His hair started to look like feathers again and some colour was slowly returning to his face. As he regained his strength, he got out looking for work. Ilsa Hermann knew people at the local bank and arranged for Max to meet them. She gave him a nice blue suit and a white shirt that had once belonged to her dead son. It made Max feel guilty, to accept so much from this kind woman, but he was grateful and he hugged her very tight when she told him he could keep the clothes. Max got a job that did not pay well but it was better than he had expected and hopefully someday he would get a promotion if he just worked hard enough.
After all he was still no more than a Jew. And although Hitler was dead and the war over, Jews were still disliked or even harrased by many germans and low wages were a natural consequence of that.
Liesel could not tell exactly, but she estimated that the first time she saw Max all put together in that pretty suit she noticed just how handsome he was. As for Max, he was completely taken away by Liesel. It was that special beauty of a creature that is not a child anymore but still not a woman either. They both did their best to give the other enough privacy but having to share the bedroom sure made it difficult. Nontheless, neither of them seemed upset about that.
Max was confused about this new feelings, after all Liesel was much too young for him. He had seen her grow up and the last thing he wanted to do was hurt her or scare her off.
Those feelings grew day by day. Both could tell...they knew. But it was like they had made a silent pact not to say it out loud. Their new life together felt like the first days of spring after a tough winter. Like flowers growing out of the hopeless rubble.
They worked hard to get by. None of them partcullarly liked their jobs, but they sure didn't hate them either. They just waited for the afternoon to end just to rush home and enjoy the evenings together. They would sit and read and talk and sometimes try to cook, although they were not more skilled than Rosa Hubermann.
But nights were long and cruel. Max's nightmares came frequently and everytime he wept it broke Liesel's heart. And she wondered how many more times it could afford to break until there was no more mending. Max refused to speak of his dreams and that made it even harder for Liesel, but she respected that and did not insist on asking. After all, surviving the camps was expected to be traumatising...
Her own sleep was also full of ghosts. She dreamed of the bombs and the dead bodies of her family. She never screamed, she did not want to disturb Max's sleep. Instead she was filled with profound sadness when she woke up Papa's image was the one that tore her heart apart more than any other of the visions.