Balthazar

Balthazar, Magnus’s rabbit, briefly becomes more than a cherished pet in David’s perception: the rabbit’s consciousness appears alongside his own, making its later, violent death an intimate loss rather than a passing detail. Its birthday visit to Eva brings the family’s hope for connection into contact with the danger surrounding her return.

Identity and Introduction

Balthazar belongs to Magnus, who carries the rabbit in a basket as David and Sture arrive at a crowded gathering. When a police officer asks what is in the basket, Magnus identifies Balthazar, and David explains that it is Magnus’s birthday. The ordinary explanation falters against the unusual circumstances, but the rabbit’s presence gives the day a concrete, personal purpose: Magnus has brought a beloved companion to share the occasion with his mother. Later, when the family approaches Eva’s bed, David transfers Balthazar from Sture’s jacket pocket into his own, holding the struggling animal close as Magnus asks whether they are nearly there.

A Moment of Animal Consciousness

As David tries to understand the thoughts surrounding him, his perception briefly enters Balthazar’s world. The yellow stalks he sees are hay, enlarged because he has become as small as a rabbit; the warm body beside him is Balthazar’s mother, her heartbeat rapid. The scene identifies the rabbit’s consciousness as a backdrop to David’s own, giving Balthazar a perspective distinct from his role as Magnus’s pet. For a moment, the ordinary scale of the family’s crisis gives way to the intimate scale of a nest: hay, a mother’s body, and a small creature’s awareness.

Death in Eva’s Room

Magnus brings Balthazar to Eva’s bedside for his birthday, showing her the rabbit and telling her his name. Balthazar crawls onto Eva’s belly. Then, without any explanation in the scene, Eva takes hold of him: David hears Magnus’s scream inside his head a second before it reaches his ears, and realizes that the first cry came from Balthazar. Magnus’s shout dies away; a birdlike cry and a crack follow.

David lunges toward the bed, but cannot intervene in time. Eva holds Balthazar’s head in one hand and turns it toward her eye to examine it. The rabbit’s nose still twitches and its eyes stare in terror, while the legs of its headless body kick in her lap. Blood runs along a fold in the blanket and falls to the floor. Balthazar’s legs jerk once more, then become still; Eva’s eye remains close to the rabbit’s, the two black surfaces reflecting one another. The exactness of this examination makes the death more than a sudden shock: Balthazar is rendered helplessly visible, even as his body is reduced to separate, still-moving parts.

Magnus cries that he hates Eva and strikes her arm and shoulder, flailing hard enough to tear the cables attached to her head. David pulls him away from the bed and carries him out, holding him tightly and whispering comfort that does not console him. The family’s hope that Balthazar might help Magnus approach his mother ends in the loss of the animal and a rupture between mother and child. For Magnus, Balthazar is not an incidental casualty but the companion he had brought to share his birthday with Eva.

Burial and Aftermath

On the way back from the Heath, Magnus had cried; once home, he began talking about the funeral and what they should do. Building a box, choosing flowers, and making a cross absorbed him in a way that words of comfort could not. David, Sture, and Magnus worked together without discussing what Eva had done or what it might mean: with Magnus needing their attention, the question was left unspoken. One fact, however, had become unavoidable—Eva would not be coming home for a long time.

When the grave was ready, Magnus opened the box for a final look, and Sture carefully shifted Balthazar’s head into place. Magnus stroked the rabbit’s fur and said, “Goodbye little Balthazar. I hope it will be good for you.” The burial gives the family’s grief a task and a form, but it cannot settle David’s anger. Unable to cry, he feels a compressed, hopeless rage; instead of giving it voice, he sits beside Magnus and rests a hand on his back. Balthazar’s death thus ends not with explanation or consolation, but with a child’s farewell and the quiet physical care of the living.