After his death, a war veteran’s ascension to heaven evolves through the consequences of his life’s actions and his guidance of the grandson who follows in his footsteps.

SYNOPSIS:

The WWII sniper adjusts his scope. He takes aim but sees only the vivid blue eyes of his target. He fires and watches, in slow motion, as the bullet speeds towards its purpose. He watches the blood splatter. Death is quick, no suffering. It is always this way.

A soldier’s empty schooner is the only reason he interrupts his quiet reveries despite the noise in the dilapidated pub. But the brute’s crude impositions toward the young barmaid are too much. Everything happens in slow motion, you see. The brute’s arm snaps in three places. The noise echoes through the now silent bar.

***

Grandpa’s his favorite, you see. He’s been in the war, you know.

“How many did you kill, Grandpa?”

“I killed lots of people. That was my job. But, it’s not about how many you kill, Michael. It’s about doing what’s right. Do you understand?”

“Yeah, I get it, Grandpa. Kill or be killed. Get the bad men before they get you.”

The old man’s eyes droop in deference to sleep, but this is an eternal sleep. He must follow the light … there is no choice.

“Bring up the bodies. Bring up the bodies,” is the clarion call as the veil of light parts to reveal the awaiting heavenly host. They are all waiting for him. He must face them. They are his ‘Bodies of Consequence’.

***

Grandfather stands amidst the kaleidoscopic matrix of his life review and the silver cords connect him to those that matter most. He reaches up and touches the light. Immediately he is transported … He must face them:

The mother’s anguish of the child she lost to the sniper’s bullet.

The disfigured one – the enemy soldier who survived in pain.

The anger of the ‘bomb-maker’ who maimed his comrades – he slit his throat.

The child of ‘The Beast’ … ‘Oh, my God’, he killed her mother instead.

But then, there were the ones he saved, or who saved him …

He had to face them all. But then there was ‘the one’. The one most powerful, the one most painful, the hidden anguish of a lifetime … himself … it was too painful for a nine-year-old boy to remember. But, in heaven, there is no hiding.

***

But, then there was Michael … his beloved grandson. A young nine-year-old boy really doesn’t know much about death! Michael was confused when he saw his grandfather standing next to a tree … but it was his grandfather’s funeral?

For a growing teenager to find his grandfather’s secreted sniper-rifle and the old diary were like a boon from the heavens. It catapulted a young boy into the huge footprints of his grandfather.

He learned how to shoot … and he was good. He learned how to fight … and he was courageous. But then, Angela broke open his heart and taught him how to love. A broken heart is rarely mended quickly. Michael’s loss of his treasured mum and his sweetheart moving away were enough to push a young man to the brink … into the army.

He learned how to kill, he learned how to shoot (better) and he learned how to fight (deadly) … but was it enough to save him (from himself)? He had to face them:

The jocks’ who harassed his girl;

The over-friendly, beset-upon waitress;

The young soldier on the brink of suicide;

His buddy who was taught that ‘killin’ was wrong, and

The young insurgent who shot his buddy.

He had to face them all … Most of all, Grandfather – the Sniper, in heaven, had to save Michael from the ‘Bodies of Consequence’ … so that’s what he did.