The Book Thief(129)





Liesel slowed to a staggering walk and concentrated up ahead.



Wheres Frau Dillers? she thought. Wheres



She wandered a short while longer until the man who found her took her arm and kept talking. Youre just in shock, my girl. Its just shock; youre going to be fine.



Whats happened? Liesel asked. Is this still Himmel Street?



Yes. The man had disappointed eyes. What had he seen these past few years? This is Himmel. You got bombed, my girl. Es tut mir leid, Schatzi. Im sorry, darling.



The girls mouth wandered on, even if her body was now still. She had forgotten her previous wails for Hans Hubermann. That was years agoa bombing will do that. She said, We have to get my papa, my mama. We have to get Max out of the basement. If hes not there, hes in the hallway, looking out the window. He does that sometimes when theres a raidhe doesnt get to look much at the sky, you see. I have to tell him how the weather looks now. Hell never believe me. . . .



Her body buckled at that moment and the LSE man caught her and sat her down. Well move her in a minute, he told his sergeant. The book thief looked at what was heavy and hurting in her hand.



The book.



The words.



Her fingers were bleeding, just like they had on her arrival here.



The LSE man lifted her and started to lead her away. A wooden spoon was on fire. A man walked past with a broken accordion case and Liesel could see the instrument inside. She could see its white teeth and the black notes in between. They smiled at her and triggered an alertness to her reality. We were bombed, she thought, and now she turned to the man at her side and said, Thats my papas accordion. Again. Thats my papas accordion.



Dont worry, young girl, youre safe; just come a little farther.



But Liesel did not come.



She looked to where the man was taking the accordion and followed him. With the red sky still showering its beautiful ash, she stopped the tall LSE worker and said, Ill take that if you likeits my papas. Softly, she took it from the mans hand and began carrying it off. It was right about then that she saw the first body.



The accordion case fell from her grip. The sound of an explosion.



Frau Holtzapfel was scissored on the ground.





THE NEXT DOZEN SECONDS

OF LIESEL MEMINGERS LIFE

She turns on her heel and looks as far

as she can down this ruined canal

that was once Himmel Street. She sees two

men carrying a body and she follows them.





When she saw the rest of them, Liesel coughed. She listened momentarily as a man told the others that they had found one of the bodies in pieces, in one of the maple trees.



There were shocked pajamas and torn faces. It was the boys hair she saw first.



Rudy?



She did more than mouth the word now. Rudy?



He lay with yellow hair and closed eyes, and the book thief ran toward him and fell down. She dropped the black book. Rudy, she sobbed, wake up. . . . She grabbed him by his shirt and gave him just the slightest disbelieving shake. Wake up, Rudy, and now, as the sky went on heating and showering ash, Liesel was holding Rudy Steiners shirt by the front. Rudy, please. The tears grappled with her face. Rudy, please, wake up, Goddamn it, wake up, I love you. Come on, Rudy, come on, Jesse Owens, dont you know I love you, wake up, wake up, wake up. . . .



But nothing cared.



The rubble just climbed higher. Concrete hills with caps of red. A beautiful, tear-stomped girl, shaking the dead.



Come on, Jesse Owens



But the boy did not wake.



In disbelief, Liesel buried her head into Rudys chest. She held his limp body, trying to keep him from lolling back, until she needed to return him to the butchered ground. She did it gently.



Slow. Slow.



God, Rudy . . .



She leaned down and looked at his lifeless face and Liesel kissed her best friend, Rudy Steiner, soft and true on his lips. He tasted dusty and sweet. He tasted like regret in the shadows of trees and in the glow of the anarchists suit collection. She kissed him long and soft, and when she pulled herself away, she touched his mouth with her fingers. Her hands were trembling, her lips were fleshy, and she leaned in once more, this time losing control and misjudging it. Their teeth collided on the demolished world of Himmel Street.



She did not say goodbye. She was incapable, and after a few more minutes at his side, she was able to tear herself from the ground. It amazes me what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on, coughing and searching, and finding.





THE NEXT DISCOVERY

The bodies of Mama and Papa,

both lying tangled in the gravel

bedsheet of Himmel Street





Liesel did not run or walk or move at all. Her eyes had scoured the humans and stopped hazily when she noticed the tall man and the short, wardrobe woman. Thats my mama. Thats my papa. The words were stapled to her.



Theyre not moving, she said quietly. Theyre not moving.



Perhaps if she stood still long enough, it would be they who moved, but they remained motionless for as long as Liesel did. I realized at that moment that she was not wearing any shoes. What an odd thing to notice right then. Perhaps I was trying to avoid her face, for the book thief was truly an irretrievable mess.

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