Benjamin Waverly

*"But you just checked in... What about your luggage?" - Benjamin Waverly*

**Benjamin "Benny" Waverly** is a long-time resident of Ashford Falls, New York and the son of local physician Dr. Albert Waverly and town socialite Candace Waverly. Born in 1960, his siblings are Daniel Waverly and Chloe Waverly.

Ben was raised in an upper middle class family due to his father's medical career and his mother's vast fortune. He had a serires of housekeepers growing that looked after him in the absence of his parents' career and was typically described as quiet and intoverted by his teachers in school. At home, he was the source of derision from Dan that exacerbated his self-esteem and sense of security while Chloe often followed after him trying to be a part of his life. as a teenager, he attended Ashford Falls High School with Rachel Hedison, Blake Hedison, Russell Coleman, Daniel Featherstone, Len Snedeker and Melissa Strickland. His mother, Chloe Waverly and Daniel's mother, Naomi Featherstone, had both encouraged him to become friends with Ben to pry him out of his shell, and although Danny was more than willing, Ben felt lost in Danny's sports and automobiles world and instead hung out with Len Snedeker, the two of them having an interest in television and old movies.

Like several of his male classmates, Ben had an unrequited infatuation with Rachel Hedison as well as castmate Bobbi Pierce, and after he graduated, he took a job at the Ashford Falls Riding Stables which Rachel frequented, but he soon grew tired of cleaning horse's stables for a girl who barely knew he was alive and quit, ending up with a job under Danny at Ashford Falls Landscaping, mowing yards and planting flowers for the homes of Carter Hedison, Nate Featherstone, Carl Griggs and Elizabeth Woods. However, he soon realized he didn't have the stamina nor the endurence to work outdoors and got a job assisting Pastor Charles Hegg at the church and later doing paperwork at the sheriff's office for Sheriff Lionel Taft. He was also briefly a Chaffeur for Carter Hedison, getting fired after five days for getting lost and making him late for a meeting in Albany.

Eventually, Ben found himself the perfect job helping guests and assisting Wade Chessler, the owner of the Ashford Arms Church. He also became friends with Vincent Petersen, another hotel employee, who became the older brother figure he always wanted. Living in a Russian farming community in Haverstraw Canyon, Vincent had a small house on his father's farm he invited Ben to live with him for company on the remote farm and at nights, Ben told Vincent his life story, the two of them bonding over TV shows, movies and comic books.

However, Ben never really got over his crush on Rachel, and while visiting Len at his new shop on Haverstraw Road, he became convinced her saw Rachel standing in her underwear in the window of Len's apartment over the garage. Within a few days, rumors about Len and Rachel carrying on together were all over town, and Rachel was offering a $25,000 reward for whoever had spread the wrongful gossip. However, Rachel never learned the source of the rumor, and she soon got over the embarrassment. Ben soon learned Len had a mannequin stolen from Corrine's Beauty Shop made up to look like Rachel and bought it from him for $100, displaying it in the back window of his room at Vincent's house.

Gradually developing an interest in writing from the stories of hotels at the hotel. Both he and Vincent were temporary suspects in the murders of Philip Martin and Monica Hedison, he assisted his father during the tuberculosis outbreak during the Winter of 1988 and he was interviewed as a witness after Bud Mason attacked and raped Maddie Harrington. After Mason attacked and nearly killed his sister Chloe, Ben and Dan reconnected as brothers and let go all of their bad memories.

When Jack Gable passed through Ashford Falls while posing as Jack Gates, Ben made himself entirely available to Gable while thinking he was the billionaire businessman, but he was possibly one of the only people in town who believed Gates was just a television writer when he corrected him. During Gable's visit, he made several efforts to get Jack to read his fiction to get some professional critique. However, Gable ran afoul of the Hedisons while posing as Gates and was almost shot by Rachel's brother, Ty Hedison, a bullet that instead hit Vincent. Discovering him in the bushes, Ben dragged Vincent to see Dr. Elizabeth Freeling at the hospital to save his life. While covering Vincent's shift at the hotel, Ben was manhandled by Jack Gates as he was departing after confronting Jack Gable over impersonating him.

In 1995, both Ben and Chloe supported the Democrat candidate Sabrina Collins running for mayor against Carl Griggs, seeing it as a way to end the hold the Hedison Family had on the town. Still working at the hotel, he reconnected with Danny Featherstone, now a race car drive, for a race through the abandoned roads around Addamsville. Although more secure now than he was in his youth, he still fills his time writing fiction in his spare time and sending articles to the Ashford Falls Falls News.