Axel's death and memorial

Axel's death and memorial mark the end of his life beside the river and the end of the companionship Bella had given him there. The event moves from a private vigil—Bella resting against the man whose death she cannot explain—to a public farewell in which neighbors and fellow mourners gather, grieve, and sing The Marines’ Hymn. Bella remains the scene’s witness and comforter: first beside Axel, then beside a frightened boy, and finally among the people who recognize the scale of their loss.

Deterioration and Death

By the time Axel dies, his suffering has become harder for Bella to miss. He paces and yells along the riverbanks, dismantles his tent and throws it into a heap, and forgets to feed her. On another occasion he pours an entire bag of food within her reach, ties her to a stump, and marches away, kicking at rocks. He is gone for two days. Bella eats the food and drinks from the river, but worries that she may have been a bad dog. When Axel returns, stumbling and talking, he does not acknowledge her frantic happiness. His breath reminds her of Sylvia, linking this moment to another person whose distress Bella has known without understanding its causes.

The final sequence begins when Axel sits hunched on a rock by the river and works at his arm. Bella recognizes the motions and anticipates what will follow. Axel soon appears relaxed; the fear and anger leave his face, and he laughs, calls Bella a good dog, and tells her, “Bella. You are my best friend.” She responds to her name by wagging. He slumps into the dirt, breathing slowly, while Bella curls against him to provide comfort. After a time, his breathing stops. The narration records the death plainly, but its stillness is prepared by the contrast between Axel’s earlier agitation and the brief peace that comes before he dies. The responders later suspect an overdose, though the cause is not established in the scene as a confirmed medical finding.

Bella’s Vigil and the First Witness

Bella lies through the night with her head on Axel’s cooling chest. She notices his scent changing, a sensory measure of the distance opening between the living man and the body beside her. Her vigil is also an act of care that recalls their ordinary intimacy: Axel had shared his food with her, telling her, “You get the first bite, Bella,” just as Bella had shared meals with Big Kitten. Remembering that kindness, she misses Axel and wishes he would sit up and speak to her once more. She can acknowledge that he was often angry, sad, frightened, and upset without confusing those feelings with cruelty toward her: he was never mean to her.

A boy approaches the body and confirms that Axel is dead. As the sun lowers, the boy’s fear grows; he is alone with Bella and Axel’s body, and Bella senses his unease. She goes to him and leans against him. His hand moves through her fur, and he relaxes slightly. The exchange repeats the care that had defined Bella’s time with Axel: without needing to explain death or grief, she offers physical comfort, and the boy recognizes her as a good dog. When the arriving men and woman loosen Bella’s leash and give it to him, he accepts it gravely. Bella then drinks deeply from the river. Her belief that people know what to do meets the practical actions of those who have arrived, even as the loss itself remains beyond her understanding.

Public Mourning and Farewell

Tom arrives with flashing lights on his vehicle and joins the people around Axel. A woman tells him that overdose is her guess, while making clear that they will not know until Axel is taken back. Tom kneels beside the body, mourns Axel by name, and weeps with a hand to his face. Another man puts an arm around his shoulders. Tom calls Axel a great man, then struggles to reconcile that judgment with the way Axel ended up. The exchange gives the death a social dimension: Axel is not only the man Bella loved and accompanied, but someone whose life is remembered by others as valuable and whose death feels to them like a tragedy.

More cars arrive and stop along the river road. People stand in the fading light, mostly quiet; Bella sees men and women wiping their eyes. When the woman says it is time to take Axel away, they carry his body and blankets to the road and place them in a vehicle with lights on top. The assembled people begin singing. Bella cannot understand the words, but recognizes the sound as singing and feels the pain, regret, and sorrow carried in the voices. The words that remain legible to the reader identify the gathering with the United States Marine, and the song is The Marines’ Hymn. Afterward, heads are bowed and arms rest on one another. As the truck drives slowly past, some mourners reach out to touch its sides; then, one by one, the vehicles begin to leave.

Significance

The scene makes Bella’s loyalty distinct from exclusive attachment to Lucas. She reflects that she has cared for many people, including Gavin, Taylor, and Sylvia, and that Axel needed her more than anyone else. Missing Axel does not feel disloyal: her devotion to one person does not erase the bonds formed with others. His death thus gives concrete weight to Bella’s recurring role as a companion to people in pain, while also showing the limit of that role. She can keep Axel company, share his last peaceful moment, and comfort the boy who finds him, but she cannot keep Axel alive or make sense of his death.

The memorial widens the scene from two bodies beside a river to a community gathered around a loss. Bella cannot interpret the spoken explanation of death or the hymn’s lyrics; she understands instead through breath, touch, scent, posture, and song. The contrast between her immediate, bodily response and the mourners’ words does not make her an outsider to their grief. She registers it directly, and the people’s quiet gestures—Tom’s tears, the arm around his shoulders, hands against the departing truck—give that grief a visible form. Axel’s final departure is therefore both a physical removal and a communal farewell, while Bella’s care remains present at every stage.