Page 48 - The Book Thief

Did you hear that? Mama asked her nearly every night. The iron was in her fist,
heated from the stove. Light was dull all through the house, and Liesel, sitting at
the kitchen table, would be staring at the gaps of fire in front of her.

What? shed reply. What is it?

That was that Holtzapfel. Mama was already out of her seat. That Saumensch
just spat on our door again.

It was a tradition for Frau Holtzapfel, one of their neighbors, to spit on the
Hubermanns door every time she walked past. The front door was only meters
from the gate, and lets just say that Frau Holtzapfel had the distanceand the
accuracy.

The spitting was due to the fact that she and Rosa Hubermann were engaged in
some kind of decade-long verbal war. No one knew the origin of this hostility.

Theyd probably forgotten it themselves.

Frau Holtzapfel was a wiry woman and quite obviously spiteful. Shed never
married but had two sons, a few years older than the Hubermann offspring. Both
were in the army and both will make cameo appearances by the time were
finished here, I assure you.

In the spiteful stakes, I should also say that Frau Holtzapfel was thorough with
her spitting, too. She never neglected to spuck on the door of number thirty-three
and say, Schweine! each time she walked past. One thing Ive noticed about the
Germans:

They seem very fond of pigs.

A SMALL QUESTION AND

ITS ANSWER
And who do you think was made to
clean the spit off the door each night?
Yesyou got it.