malloc is difficult to understand but hopefully this helps

reading_data_without_malloc.c

/*
Have an array of char's that can hold
the name "3Max" and read from a file
*/

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h> // atoi()

int main(int argc, char * argv[])
{
    if(argc != 2)
        printf("bzzzz include the infile\n");

    // create an infile pointer
    FILE * infile_pointer = fopen(argv[1], "r");

    if(infile_pointer == NULL)
        printf("something went wrong...\n");

    // create a static array variable to hold 3 chars
    char static_data[3];

    //imagine the first byte is our "header info"
    //telling us how the width or number of chars
    //in our file

    char header;

    fread(&header, sizeof(char), 1, infile_pointer);

    // read the file's 3 chars into our variable
    fread(static_data, sizeof(char), 3, infile_pointer);

    // print to the screen
    printf("static data is lame %s\n", static_data);
    printf("we can only hold %c chars\n", header);
    
    // close the pointer because we have to!
    fclose(infile_pointer);

    return 0;
}