Page 265 - The Book Thief

The message was clear and now, Rudy accepted it. He dived at the mud and held

his breath, and at that moment, lying ear to sodden earth, the drill ended.

Vielen Dank, meine Herren, Franz Deutscher politely said. Many thanks, my
gentlemen.

Rudy climbed to his knees, did some gardening in his ear, and looked across at
Tommy.

Tommy closed his eyes, and he twitched.

When they returned to Himmel Street that day, Liesel was playing hopscotch
with some of the younger kids, still in her BDM uniform. From the corner of her
eye, she saw the two melancholic figures walking toward her. One of them
called out.

They met on the front step of the Steiners concrete shoe box of a house, and

Rudy told her all about the days episode.

After ten minutes, Liesel sat down.

After eleven minutes, Tommy, who was sitting next to her, said, Its all my fault,
but Rudy waved him away, somewhere between sentence and smile, chopping a
mud streak in half with his finger. Its my Tommy tried again, but Rudy broke the
sentence completely and pointed at him.

Tommy, please. There was a peculiar look of contentment on Rudys face. Liesel
had never seen someone so miserable yet so wholeheartedly alive. Just sit there
andtwitchor something, and he continued with the story.

He paced.

He wrestled his tie.

The words were flung at her, landing somewhere on the concrete step.

That Deutscher, he summed up buoyantly. He got us, huh, Tommy?

Tommy nodded, twitched, and spoke, not necessarily in that order. It was