Seven Seconds (In God We Trust)

“An impact, a crash, an explosion, loud, very, very loud, something has caught fire only seven seconds after the last computer check.”

Brad, the bomber pilot deployed in the world’s war zones, thinks about home while he’s in mid-air. About his wife Marge and his three kids, who are waiting for him in the house on the edge of the desert next to the highway and watching the regular Tuesday reports from the front on tv.

He acts to the best of his knowledge and in accordance with his conscience for the good of his family, the country and the President, trusting God, against everything evil in the world that threatens America. That he would also hit hospitals, schools, kindergartens, was not part of the plan. He is sorry. That he himself might sustain damage in the mission was not foreseen either. Falk Richter’s characters speak in the hysterical manner of contemporary war reporting. The language is both revealing and touching.  Brad has seven seconds before he dies. He can feel the time, counting backwards, he falls…