Page 506 - The Book Thief

said, Ill take that if you likeits my papas. Softly, she took it from the mans hand

and began carrying it off. It was right about then that she saw the first body.

The accordion case fell from her grip. The sound of an explosion.

Frau Holtzapfel was scissored on the ground.

THE NEXT DOZEN SECONDS
OF LIESEL MEMINGERS LIFE
She turns on her heel and looks as far
as she can down this ruined canal
that was once Himmel Street. She sees two
men carrying a body and she follows them.

When she saw the rest of them, Liesel coughed. She listened momentarily as a
man told the others that they had found one of the bodies in pieces, in one of the
maple trees.

There were shocked pajamas and torn faces. It was the boys hair she saw first.

Rudy?

She did more than mouth the word now. Rudy?

He lay with yellow hair and closed eyes, and the book thief ran toward him and
fell down. She dropped the black book. Rudy, she sobbed, wake up. . . . She
grabbed him by his shirt and gave him just the slightest disbelieving shake.
Wake up, Rudy, and now, as the sky went on heating and showering ash, Liesel
was holding Rudy Steiners shirt by the front. Rudy, please. The tears grappled
with her face. Rudy, please, wake up, Goddamn it, wake up, I love you. Come
on, Rudy, come on, Jesse Owens, dont you know I love you, wake up, wake up,
wake up. . . .

But nothing cared.