Ray Bradbury
Guy Montag is a "fireman" employed to burn the possessions of those who read outlawed books. He is married and has no children. One fall night while returning from work, he meets his new neighbor, a teenage girl named Clarisse McClellan, whose free-thinking ideals and liberating spirit cause him to question his life and his own perceived happiness. Montag returns home to find that his wife Mildred has overdosed on sleeping pills, and he calls for medical attention. Two uncaring EMTs come over to pump Mildred's stomach, drain her poisoned blood, and fill her with new blood. After the EMTs leave to rescue another overdose victim, Montag watches over Mildred, watching the new blood fill her pallid cheeks. Montag then goes outside, overhearing Clarisse and her family talk about the way life is in this hedonistic, illiterate society. Montag's mind is bombarded with Clarisse's subversive thoughts and the memory of his wife's near-death. The next day, Montag finds Mildred in the kitchen, with no memory of what happened and talking incessantly about being hungry from an alleged hangover she has from a party she thought she attended last night. Over the next few days, Clarisse faithfully meets Montag as he walks home. She tells him about how her simple pleasures and interests make her an outcast among her peers and how she's forced to go to therapy for her behavior and thoughts. Montag looks forward to these meetings, and just as he begins to expect them, Clarisse goes absent. He senses something is wrong.
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