Page 146 - The Book Thief

How fitting that she was discovering the power of words.

And how awful (and yet exhilarating!) it would feel many months later, when
she would unleash the power of this newfound discovery the very moment the
mayors wife let her down. How quickly the pity would leave her, and how
quickly it would spill over into something else completely. . . .

Now, though, in the summer of 1940, she could not see what lay ahead, in more
ways than one. She was witness only to a sorrowful woman with a roomful of
books whom she enjoyed visiting. That was all. It was part two of her existence
that summer.

Part three, thank God, was a little more lightheartedHimmel Street soccer.

Allow me to play you a picture:

Feet scuffing road.

The rush of boyish breath.

Shouted words: Here! This way! Scheisse!

The coarse bounce of ball on road.

All were present on Himmel Street, as well as the sound of apologies, as summer
further intensified.

The apologies belonged to Liesel Meminger.

They were directed at Tommy Mller.

By the start of July, she finally managed to convince him that she wasnt going to
kill him. Since the beating shed handed him the previous November, Tommy
was still frightened to be around her. In the soccer meetings on Himmel Street,
he kept well clear. You never know when she might snap, hed confided in Rudy,
half twitching, half speaking.

In Liesels defense, she never gave up on trying to put him at ease. It
disappointed her that shed successfully made peace with Ludwig Schmeikl and