The One Who Stole the Sky

One Call

"I still do not trust her. Do not ask me why, for I don't know the reason myself." Liesel leaned against the wall next to the couch where Max sat speaking up to her.

"She changed her mind, of course she is sure." Max smiled foolishly at the absurdity that Charlie might have lied to him. What a conspiracy! He did his best to relax his face, but his genuine laughter would not allow him.

"You can be quite imaginative, Liesel." He toasted a glass in the air sarcastically to Liesel's lost mind.

"Thank you. I find that a fairly crucial trait." Liesel, red and irritated, shot back quickly.

"I believe it is the best trait of them all." Max leaned casually over to her, as if it were to be a whispered word, before setting the glass on the coffee table before him. The sun finally came out, Max had noticed, and it penetrated the multitude of windows that lined the wall opposite of the door, and to the left of the couch if you were sitting on it. It got stuffy suddenly, the stiffness in the air was damp.

"I went to the store today and had a frame made up for the drawing you gave me." Liesel looked down at the floor, biting her lip with no reason to act this way.

"You mean for the picture of Rudy?" Leaning over the side of the couch toward Liesel, Max could not help but to feel guilty. He felt terrible at the sound of Liesel's friend's name. If only he were alive. If only Liesel could have been with him, not dead of course, but alive, here, to protect her. If only. But that is not how the universe works. It takes and only gives you what you can handle in return. But how could a young artist take care of a younger girl, in a post-war world? And, in the heart of the defeated side? Max, too, was defeated, or at least he felt that way.

"Yes, that one. It is such a lovely drawing." Liesel guided her eyes up to the sky, trying her hardest not to let a tear slip, not now, in front of Max.

"He would be turning nineteen now, wouldn't he?" Max asked, not drawing his face to meet his friend's. He knew she was crying, or was on the brink of it anyhow, and did not want to embarrass her in such an intimate moment.

"Yeah, I guess he would be. What day is it? Oh, yes, I remember now, his birthday is in a week." Liesel wiped her hands on the hem of her dress and stifled until she swallowed her despair.

"I won't even be home to see him, his grave I mean." Max shook his head, then finally turned to face her with a smile plastered on his face.

"No, but you could phone Herr Steiner, or mail a note. Wherever he is, whether he is in Heaven, or walking among us on Earth, I know he is looking after you. You must do something for him and his father." Max cupped Liesel's face between his slender hands, as he used to do when something paramount would happen during the war, and Liesel could not be pacified. She remembered his hands and how they held her face; they felt like cold rain even though they smelled of paint- they were his, the ones familiar to her. The feeling took Liesel back to a violent, dark time when the war raged on, and finding solace in anything was the only way to survive.

"Look at me. Send Herr Steiner a word by phone or letter to rekindle what you have already extinguished." His large, light brown eyes chased Liesel's until she composed herself sufficiently. She only nodded her head in return. Max planted a kiss on her forehead tenderly to bring her back to her senses.

"Go on, call him." Max slid his hands down onto Liesel's frail shoulders, giving her an endearing minute of reassurance. After the minute passed, like a lifeless machine, Liesel shuffled to the phone that clung to the wall on the outside of the kitchen wall. The poor thing tapped her toes, twisted her mouth side to side, like a drug, to keep her from worry. All Max could do was wait on the couch in hopes of a receiver on the other line. Then, he would disappear into his room to allow Liesel privacy.

She greeted the person with a 'hello' before Max vanished to sketch in his room.

"Liesel, my, it's been too long since you've called! Leaving the business without notifying me too?" At once, Herr Steiner was thrilled at the person who phoned him, but he quickly recalled the selfish way she fled from her life.

"I am sorry, more sorry than you could think. I did not mean to leave without telling you why, but the circumstances changed at the last second. I called because it's Rudy's birthday next week, and I never miss it." Liesel spoke low about Rudy, altering the atmosphere of the conversation. There was a pause, only static resonated from the device.

"Thank you, Liesel. It means everything to me that you called." Herr Steiner spoke uneasy, before a faint rasped clenched towards the end of his words.

"Please, order him lovely flowers from me. I will pray to him that he receives my present with understanding, given I am not home to be at his grave." She twisted the spiral cording which hung from the bottom of the phone into loops with guilt.

"I will. I promise you." Numbed by the pain of his son's death, Herr Steiner collected himself before he gave himself the chance to fall apart.

"Thank you." A silence followed, with both being too shy to hang up on the other.

"Have you spoken to Frau Ilsa?" Liesel's heart stopped with fear, as she had not thought of her many times after she left.

"I did some time ago. Do you not phone her?" Herr Steiner sounded heartbroken that Liesel had abandoned her adoptive mother with ignorance, when he knew if it were Rudy and him, he would do his best to make amends with his son, no matter what the feelings were.

"No, I am afraid I haven't the courage." A light sweat wetted her cheek where the phone rested.

"I am not certain she would forgive you, then. When I spoke to her months ago, she appeared bitter and repulsed by your decision. She second- guessed her skills as a parent. Liesel, she seemed not well. I do not know what is right to do. You broke her terribly, and your father, once a prominent Nazi, is perhaps the most enraged at your decision. For your sake, I will not tell them I have spoken to you. Take care now, that Max fellow seemed kind enough. I trust him." Too much was said, too much disappointment and heartbreak came of the conversation. The girl on the other end of the line was overwhelmed that she had no tears or anger to spare.

"Thank you, Herr Steiner. I hope you can forgive me, as no one else will. It does not have to be now, or in a year, or in five years, all I ask is that you will find it in you to understand why I left." The overwhelmed sensation dulled at last, and the world's disgust sank in.

"I do forgive you, Liesel. I will never be upset with you. You are the only family I have left on Earth. I have a customer now, but you may call when you wish. Goodbye."

"Goodbye." Liesel did not remember hanging the phone back up, or walking down the hallway to her room. She blamed herself and cursed herself rotten. Nothing was as she envisioned it. She hated herself for making her family despise her, and she hated that she was selfish, leaving her hometown for her own amusement. The rage that built up inside of her led her to the telephone book, where she hunted down names of book publishers nearby to call later. She wondered if they would care about her having only one year of college finished before she dropped out. Of course they wouldn't, but Liesel made it matter.

"What are you doing now?" Max leaned in her doorway, observing her hostile temper.

"Nothing." Liesel skimmed down the columns of names, then wrote some of them, along with their number, on a blank sheet of paper.

"Publishers? Liesel, are you. . . you are!" Max bit at his nails while peering at Liesel from time to time.

"I need to prove myself, and after speaking to Herr Steiner, now is the time. My head was filled with self- doubt, self- hate, but it will not anymore. My old family, the students at college that made fun of me- they are all wrong. It seems the only people who were on my side are dead. If only Rosa and Papa were alive, they would have let me come with you, and would have sent letters." Liesel pushed past Max, and went to the phone again to dial the list of numbers she compiled.