Page 513 - The Book Thief

WOOD IN THE AFTERNOON

When Himmel Street was cleared, Liesel Meminger had nowhere to go. She was
the girl they referred to as the one with the accordion, and she was taken to the
police, who were in the throes of deciding what to do with her.

She sat on a very hard chair. The accordion looked at her through the hole in the
case.

It took three hours in the police station for the mayor and a fluffy-haired woman
to show their faces. Everyone says theres a girl, the lady said, who survived on

Himmel Street.

A policeman pointed.

Ilsa Hermann offered to carry the case, but Liesel held it firmly in her hand as
they walked down the police station steps. A few blocks down Munich Street,
there was a clear line separating the bombed from the fortunate.

The mayor drove.

Ilsa sat with her in the back.

The girl let her hold her hand on top of the accordion case, which sat between
them.

It would have been easy to say nothing, but Liesel had the opposite reaction to
her devastation. She sat in the exquisite spare room of the mayors house and
spoke and spoketo herselfwell into the night. She ate very little. The only thing
she didnt do at all was wash.

For four days, she carried around the remains of Himmel Street on the carpets
and floorboards of 8 Grande Strasse. She slept a lot and didnt dream, and on
most occasions she was sorry to wake up. Everything disappeared when she was
asleep.