Characters
Otto
Konrad’s brother, drives the school bus over the one bridge
Otto is Konrad Ziegler’s brother and drives the Unterdorn school bus: a small, old green bus with 30 seats, under seven tons, because the bridge won’t carry anything bigger. He crosses the bridge four times a day, and in between he takes the old folks to the doctor. For 18 years he has stopped before the bridge and waited with the engine running until the last child has crossed the road. That isn’t in any timetable. He wears a peaked cap, sits very upright with both hands at the top of the steering wheel, and speaks more quietly than his brother. Since May he no longer drives the upper road to the farms, because there’s no place to turn around up there.
First encounter
- First noticed: touches the brim of his cap as he rolls past
- Speaks: quietly, with a short pause after every sentence; “And I don’t do reverse.”
- Object: the green bus, the cap
Connected to
- Konrad ZieglerInnkeeper in Unterdorn and chief of the fire department
- UlrikeSpeaks for Unterdorn’s nursing home and its 47 residents
- Lena VossOceanographer at the ICRU in Hamburg, following a falling line
- UnterdornThe village below the dam, with one bridge out
Spoiler-free. This describes the starting point of the book named, without its major twists or resolutions.