Breaking the News by Heinrich Böll. Short summary

5 seconds

A man disembarks at a desolate train station. His mission is to bring news of death to one of the houses. The blow is taken by an already elderly woman. The hero returns to the station, but his train is delayed.

1 minute

A man disembarked at a godforsaken railroad station. The place had long since fallen into decay. There were now several dilapidated houses and a desolate factory. None of the houses seemed inhabitable.

The man walked down the dusty street past the factory wall. On one building he saw a cardboard sign that said «Inn» and the name of the street. Nearby stood a small house, which the workers were building after a hard day’s work. As he opened the gate, the hero realized. That he was at his destination. With a trembling hand he knocked on the door and asked for Mrs. Brink. When the light came on and it hit the woman’s face, her eyes conveyed horror. Something like that lived in a man only before the announcement of an inexorable death sentence.

«I know he’s not alive,» the woman said. The hero only nodded in response. She went on to ask when and where it happened. Then she wept bitterly. The man kissed the woman’s hand, left the house and went to the train station. The train was delayed. It seemed to the hero that for this time he himself was captured.