That night when Liesel got home from playing soccer, Mama was sitting at the table, with her face in her hands and the accordion on her lap. She had seen Mama cradle her Papa's accordion like this before. The scene was so beautiful she had never had the heart to disturb it, however on this occasion, she had stumbled upon it.
"Is everything okay, Mama?" Liesel asked timidly.
"Sit down Liesel," Mama spoke softly, and slowly looked up and straight into the concerned eyes of Liesel, who was starring back.
Liesel was stunned to hear her name at the end of the sentence and not "saumench". She was certain now, that something horrible had happened.
*SOMETHING TO KEEP IN MIND*
I am sorry to say that what you are about to read
may cause you some sadness, but you must realize,
everyone will die at some point.
"Is everything okay?" Liesel was shaking now and she could feel that she was going to cry. There was that little rock in her throat that she always got right before she cried. Normally she cried in her bed at night thinking about her dead brother or her lost mother. Tonight she didn't know why she was crying, but she would soon find out.
I find it quite remarkable that humans are so in touch with the people around them. Already without hearing Rosa's story, just by the mood in the little house on Himmel street, Liesel was already about to cry.
"It's your Papa," Rosa began, but her salty tears ran down her face to stop her from finishing the story that no one wanted to hear.
It was far away from the little house on Himmel Street, where I found Hans Hubermann. He had managed to escape me once before, during world war one. The second time I was near however, he was not so lucky.
The sky was the colour of the aluminum planes that had made all this mess that was now my job to clean up. As I crouched down beside Liesel's Papa, I sat with him for a minute and confessed.
"Sometimes, I stop and watch her. The book thief, that is. I'm sorry Papa," I spoke softly to his silver eyes as they began to rust.
"I don't know the details Rudy. All I know is Papa isn't coming back," Liesel had now deposited her trust in Rudy Steiner. Her best friend. Her only true friend, now that Papa was gone.
"I'm sorry Liesel," Rudy whispered to the sobbing girl. He didn't know what else to tell her.
The same day Rosa and Liesel got the letter no one wanted to get, the Steiners got the letter you did want. Alex was coming home. Rudy hadn't told Liesel yet. He knew that now wasn't the time she wanted to hear that Rudy got his father back, and Liesel would never get to see Papa again.
At that moment, Liesel dazed deep into Rudy's eyes. What she saw puzzled her. Normally when she looked over to Rudy all she saw was a young boy with lemon hair. Just a little boy who covered himself in charcoal, and ran around the track as Jessie Owens. Tonight that was not who was sitting beside her. Tonight, right beside Liesel, was a young man. One who was considerate enough to know that a simple sorry was all Liesel needed to hear.
As Liesel examined the young man's face, Rudy spoke.
"What are you staring at, Saumench?" he asked, smiling but unsure why Liesel was looking at him in such a peculiar way.
"Oh shut up, Saukerl" the words slipped out of Liesel's lips as she leaned forward and pressed them against Rudy's and flung her arms around his neck. For a moment, she enjoyed it, the warmth of Rudy's lips under her own. Then, as reality slapped Liesel across the face, she realized what she was doing, and released Rudy from her grip quickly.
"Wow Saumench…" Rudy spoke, "thanks!" he beamed, and he stood up from the dusty street in front of the Steiners' tailor shop.
"I must say though, I have heard, oh never mind," Rudy started to say but blushed and stopped talking as he bent down and dusted off his pants.
"What Rudy? What were you going to say," Liesel asked, as her soft little finger reached up and grazed her moist lip.
"I was just going to say… practice makes perfect, that's all," Rudy looked up from the ground with a cheeky smile.
"It's getting dark, Saukerl, we should head home now," Liesel said as she stood up.
That night the book thief and the boy who got his kiss walked home together, kicking the stones and making pictures out of twinkling stars hanging above their little German town. Yet as they walked home, neither one of them knew that the other, too, was thinking about the moment their lips had touched.