# Allan Hartley — Short Fiction character guide

> Allan Hartley in Short Fiction by H. Beam Piper.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Allan, Hartley, little Allan Hartley

**First appearance:** 0014-day-of-the-moron

## Snapshot

A thirteen-year-old who wakes one Sunday morning with a lifetime of adult memories and the terrifying certainty that he is not who his father thinks he is.

## Who they are

Allan Hartley is an only child in a quiet 1945 household, the son of a shrewd attorney, and—by his own private reckoning—a grown man trapped in a boy's body. He must navigate Sunday Mass, his father's probing questions, and the ordinary rituals of boyhood while concealing a mind that thinks in words no thirteen-year-old should know. His precocious self-awareness and his fear of exposure make every family breakfast a tightrope walk, and his secret is the engine that drives the story's central mystery.

## In the story

### [Time and Time Again](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_24_se/chapters/time-and-time-again)

The protagonist who wakes up in his 13-year-old body in 1945, retaining his adult memories and struggling to adapt.

### [He Walked Around the Horses](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_24_se/chapters/he-walked-around-the-horses)

Not directly present; the chapter focuses on a Prussian lieutenant and Bathurst, but the alternate history narrative echoes themes of temporal displacement.

### [The Mercenaries](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_24_se/chapters/the-mercenaries)

Powerful figure behind Associated Enterprises; provides support to MacLeod via General Hammond.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_24_se/chapters/iv)

Not present in this chapter.

### [Hunter Patrol](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_24_se/chapters/hunter-patrol)

Referred to as 'The Guide,' the older version of Benson who has become a dictator, using sonic weapons and chemical control to enforce peace and beauty.

### [Crossroads of Destiny](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_24_se/chapters/crossroads-of-destiny)

The narrator and history professor who observes the conversation and later receives the anomalous dollar bill.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_24_se/characters/allan_hartley
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_24_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_24_se/characters