There’s a beautiful walking path near my apartment in Germany. On this path is a small garden with a bench and shade. It’s a memorial. In the place are small gravestones. My daughter and I use it as a backdrop for making a home movie about time travel, dinosaurs and zombies. It’s only as we’re filming that I begin to read the simple graves. 10 men. Everyone died in 1945. And I realize what it is. The youngest are 17 and 18. The oldest are in their early forties.
She must be able to sense my interest, because she asked me how they died. I explained they died in a war. I tried to explain that it was a war between Deutschland and America (a gross over-simplification, but I’m unsure how else to capture the situation). She stares in silence for about three seconds. Then turns and continues planning out the scene and our return journey to the present in the time machine.
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