a force she cannot easily contain.

There is also a practical reason to hide what she can do. Andy warns that the men from The Shop must not learn more about her, and explains that her push is not like his: she cannot make people change their minds. His warning makes secrecy part of Charlie’s understanding of her abilities. Her power is not only a private danger but information that could expose her to people pursuing the family.

Care for Andy During the Flight

In the aftermath of their escape, Charlie turns from fear of her own power to the immediate needs of her father. She has gathered money from telephone booths, but stops before visiting them all because the bag is becoming heavy and she is afraid it will break. When she finds Andy slumped in his chair, pale and visibly in pain, she tells him she has the money and asks where they can go, insisting that he needs to lie down.

The next morning, in Unit Sixteen of the Slumberland Motel, she watches Andy sleeping beneath the blankets. The bright autumn daylight makes things seem better, and she smiles at the sight of him. She remembers that, when food was scarce, he would take only one bite of an apple and give her the rest; awake, he always did his best for her. The small joke that he steals all the blankets when asleep sits alongside this tenderness. Charlie’s resourcefulness and affection persist even when her father cannot respond, giving their flight a quiet domestic counterpoint to the danger surrounding them.