# Clarissa Willoughby — Short Fiction character guide

> Clarissa Willoughby in Short Fiction by R. A. Lafferty.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Clarissa

**First appearance:** 0000-the-six-fingers-of-time

## Snapshot

An eight-year-old with a talent for uncanny suspicions, Clarissa Willoughby connects a missing fire plug to a missing cat before anyone else sees the pattern.

## Who they are

Clarissa is the eldest of the Willoughby children and the one Officer Comstock questions when a fire plug vanishes from his beat. She speaks in riddles and chants, offering the cryptic insight that the cat and the fire plug will be found in the same place, an idea she insists is only an idea. Her eerie perceptiveness makes her the unlikely prophet of the seven-day terror that engulfs the neighborhood, and her siblings' evasions only sharpen the sense that something strange is afoot.

## Relationships

### [Clarence Willoughby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_45_se/characters/clarence_willoughby)

_family_

Clarence and Clarissa Willoughby are siblings, bound by a shared dark family history and a co-dependent, often tense relationship.

### [Clarence Willoughby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_45_se/characters/clarence_willoughby)

_family_

Clarence and Clarissa Willoughby are siblings, bound by a shared dark family history and a co-dependent, often tense relationship.

### [Clarence Willoughby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_45_se/characters/clarence_willoughby)

_family_

Clarence and Clarissa Willoughby are siblings, bound by a shared dark family history and a co-dependent, often tense relationship.

## In the story

### [Seven-Day Terror](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_45_se/chapters/seven-day-terror)

Eight-year-old sister who knows how to reverse the disappearances and orchestrates the return of all vanished objects after seven days.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_45_se/characters/clarissa_willoughby
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_45_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_45_se/characters