Page 236 - The Book Thief
P. 236
THE FLOATING BOOK (Part I)
A book floated down the Amper River.
A boy jumped in, caught up to it, and held it in his right hand. He grinned.
He stood waist-deep in the icy, Decemberish water.
How about a kiss, Saumensch? he said.
The surrounding air was a lovely, gorgeous, nauseating cold, not to mention the
concrete ache of the water, thickening from his toes to his hips.
How about a kiss?
How about a kiss?
Poor Rudy.
A SMALL ANNOUNCEMENT
ABOUT RUDY STEINER
He didnt deserve to die the way he did.
In your visions, you see the sloppy edges of paper still stuck to his fingers. You
see a shivering blond fringe. Preemptively, you conclude, as I would, that Rudy
died that very same day, of hypothermia. He did not. Recollections like those
merely remind me that he was not deserving of the fate that met him a little
under two years later.
On many counts, taking a boy like Rudy was robberyso much life, so much to
live foryet somehow, Im certain he would have loved to see the frightening
rubble and the swelling of the sky on the night he passed away. Hed have cried
