The Book Thief(66)

Rudy looked down.



A warped circle of mud grinned up at him.



What might you be looking at? it seemed to ask.



Down! Franz ordered.



Rudy naturally jumped over it and dropped to his stomach.



Up! Franz smiled. One step back. They did it. Down!



The message was clear and now, Rudy accepted it. He dived at the mud and held his breath, and at that moment, lying ear to sodden earth, the drill ended.



Vielen Dank, meine Herren, Franz Deutscher politely said. Many thanks, my gentlemen.



Rudy climbed to his knees, did some gardening in his ear, and looked across at Tommy.



Tommy closed his eyes, and he twitched.



When they returned to Himmel Street that day, Liesel was playing hopscotch with some of the younger kids, still in her BDM uniform. From the corner of her eye, she saw the two melancholic figures walking toward her. One of them called out.



They met on the front step of the Steiners concrete shoe box of a house, and Rudy told her all about the days episode.



After ten minutes, Liesel sat down.



After eleven minutes, Tommy, who was sitting next to her, said, Its all my fault, but Rudy waved him away, somewhere between sentence and smile, chopping a mud streak in half with his finger. Its my Tommy tried again, but Rudy broke the sentence completely and pointed at him.



Tommy, please. There was a peculiar look of contentment on Rudys face. Liesel had never seen someone so miserable yet so wholeheartedly alive. Just sit there andtwitchor something, and he continued with the story.



He paced.



He wrestled his tie.



The words were flung at her, landing somewhere on the concrete step.



That Deutscher, he summed up buoyantly. He got us, huh, Tommy?



Tommy nodded, twitched, and spoke, not necessarily in that order. It was because of me.



Tommy, what did I say?



When?



Now! Just keep quiet.



Sure, Rudy.



When Tommy walked forlornly home a short while later, Rudy tried what appeared to be a masterful new tactic.



Pity.



On the step, he perused the mud that had dried as a crusty sheet on his uniform, then looked Liesel hopelessly in the face. What about it, Saumensch?



What about what?



You know. . . .



Liesel responded in the usual fashion.



Saukerl, she laughed, and she walked the short distance home. A disconcerting mixture of mud and pity was one thing, but kissing Rudy Steiner was something entirely different.



Smiling sadly on the step, he called out, rummaging a hand through his hair. One day, he warned her. One day, Liesel!



In the basement, just over two years later, Liesel ached sometimes to go next door and see him, even if she was writing in the early hours of morning. She also realized it was most likely those sodden days at the Hitler Youth that had fed his, and subsequently her own, desire for crime.



After all, despite the usual bouts of rain, summer was beginning to arrive properly. The Klar apples should have been ripening. There was more stealing to be done.





THE LOSERS





When it came to stealing, Liesel and Rudy first stuck with the idea that there was safety in numbers. Andy Schmeikl invited them to the river for a meeting. Among other things, a game plan for fruit stealing would be on the agenda.



So are you the leader now? Rudy had asked, but Andy shook his head, heavy with disappointment. He clearly wished that he had what it took.



No. His cool voice was unusually warm. Half-baked. Theres someone else.





THE NEW ARTHUR BERG

He had windy hair and cloudy eyes,

and he was the kind of delinquent

who had no other reason to

steal except that he enjoyed it.

His name was Viktor Chemmel.





Unlike most people engaged in the various arts of thievery, Viktor Chemmel had it all. He lived in the best part of Molching, high up in a villa that had been fumigated when the Jews were driven out. He had money. He had cigarettes. What he wanted, however, was more.



No crime in wanting a little more, he claimed, lying back in the grass with a collection of boys assembled around him. Wanting more is our fundamental right as Germans. What does our Fhrer say? He answered his own rhetoric. We must take what is rightfully ours!



At face value, Viktor Chemmel was clearly your typical teenage bullshit artist. Unfortunately, when he felt like revealing it, he also possessed a certain charisma, a kind of follow me.



When Liesel and Rudy approached the group by the river, she heard him ask another question. So where are these two deviants youve been bragging about? Its ten past four already.



Not by my watch, said Rudy.



Viktor Chemmel propped himself up on an elbow. Youre not wearing a watch.



Would I be here if I was rich enough to own a watch?