# Short Fiction — Character guide

> Key figures in Short Fiction by Charles Beaumont.

- [Mary Cuberle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/mary_cuberle.md): Mary is the daughter Mrs. Cuberle has brought to Dr. Hortel after 'those terrible things' she confessed at home, and she waits through a three-hour appointment with a patience that reads as dread. Where her mother flips 
- [Mrs. Cuberle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/mrs_cuberle.md): She is the polished, magazine-reading mother who has already decided Mary's problem is the kind Dr. Hortel sees 'so many of' these days, and she takes quiet pride in being the one who brought her in. Her breezy certainty
- [Captain Webber](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/captain_webber.md): Three months adrift and out of fuel, Webber has kept his crew's hopelessness from hardening into panic, and he receives Friden's impossible sighting with the patience of a man who has run out of explanations. He admits t
- [Max Kaplan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/max_kaplan.md): Kaplan is the friend who visited the condemned man's cell and came away shaken, and now he sits with Ritchie near midnight, arguing that a dream's pain is real enough to matter. He draws on his own childhood nightmare—hi
- [Henry Ritchie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/henry_ritchie.md): Ritchie is the attorney whose unusually passionate defense of a common vagrant killer tipped off his friend Kaplan that something was wrong, and he is also a man whose marriage is audibly coming apart. He mocks the priso
- [Mr. Greypoole](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/mr_greypoole.md): He is the small, courteous host who leads Webber and his men down a path past scorched trees to a wooden porch, treating their arrival as an occasion and fussing over whether they like good wine. His manner is warm and s
- [Mr. Friden](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/mr_friden.md): Mr. Friden is a crewman on a vessel that has been lost in space for three months, running out of fuel and hope, when idle curiosity leads him to an observation screen he never expected to use. He reports his discovery to
- [The Doctor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/the_doctor.md): A medical professional who treats characters.
- [Mr. Chitterwick](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/mr_chitterwick.md): A minor character with limited appearances.
- [Lieutenant Peterson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/lieutenant_peterson.md): A military officer in the story.
- [Mr. Milton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/mr_milton.md): A named character with a small role.
- [Daddy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/daddy.md): A familial figure referenced in the story.
- [Mother](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/mother.md): A maternal figure in the narrative.
- [Mr. Willmes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/mr_willmes.md): A character with a brief appearance.
- [Mr. Waldmeyer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/mr_waldmeyer.md): A named minor character.
- [Beatty](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/beatty.md): A narrator or focal character with pronoun references.
- [Dr. Hortel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/dr_hortel.md): A doctor who appears in the story.
- [Grandpa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/grandpa.md): An elderly family member mentioned.
- [Shala](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters/shala.md): A briefly named character.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_8_se/characters