Page 164 - The Book Thief

out the futile words of the robbed:

Ill have you arrested! Ill find you! Ill find out who you are!

That was when Arthur Berg replied.

The name is Owens! He loped away, catching up to Liesel and Rudy. Jesse
Owens!

When they made it to safe ground, fighting to suck the air into their lungs, they
sat down and Arthur Berg came over. Rudy wouldnt look at him. Its happened to
all of us, Arthur said, sensing the disappointment. Was he lying? They couldnt
be sure and they would never find out.

A few weeks later, Arthur Berg moved to Cologne.

They saw him once more, on one of Liesels washing delivery rounds. In an

alleyway off Munich Street, he handed Liesel a brown paper bag containing a
dozen chestnuts. He smirked. A contact in the roasting industry. After informing
them of his departure, he managed to proffer a last pimply smile and to cuff each
of them on the forehead. Dont go eating all those things at once, either, and they
never saw Arthur Berg again.

As for me, I can tell you that I most definitely saw him.

A SMALL TRIBUTE TO ARTHUR BERG,
A STILL-LIVING MAN
The Cologne sky was yellow and rotting,
flaking at the edges.
He sat propped against a wall with a child
in his arms. His sister.
When she stopped breathing, he stayed with her,

and I could sense he would hold her for hours.
There were two stolen apples in his pocket.