The One Who Stole the Sky

One Was A Book Thief

Intently, Max and Liesel stared into each other's heartbreaking eyes. Neither one desired to open their mouth first, and for once Max felt what it was like to be loved. An epochal moment in his life exploded before his eyes, and he had not one idea of how to handle this.

"We will go to the station and speak there." Flatly Max instructed Liesel who only observed the ever-changing emotions splayed on Max's face. She was scared for him. She was happy for him. There were more emotions fluidly swishing about in this pail called life than they had wanted. It was messy, tiresome. . . . heavy.

"I can't just leave my family behind!" The stuffy nose of Liesel glowed in the midst of her anger.

"I can't leave you behind because you will be in greater danger if you refuse my offer." At this Liesel laughed. In return Max shot back an unfamiliar face.

"You say you can't leave me behind now, but you couldn't even do that when you abandoned me and I thought you were dead. Now you want me." Liesel scoffed as she brought a handkerchief up to her nose to catch an approaching sneeze. She placed the white little scrap of fabric in her pocket and coughed a faint cough.

"Please, Liesel. You are too good for this town. Go on now, what are you waiting for?" In his argyle sweater and with his partially balding head, Alexander Steiner pushed Liesel in favor of Max's decision.

"Rudy would have wanted you to go, and he will always be here if you ever find your way back to Mulching." Alexander painfully smiled at the thought of his deceased son along with his many other kids and wife who were also buried underneath the earth.

"I do not believe he is here. He is always with me in my thoughts and in my heart. As you will be too." It took Liesel a moment to stand and meet the eyes of her friend. She looked at him and asked with her eyes if she was doing the right thing. Herr Steiner came round the table to hold his young friend— to tell her that she was correct. She could sense his peaceful, reassuring attitude underneath the layers he wore against her cheek. This embrace was like broken glass, both in observation and in feeling. There was a smile from the fragmented glass that cut into Liesel's mind, almost certainly leaving an everlasting scar on its once untouched surface. Max observed her weak frame bounce up and down while buried deep down into Herr Steiner's shirt.

"Liesel. . . ." Herr Steiner tried to pry the young woman from around his waist, but it proved pointless as she refused against the grip of a grown man to let go of him. He looked to Max who was equally defeated.

"Liesel, please let go. Here, I want you to take this with you." After peeling away from Herr Steiner, Liesel brushed her soaked hair from her eyes then wiped at them with the shaky palms of her hands. She was gifted a picture of Rudy Steiner and a lemon candy which Herr Steiner often carried with him if he could ever afford them for the week. This picture of him was taken only days before the bombs struck Mulching. What Liesel held was a window to the past, to a time when Rudy and his siblings could be heard bickering out in the streets. To a time where she and Rudy played soccer in the alley after school with their classmates. To a time that. . . . no, Liesel prevented herself from wondering too far into her mind.

"Thank you, Herr Steiner." Liesel clasped the photograph close to her underneath her pale hands. He winked at Liesel in response.

"Save yourselves from here while you can. Maybe you'll have a shot at a better life far away from Germany. I hope it will help you forget about everything the three of us have suffered." Rudy's father, Alexander Steiner, Herr Steiner, and the tailor— he showed his guests to the front door to say goodbye.

"Now don't call for awhile, alright? Wiretapping has become more and more popular with Russians, ja?" The lonely middle-aged man leaned against the doorframe and watched his friends disappear down the cobbles and against the streetlights.