New Year's Eve Cat-Collision Incident

On New Year’s Eve, Joachim’s drive home turns into a roadside encounter with a mortally injured cat. He stops, approaches it, and tries to cover it with a kitchen towel, but cannot decide what else to do. As the radio announces the arrival of the new year, a passing motorist supplies a brutal answer: he strikes the cat’s head with his boot and pushes its body into a ditch. The scene sets festive noise against isolated suffering, and ends with the killer wishing Joachim a happy new year.

Background and Timing

The collision occurs on a long, sweeping curve after Joachim has left Eggebek. The village is still full of people setting off fireworks, and some have thrown exploding firecrackers onto the roof of his car as he departs. Outside the village, the road becomes quiet. The noise of the music still rings in his ears, and he drives slowly, thinking about the beer he has drunk and whether it might cause trouble if he is stopped.

Joachim has already considered whether to go on to one of the parties in town, but would rather be home, drinking sparkling wine with his parents and going to bed. The collision interrupts that ordinary choice about how to spend the holiday. A dull impact makes him brake hard; in the rear-view mirror he sees something lying on the road. He turns on his hazard lights and gets out rather than driving on.

The Injured Cat

The moon is nearly full and bright enough for Joachim to see the cat about fifteen metres behind the car. It lies on its side with its head raised, licking its abdomen. Its lower body is torn open and covered in blood. As Joachim approaches, the cat looks at him, its eyes reflecting the car’s red tail-lights. It hisses, chokes, coughs wetly, and resumes licking itself. When he comes closer, it tries to drag its bleeding underside toward the roadside ditch with its front paws. Dark, rippled skin hangs from its abdomen; Joachim can only ask himself what he should do.

At 11:47, he returns to the car and turns on the radio. The broadcast offers excited chatter and simulated New Year’s cheer. He turns it up, then gets out again, finds a kitchen towel in the trunk, and goes back to the animal. The cat now has its head against the asphalt and makes faint, panting sounds. As he lays the towel over it, he sees a rib protruding through its reddish fur and feels sick. The cat’s legs twitch the towel away, and shudders run to the tip of its tail. The attempted covering does not protect it from its injuries, and Joachim has no effective means of helping it.

The Countdown and the Passing Motorist

The radio’s countdown reaches zero amid loud jubilation, and The Final Countdown plays. Farther away, firecrackers and a few rockets break the sky; against the vastness above them, their red and blue bursts seem small. Beside the road, the cat continues to suffer. The scene’s timing makes the public celebration and the private emergency simultaneous: the new year arrives over the radio while Joachim remains beside an animal he cannot save.

At about 12:15, an old Mercedes approaches around the curve. Joachim signals to it, and the driver stops. Wearing dirty overalls, a checked shirt, and a blue cap, the man gets out in heavy rubber boots and walks over to the cat. A pool of pale-red, foamy blood lies in front of its mouth. He asks about the towel, then says the cat will not make it. Before Joachim can turn away, the man stamps on its head. A cracking sound marks the blow; he flicks the cat into the ditch with his boot, wipes the blood from his shoe on the grass, and gets back into the car.

Aftermath and Significance

The man lowers his window to wish Joachim a happy new year. Joachim does not understand at first, then returns the greeting and thanks him. The courteous exchange follows immediately after the killing, without apology or further discussion. The holiday formula survives intact, but now sounds estranged from what has just happened: celebration and politeness frame an act of violence rather than undoing it.

The episode turns on the contrast between two responses to the cat’s helplessness. Joachim stops, approaches, and makes the limited gesture of placing a towel over it, yet remains overwhelmed by uncertainty; the stranger declares that nothing can be done and acts with decisive force. The narrative does not establish the stranger’s motive or explicitly confirm the cat’s death afterward. It does show the fatal blow and the body being thrown into the ditch, leaving the encounter suspended between attempted care, helpless witnessing, and sudden brutality.