Morse code chart

Oskar’s Morse code chart is a handmade communication key that gives structure to his growing closeness with Eli. He copies the alphabet from an encyclopedia onto paper, then gives Eli a page so they can try to communicate through the wall. The chart turns their knocks into a possible language—and, when Hakan discovers it, makes their private bond legible to someone outside it.

Making the chart

After school, Oskar stays in the classroom, finds the Morse alphabet in an encyclopedia, and copies its dots and dashes onto a blank sheet. He writes the page again because he is dissatisfied with the first attempt, making the symbols neater. The care he takes is practical, but also personal: he needs only one good copy, the one intended for Eli.

The idea grows out of a new routine. Oskar and Eli have been meeting each evening for a week, and the previous day Oskar tried knocking on the wall before going out; Eli answered, and they left at the same time. He wants a more systematic way to communicate from their separate rooms. Since Eli likes puzzles and systems as he does, Morse code seems suited to them both. The chart is therefore not simply a reference page: it is Oskar’s proposal for a shared practice, prepared with the same attention he gives to the possibility of being understood.

Giving it to Eli

Oskar takes the folded page from his pocket and smooths it out before handing it to Eli. When she asks what it is, he identifies it as Morse code and explains that he thought they could talk through the wall. Eli responds positively, and the two begin tapping on the wall. The chart supplies the code that makes this exchange conceivable, though the evidence does not specify what messages they successfully transmit through it.

The object’s modest form matters. A schoolchild’s copied sheet carries a connection beyond the face-to-face meetings: it offers a way for Oskar and Eli to remain in contact when they are apart. Their communication begins with a knock and develops into an intentional system. The chart gives that intimacy a material, repeatable form, one that can be folded, handed over, and used in private.

Hakan’s copy

The chart also enters Hakan Bengtsson’s awareness. After Eli has gone into Hakan’s bedroom and tapped on the wall for half an hour, Hakan finds a page of Morse code taped above his bed. He understands that it is connected to the exchanges between Eli and Oskar. Rather than send Oskar a message of his own, Hakan copies the code onto a scrap of paper so that he can try to decode what they say to each other in the future.

This second copy changes the chart’s role. What Oskar made as a private means of communication becomes something Hakan can study from the outside. The code does not reveal the content of their messages in the evidence available, but it gives Hakan a way to seek access to them. Its movement—from Oskar’s careful schoolwork, to Eli’s possession, to Hakan’s concealed transcription—shows how a tool for closeness can also expose the limits of privacy between people living in close proximity.