My take on how The Book Thief should have ended.
I'm in most places at least once, and in during WWII, I was in most places at once. Once I have taken a soul, I try to move on. However, I was unable to steal the souls of Himmel Street and then just simply move on. Not only has the Book Thief's story haunted me years before the bombing of Himmel Street, but her story afterwards has continued to haunt me.
*** A LITTLE SMALL FACT ***
The Book Thief died yesterday.
It would be years after the Himmel Street bombing before I would catch up with Liesel, but I can promise you, I did not take her soul-yet. I was curious to see where she was now, how she was living her life after being adopted by Ilsa Hermann. Come with me and I'll finish the Book Thief's story. I'll show you something remarkable.
. . .
For years Liesel had a series of nightmares. In her deep slumber, she would forever dream about the first time there was a bomb warning at Himmel. She could hear the bombs falling from the sky. The siren. The explosions. The crying. Definitely the crying. And then she would begin to hear Hans Hubermann playing his accordion. Ah, Hans and his sweet, sweet music. The notes floated in the air and then disappeared, only to be replaced by newer, better notes. It was the calm before the storm-and what a terrifying storm it was.
Max.
Max was still downstairs in the Hubermann basement, down where it was said to be unsafe. Liesel cried for Max, never knowing if when she came back he would still be there. She cried because she could not tell Rudy, her best friend, about her hidden friend.
Next she would dream about watching the Jews walk through Himmel. She would watch for Max. Never knowing if he was dead. Never knowing if he was alive.
Then she would dream about a Jewish fist fighter being beaten to death by Hitler. She would watch helplessly by the sidelines as everyone around her-Rudy, Hans, Rosa, Tommy, Ilsa, and even Frau Holtzapfel-laughed as the Fuhrer beat the Jewish fist fighter to a bloody pulp. No matter how hard she tried, Liesel could not scream. She couldn't. It was as if her vocal cords had been cut.
Finally, her last dream was more than just a memory. It was the mark of an end of a life. The end of Liesel's life on Himmel. She saw the bodies of everyone she knew and loved, and even some people she didn't know and didn't love. She saw herself leaning over Rudy Steiner's body, crying, and trying but to no avail to resurrect her best friend.
Every night Liesel Meminger would wake up crying and screaming until Alex Steiner came in to comfort her. Alex was grateful that Liesel survived. Her survival was a blessing. She was his last connection to Himmel Street and the life he would never see again. Liesel would come and visit him on the weekends. They couldn't stay away from each other. Their relationship was never sexual. It was more than that. It was family.
When Liesel wasn't having nightmares, she was enjoying her life. Things for her weren't terrible. She had a job at a bookstore, she had her own apartment, she was studying to be an English teacher at the university, but there was something missing. Max.
The year was 1953.
She spent years after the war searching for him. She never knew if he survived or not. Until one day a stranger came into the bookstore looking for a word shaker.