THE PASSENGER sits in a railroad compartment
with the MAN FROM SANKT POLTEN, who has locked them in.
The man from Sankt Polten is a cannibal, and wants to eat the Passenger.
However, he’s a very polite cannibal, who won’t eat the passenger without permission.
Or at least not until he falls asleep, which, the cannibal assures him, will happen soon.
“Between three and four, all of us get locked away in our little cubicles. Don't hear nothing, don't see nothing.
We die, every last one of us. Dying restores us. After four we wake up and life goes on. Without that, people couldn't stick it out so long.
Now's the time to make up your mind. In half an hour you'll be asleep anyway.
Then I'll do what I want with you."
The Passenger doesn’t want to be eaten.
Which the Cannibal finds laughable. “Death comes to every man. Does it really matter how you die? One way or another you kick the
bucket. Why not be eaten by a madman in the Nice-Paris express? At least I want something. What do you want?”
As it turns out, the Passenger does want something.
“I want...to go for a walk in Paris.”
“Is that the best you can do?”
“Isn’t it enough?”
Who’s right?
And how will this end?