The Book Thief(88)

DUDEN DICTIONARY MEANING #1

Zufriedenheit Happiness:

Coming from happy enjoying

pleasure and contentment.

Related words: joy, gladness,

feeling fortunate or prosperous.





THE TRILOGY





While Liesel worked, Rudy ran.



He did laps of Hubert Oval, ran around the block, and raced almost everyone from the bottom of Himmel Street to Frau Dillers, giving varied head starts.



On a few occasions, when Liesel was helping Mama in the kitchen, Rosa would look out the window and say, Whats that little Saukerl up to this time? All that running out there.



Liesel would move to the window. At least he hasnt painted himself black again.



Well, thats something, isnt it?





RUDYS REASONS

In the middle of August, a Hitler Youth

carnival was being held, and Rudy was

intent on winning four events: the 1500,

400, 200, and of course, the 100. He liked

his new Hitler Youth leaders and wanted to

please them, and he wanted to show his old

friend Franz Deutscher a thing or two.





Four gold medals, he said to Liesel one afternoon when she did laps with him at Hubert Oval. Like Jesse Owens back in 36.



Youre not still obsessed with him, are you?



Rudys feet rhymed with his breathing. Not really, but it would be nice, wouldnt it? It would show all those bastards who said I was crazy. Theyd see that I wasnt so stupid after all.



But can you really win all four events?



They slowed to a stop at the end of the track, and Rudy placed his hands on his hips. I have to.



For six weeks, he trained, and when the day of the carnival arrived in mid-August, the sky was hot-sunned and cloudless. The grass was overrun with Hitler Youths, parents, and a glut of brown-shirted leaders. Rudy Steiner was in peak condition.



Look, he pointed out. Theres Deutscher.



Through the clusters of crowd, the blond epitome of Hitler Youth standards was giving instructions to two members of his division. They were nodding and occasionally stretching. One of them shielded his eyes from the sun like a salute.



You want to say hello? Liesel asked.



No thanks. Ill do that later.



When Ive won.



The words were not spoken, but they were definitely there, somewhere between Rudys blue eyes and Deutschers advisory hands.



There was the obligatory march around the grounds.



The anthem.



Heil Hitler.



Only then could they begin.



When Rudys age group was called for the 1500, Liesel wished him luck in a typically German manner.



Hals und Beinbruch, Saukerl.



Shed told him to break his neck and leg.



Boys collected themselves on the far side of the circular field. Some stretched, some focused, and the rest were there because they had to be.



Next to Liesel, Rudys mother, Barbara, sat with her youngest children. A thin blanket was brimming with kids and loosened grass. Can you see Rudy? she asked them. Hes the one on the far left. Barbara Steiner was a kind woman whose hair always looked recently combed.



Where? said one of the girls. Probably Bettina, the youngest. I cant see him at all.



That last one. No, not there. There.



They were still in the identification process when the starters gun gave off its smoke and sound. The small Steiners rushed to the fence.



For the first lap, a group of seven boys led the field. On the second, it dropped to five, and on the next lap, four. Rudy was the fourth runner on every lap until the last. A man on the right was saying that the boy coming second looked the best. He was the tallest. You wait, he told his nonplussed wife. With two hundred left, hell break away. The man was wrong.



A gargantuan brown-shirted official informed the group that there was one lap to go. He certainly wasnt suffering under the ration system. He called out as the lead pack crossed the line, and it was not the second boy who accelerated, but the fourth. And he was two hundred meters early.



Rudy ran.



He did not look back at any stage.



Like an elastic rope, he lengthened his lead until any thought of someone else winning snapped altogether. He took himself around the track as the three runners behind him fought each other for the scraps. In the homestretch, there was nothing but blond hair and space, and when he crossed the line, he didnt stop. He didnt raise his arm. There wasnt even a bent-over relief. He simply walked another twenty meters and eventually looked over his shoulder to watch the others cross the line.



On the way back to his family, he met first with his leaders and then with Franz Deutscher. They both nodded.



Steiner.



Deutscher.



Looks like all those laps I gave you paid off, huh?



Looks like it.



He would not smile until hed won all four.





A POINT FOR LATER REFERENCE