Author's Note: This is just a little drabble from The Book Thief, told from Rudy's perspective. This was inspired from the scene in the movie, where Rudy is watching Liesel as she tells a story. Enjoy
We are fourteen, hiding in the basement. Words spill from your lips like water from a faucet. There is no book in front of you, no pre-packaged box for you to
search for these words. These words come from deep within and you looked panicked, because they can't stop. You grow louder, your strong voice echoing
around the bricks that encase us. Who knew an entire street could fit in one woman's basement. Who knew we would ever need to?
.
I watch your lips as they move, forming around those words. You never know that I am serious when I ask about my kiss. I want to kiss you, Liesel Meminger. I
want to feel your tiny hands in mine and twirl your curls around my finger. You don't know that I love you. I'm too scared to tell you. I'm frightened of what you
will think. But, I love you, Book Thief. I love you enough to dive into frozen water in the middle of January to fetch your "diary", knowing I would never read the
words you write. I love you enough to kick the soccer ball at your shins to keep you from scoring a goal during our street soccer.
.
Your story just keeps coming, building and falling like the slow rise of a mountain, growing from faults in the ground. This is what it feels like. Like we are in the
beginning of time, watching the sun explode into a million stars and form our world. Outside is not rumbling from bombs, but from the continents separating and
re-forming our world. This basement is a bubble, our bubble, and from here we are stuck in time. We could be anywhere, anywhere you decided to take us.
Right now we are on a train, watching a boy full of shadows meet his sister who radiates light.
.
Oh, Liesel. This is your brother, whose name you've never told me. I've never felt the need to ask. This is the boy made from shadows and you are the girl who
is never afraid of the dark. You are brave, Liesel. You direct this basement, this bubble, into whatever world you want. All you do is use your words.
.
The words keep spilling from your lips, faster and faster. At least it seems that way to me. Like your story is peaking, the final blow to a tree about to fall over.
The horrible suspense, the aching anxiety. What happens in the end? Do we come out of this basement and go into the stars? Does your brother come out of
the shadows and into the world he was too young to witness? I'm waiting for the end. I'm waiting to grab your hand in mine and laugh as you pull it away. I'm
waiting to tell you that I love you.
Now I am the boy spun out of shadows, afraid of haunting the live ones. I tried to tell you, Book Thief, how I loved you. But I wasn't allowed to finish my
sentence. I was taken away too quickly, depriving me of the breath I had left to tell you. Instead, I rolled into Death's arms and watched as you kissed me. I
feel it. That kiss I had always asked you for and craved in that basement, I felt it, Liesel. I felt your sadness that had no words and the love that didn't need
any. Sometimes words aren't needed.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed