Page 262 - The Book Thief

RUDYS YOUTH

In the end, she had to give it to him.

He knew how to perform.

A PORTRAIT OF RUDY STEINER:
JULY 1941
Strings of mud clench his face. His tie
is a pendulum, long dead in its clock.
His lemon, lamp-lit hair is disheveled
and he wears a sad, absurd smile.

He stood a few meters from the step and spoke with great conviction, great joy.

Alles ist Scheisse, he announced.

All is shit.

In the first half of 1941, while Liesel went about the business of concealing Max
Vandenburg, stealing newspapers, and telling off mayors wives, Rudy was
enduring a new life of his own, at the Hitler Youth. Since early February, hed
been returning from the meetings in a considerably worse state than hed left in.
On many of those return trips, Tommy Mller was by his side, in the same
condition. The trouble had three elements to it.

A TRIPLE-TIERED PROBLEM

Tommy Mllers ears.