Page 313 - The Book Thief

How do you give someone a piece of sky?

Late in February, she stood on Munich Street and watched a single giant cloud
come over the hills like a white monster. It climbed the mountains. The sun was
eclipsed, and in its place, a white beast with a gray heart watched the town.

Would you look at that? she said to Papa.

Hans cocked his head and stated what he felt was the obvious. You should give
it to Max, Liesel. See if you can leave it on the bedside table, like all the other
things.

Liesel watched him as if hed gone insane. How, though?

Lightly, he tapped her skull with his knuckles. Memorize it. Then write it down
for him.

. . . It was like a great white beast, she said at her next bedside vigil, and it came
from over the mountains.

When the sentence was completed with several different adjustments and
additions, Liesel felt like shed done it. She imagined the vision of it passing from
her hand to his, through the blankets, and she wrote it down on a scrap of paper,
placing the stone on top of it.

PRESENTS #10#13
One toy soldier.
One miraculous leaf.
A finished whistler.
A slab of grief.

The soldier was buried in the dirt, not far from Tommy Mllers place. It was
scratched and trodden, which, to Liesel, was the whole point. Even with injury, it

could still stand up.