In her attempt to escape, a voice found her.
“Liesel!”
It made its way through and she recognized it. It was not Rudy, but she knew that voice.
She twisted free and found the face attached to it. Oh, no. Ludwig Schmeikl. He did not, as she expected, sneer or joke or make any conversation at all. All he was able to do was pull her toward him and motion to his ankle. It had been crushed among the excitement and was bleeding dark and ominous through his sock. His face wore a helpless expression beneath his tangled blond hair. An animal. Not a deer in lights. Nothing so typical or specific. He was just an animal, hurt among the melee of its own kind, soon to be trampled by it.
Somehow, she helped him up and dragged him toward the back. Fresh air.
They staggered to the steps at the side of the church. There was some room there and they rested, both relieved.
Breath collapsed from Schmeikl’s mouth. It slipped down, over his throat. He managed to speak.
Sitting down, he held his ankle and found Liesel Meminger’s face. “Thanks,” he said, to her mouth rather than her eyes. More slabs of breath. “And …” They both watched images of school-yard antics, followed by a school-yard beating. “I’m sorry—for, you know.”
Liesel heard it again.
Kommunisten.
She chose, however, to focus on Ludwig Schmeikl. “Me too.”
They both concentrated on breathing then, for there was nothing more to do or say. Their business had come to an end.
The blood enlarged on Ludwig Schmeikl’s ankle.
A single word leaned against the girl.
To their left, flames and burning books were cheered like heroes.
THE GATES OF THIEVERY
She remained on the steps, waiting for Papa, watching the stray ash and the corpse of collected books. Everything was sad. Orange and red embers looked like rejected candy, and most of the crowd had vanished. She’d seen Frau Diller leave (very satisfied) and Pfiffikus (white hair, a Nazi uniform, the same dilapidated shoes, and a triumphant whistle). Now there was nothing but cleaning up, and soon, no one would even imagine it had happened.
But you could smell it.
“What are you doing?”
Hans Hubermann arrived at the church steps.
“Hi, Papa.”
“You were supposed to be in front of the town hall.”
“Sorry, Papa.”
He sat down next to her, halving his tallness on the concrete and taking a piece of Liesel’s hair. His fingers adjusted it gently behind her ear. “Liesel, what’s wrong?”
For a while, she said nothing. She was making calculations, despite already knowing. An eleven-year-old girl is many things, but she is not stupid.
A SMALL ADDITION
The word communist + a large bonfire + a collection of dead letters + the suffering of her mother + the death of her brother = the Führer
The Führer.
He was the they that Hans and Rosa Hubermann were talking about that evening when she first wrote to her mother. She knew it, but she had to ask.
“Is my mother a communist?” Staring. Straight ahead. “They were always asking her things, before I came here.”