Page 501 - The Book Thief

THE END OF THE WORLD (Part II)

Almost all the words are fading now. The black book is disintegrating under the
weight of my travels. Thats another reason for telling this story. What did we say
earlier? Say something enough times and you never forget it. Also, I can tell you
what happened after the book thiefs words had stopped, and how I came to know
her story in the first place. Like this.

Picture yourself walking down Himmel Street in the dark. Your hair is getting
wet and the air pressure is on the verge of drastic change. The first bomb hits
Tommy Mllers apartment block. His face twitches innocently in his sleep and I

kneel at his bed. Next, his sister. Kristinas feet are sticking out from under the
blanket. They match the hopscotch footprints on the street. Her little toes. Their
mother sleeps a few feet away. Four cigarettes sit disfigured in her ashtray, and
the roofless ceiling is hot plate red. Himmel Street is burning.

The sirens began to howl.

Too late now, I whispered, for that little exercise, because everyone had been
fooled, and fooled again. First up, the Allies had feigned a raid on Munich in
order to strike at Stuttgart. But next, ten planes had remained. Oh, there were
warnings, all right. In Molching, they came with the bombs.

A ROLL CALL OF STREETS
Munich, Ellenberg, Johannson, Himmel.
The main street + three more,

in the poorer part of town.

In the space of a few minutes, all of them were gone.

A church was chopped down.