Summary

The first person narrator begins a message to his son. It is "Christmas Eve morning in Helsingborg" (7). Though he is unsure it will matter to his son, he tells him that he "killed a person (7). He is also unsure that all lives are equal (7). The person he killed was good, valuable, and a child.

He met her in the hospital last week. "She was five" (8). She had colored a chair red in the television room with her box of crayons. She seemed to think that drawing would cure her of her sickness. She colored the furniture at night when no one paid attention. She owned a stuffed animal rabbit, called Babbit (8). When Babbit got scared, the girl put him on the red chair and told him stories.

One night, the narrator heard the girl tell Babbit she would die soon. When she heard...