Author's Note: Hello everyone! Well, this is a new category for me but I just had to write this story about one of the most depressing scenes from The Book Thief before someone else did! I read this book over the summer and I thought it was absolutely amazing and has become one of my all time favorites.
The first three paragraphs of this story are directly quoted from the book, so that belongs to the wonderfully talented Markus Zuzack, the rest is my own words, save for the characters' names, of course. Please read and review!
Bomb Bruised Lips
He lay, half buried by a pile of rubble. The book thief ran toward him and fell down beside him. She dropped the black book on the ash covered ground.
"Rudy," she sobbed. "Wake up." She grabbed him by the shirt and gave him the slightest, lay with yellow hair and closed eyes disbelieving shake. "Wake up, Rudy." And now as the sky went on heating and showering ash, Liesel was holding Rudy Steiner's shirt by the front. "Rudy, please."
The tears grappled with her face. "Rudy, please, wake up. Goddamn it, wake up. I love you. Come on, Rudy. Come on, Jesse Owens. Don't you know that I love you? Come on, wake up! Wake up!"
Slowly, miraculously, to both myself and Liesel Meminger, Rudy Steiner opened his eyes.
He gazed, unseeing for a time up at the churning sky of fire and smoke. What an injustice to see such a hellish vision before death for that was not at all where Rudy Steiner was headed. But fortunately for him, it was not the last thing that he would see on his earth.
His eyes traveled slowly away from the sky, like the hands of a clock, ticking away the final moments of his life. Eventually, his eyes came to rest on Liesel, staring down at him.
WHAT RUDY SAW
He saw himself reflected in her eyes.
He wondered why he looked so unfocused.
Everything was fine in his eyes.
What caused her to start crying?
As I watched the two children gaze at each other, my heart filled with despair. Despite what you may thing, I am not so black hearted and cold. Yes, my heart may be a stone but that does not mean that there are some aspects of my work that I do not enjoy. Rudy Steiner did not deserve to die. But he would die. And it would be soon.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Let us go back to the book thief and the boy with the lemon hair.
Rudy reached up and carefully brushed a tear away from Liesel's cheek. "Hallo, Saumensch."
"Hallo, Saukerl," she replied.
"Wer sind meine Geschwister?" Where are my siblings?
"Ich—Ich weiss nicht." I don't know.
Liesel wanted to take his head in her hands and stroke his yellow hair. But she did not want to risk moving him and hurting him further. She could sense, as I knew, what would happen soon and did not want it to come.
"What happened, Liesel?" Rudy asked in a voice barely above a whisper.
"We've been bombed. Oh, it's horrible, Rudy! Mama and Papa are dead and everything looks so strange!" Liesel cried in desperation. "Himmel Street has become like hell!"
Here, a small smile formed on his lips. "Himmel Street could never be like hell, Liesel."
"Then, you must get up and you must see it! Everything is different! Nothing is as it was!"
Rudy was quiet for a long time after that. He just stared up at the sky that swirled with ash above him. Finally, he whispered so softly that Liesel had to put her ear to his mouth in order to hear him.
"How about a kiss, Saumensch?"
Liesel pulled back to look into his face and then leaned forward to press her lips to his bomb bruised ones. She put everything into that kiss. All of her sorrows and hopes and dreams. But she especially put in her love for the lemon haired boy who had been her friend right from the beginning whether she had wanted him to be or not.
Rudy sighed with contentment and something akin to relief as he kissed her back. He reached up and slowly ran his fingers through her hair. Liesel did the same as fresh tears slid down her cheeks in her joy.
I stood behind Rudy, watching the entire time and knowing that I would have to take him at some point. But I could not bring myself to do it, not yet.
MY REASONS FOR WAITING
Liesel Meminger needed to fulfill her deepest of secrets
Rudy Steiner had waited so long
I was momentarily paralyzed by this single moment of sunshine in a world that was full of night
I did not have to wait long for they soon broke apart and Rudy stroked her cheek with one finger. Then, he sighed heavily and he gazed up at the sky, his face expressionless.
This, I knew was my moment and I reached down and picked up Rudy Steiner's soul. I cradled him gently in my arms as I turned swiftly away from the book thief and began walking. I looked back only once to see Liesel kneeling beside Rudy's body, apparently unaware of what had happened. I turned away again and did not look back. I needed to search for more souls.
But her anguished cries filled my ears and I could not comfort her.
Author's Note: Oh, by the way, I finished the book awhile ago and am not sure as to what the order was that Liesel found all of the bodies of people she knew. So I don't know if she found the Hubermanns before or after Rudy but I hope you enjoyed it anyway! Please review!