Clarisse disappears

After a week of daily encounters, Clarisse suddenly stops appearing. Montag notices her absence and feels a sense of loss and unease. He asks Mildred about her, and Mildred casually mentions that Clarisse is gone, possibly dead, run over by a car. The family has moved away. Montag is shocked and saddened by the news, and he realizes that Clarisse's death has been treated as insignificant by his wife and society. This event deepens his crisis of conscience and his desire to understand the world he lives in.