The One Who Stole the Sky

Nightmares

Liesel is turned to one side in the stillness that night brings. All is quiet, but her wide blue eyes interrupt the pitch black. Effortlessly, she reaches her hand to turn on her bedside lamp, then retracts it to under the blanket. The growing tick of the clock makes her senses kick into anxiety, adrenaline... sweat. At last she turns to face her clock on the nightstand on the opposite side of her bed. She picks it up and glares into its insides. It reads one o'clock in the morning. Liesel stares up at the ceiling now, desperate to try any position that could perhaps ease her body. A sigh is released.

A large thud is heard across the hall. Liesel furrows her brow and turns toward the door. Following the thud, a few seconds later, she hears violent wrestling and the sheets being aroused at the quick movements. Quietly, Liesel opens her door and walks out of her room and faces Max's door. She breathes and opens the door. Max is tossing and turning as if his body had been ignited with flames. Liesel rushes to his side and feels his forehead, which is sticky from his frantic perspiration.

"Max!" Liesel shakes Max's shoulders back and forth. He screams for air and sits up in a second.

He thoroughly wipes his hands against his eyes and then turns to see Liesel eerily looming over his bed like a ghost. Her innocent eyes blink largely back at his, nothing but rusted metal and a few day's worth of dark circles stares back. She cannot help but be enticed by the way he exists right now. All she can do is smile back. She watches Max move, is he embarrassed that she saw him like this, so wild and upset ? He sits up against the headboard and pushes the covers down to his waist.

Next to her, Liesel catches sight of a bowl of water and a cloth. She submerges the cloth in the water and feels the coolness on her hand. At once, the cloth is rung out, which is the only sound in the room. Folding the cloth, she approaches Max and lays the cloth gently down upon his forehead. He looks up at her with tired eyes, and in return she smiles. A clammy hand is felt around Liesel's wrist.

"Thank you, but you do not have to care for me." Max sits up into a capital "L" shape and stares deeply into Liesel.

"I must, I cannot lose you. What would become of me?" Liesel takes the cloth and wipes Max's face with the heating dampness. Max laughs.

"What happened frightened me." Liesel lowers her head and watches the cloth instead of Max.

"It was only a nightmare." Max closes his eyes and smiles.

"If you want, you can tell me what it was." Liesel inquires.

"It was stupid. It was about Hitler, the camps- all of that tainted garbage that has engrained itself into each of us." Max sighed.

Liesel looked at him, not him but his humanity, and she was relieved to see that it was still there.

"I lived that nightmare and so did you." Liesel whispers.

"My mother is dead because of it. Han and Rosa, why them too?" Max looks at Liesel with eyes eager to find peace.

"I did get one positive result from the war, and that is you." Liesel gets up and puts the cloth back by the bowl and returns back to his bedside. He pats the side of his bed and looks at Liesel, signaling for her to sit.

"It was awful the night you left. I still remember your quick lips pressing to my forehead, and how sweet it felt to be missed." Liesel looks at the floor for a moment and thinks.

"After you left, I went mad. I ran through the crowds of SS soldiers and Jews hoping to find you. I didn't care what they did to me, I had to find you." Liesel rolled up her sleeve and showed Max a lengthy scar running down the back of her elbow. Max stares back at her and takes her hand in his.

"You could have gotten killed! I couldn't lose you then either. Don't ever do that again, please." Silence echoed in the room.

"I remember being at school one winter day. I was doing my lesson, the sound of pencils scribbling against the paper relaxed me. That's when the near silence halted, and Rosa stepped into the classroom. She gripped my ear firmly and dragged me out into the hall, and I could not keep wondering what I had done wrong. She calmed me, looked into my eyes, and said, 'he is going to make it.' And I kept by her word, and prayed day in and day out for you." Liesel smiled. Max laughed and rested his head back on the pillow.

"Thank you, Liesel." Max yawned.

"Take care Max. I will see you in the morning." Liesel dragged herself from the bed and across the hall.