Chapter 25 shows that Ove is still on a mission to commit suicide and opens with him contemplating taking some of Sonja’s old painkillers: “He thinks about how it would feel, doing it this way. He has never taken any narcotics” (188). He seems more hesitant than he was with his other attempts, however.

Before he can proceed, he hears the Cat Annoyance and Blonde Weed’s dog, Prince, getting into a fight outside. He goes to intervene. He finds Blonde Weed preparing to kick the cat, but she stops when Ove appears. He doesn’t even say anything to her, although his stony face intimidates her. She takes Prince and leaves. Ove brings the cat inside.

Then he goes to see Rune and Anita to borrow a sheet of corrugated iron. Unexpectedly, Rune answers the door. Even more unexpectedly, Rune (despite his Alzheimer’s) recognizes Ove: “Both men, once as close as men of that sort could be, stare at each other. One of them a man who refuses to forget the past, and one who can’t remember it at all” (192).

Ove explains to Anita what he wants and says Rune would surely have what he needs in the shed out back.