Section 1, pp. 9-22 Summary

In a small town in Sicily, a bus full of passengers is leaving to go to Palermo. A man is shot while trying to catch the bus.

The bus is pulling out, with the usual passengers, mostly old peasant women. The conductor realizes that there is a man who still wants to get on, and he stops the bus. Just when the man is running for the bus, shots ring out, and the man falls dead. Everyone is shocked, and before anyone notices, all the passengers have gotten off the bus and disappeared. After a few moments, the bus driver and conductor get the police, or "Carabinieri" in Italian. The policeman asks the driver who the passengers were, since he wants to question them. The driver says that he is so stunned, he cannot remember who any of the...