Robert came into his apartment. He walked to the coat rack and hung up his coat, scarf and hat. It was a cold day out. Cedric, the parrot, said “Hello Robert” as he did whenever Robert came in. Robert said “Hi Cedric, Hi Charlie,” He was talking to his parrot and the Charlie McCarthy dummy in the corner. The dummy didn’t answer. Still he continued. “Charlie, she is sooo beautiful... and yet I don’t know if she has noticed me yet.” He sighed and plopped down on his love seat. He lived alone and didn’t have many friends over so he got a love seat instead of a couch because it took up less space in his living room. He put his feet up on the coffee table and looked at the photo on the wall. It was a photo that Lady Bret had taken while the Consort were on tour. It was a large Baobab tree in Senegal. Robert and Samba were standing in front of it. She had given him a copy and he had it blown up because she had taken it. He felt like having a drink but he thought that drinking in the middle of the week was not good. Still she had pretty much blown him off. They had plans to meet for lunch and she had not shown up at the café and an hour later she called saying she couldn’t make it. He could hear a man, another man, in the background. She had just thought it was OK to blow someone off. This happened a lot to Robert. “Charlie, is it me, is there something inherently wrong with me?” he asked the dummy in the corner. Charlie said nothing but just stared with its mouth in the open position. Charlie often said nothing but Robert appreciated him for being there and listening.