Arnold Friend’s sidekick, Ellie is passive and quietly disturbing character in the story. He sits in the passenger seat of Friend’s car holding the transistor radio. Connie observes that while, like Friend, Ellie is also older than he originally appeared, he is also strangely undeveloped and completely submissive. Indeed, the only time he speaks is to ask Friend if he wants him to rip out the telephone cord to prevent Connie from calling the police.