The Book Thief Part 62

The climb seemed to last for miles. It took many hours for him to reach the final branches, and when he did, he found the word shaker asleep in her blankets and the clouds.

He watched her for many minutes.

The warmth of the sun heated the cloudy rooftop.

He reached down, touching her arm, and the word shaker woke up.

She rubbed her eyes, and after a long study of his face, she spoke.

"Is it really you?"

Is it from your cheek, she thought, that I took the seed? The man nodded.

His heart wobbled and he held tighter to the branches. "It is."

TOGETHER, THEY stayed in the summit of the tree. They waited for the clouds to disappear, and when they did, they could see the rest of the forest.

"It wouldn't stop growing," she explained.

"But neither would this." The young man looked at the branch that held his hand. He had a point.

When they had looked and talked enough, they made their way back down. They left the blankets and remaining food behind.

The people could not believe what they were seeing, and the moment the word shaker and the young man set foot in the world, the tree finally began to show the ax marks. Bruises appeared. Slits were made in the trunk and the earth began to s.h.i.+ver.

"It's going to fall!" a young woman screamed. "The tree is going to fall!" She was right. The word shaker's tree, in all its miles and miles of height, slowly began to tip. It moaned as it was sucked to the ground. The world shook, and when everything finally settled, the tree was laid out among the rest of the forest. It could never destroy all of it, but if nothing else, a different-colored path was carved through it.

The word shaker and the young man climbed up to the horizontal trunk. They navigated the branches and began to walk. When they looked back, they noticed that the majority of onlookers had started to return to their own places. In there. Out there. In the forest.

But as they walked on, they stopped several times, to listen. They thought they could hear voices and words behind them, on the word shaker's tree.

For a long time, Liesel sat at the kitchen table and wondered where Max Vandenburg was, in all that forest out there. The light lay down around her. She fell asleep. Mama made her go to bed, and she did so, with Max's sketchbook against her chest.

It was hours later, when she woke up, that the answer to her question came. "Of course," she whispered. "Of course I know where he is," and she went back to sleep.

She dreamed of the tree.

THE ANARCHIST'S SUIT COLLECTION

35 HIMMEL STREET,.

DECEMBER 24.

With the absence of two fathers,

the Steiners have invited Rosa

and Trudy Hubermann, and Liesel.

When they arrive, Rudy is still in

the process of explaining his

clothes. He looks at Liesel and his

mouth widens, but only slightly.

The days leading up to Christmas 1942 fell thick and heavy with snow. Liesel went through The Word Shaker many times, from the story itself to the many sketches and commentaries on either side of it. On Christmas Eve, she made a decision about Rudy. To h.e.l.l with being out too late.

She walked next door just before dark and told him she had a present for him, for Christmas.

Rudy looked at her hands and either side of her feet. "Well, where the h.e.l.l is it?"

"Forget it, then."

But Rudy knew. He'd seen her like this before. Risky eyes and sticky fingers. The breath of stealing was all around her and he could smell it. "This gift," he estimated. "You haven't got it yet, have you?"

"No."

"And you're not buying it, either."

"Of course not. Do you think I have any money?" Snow was still falling. At the edge of the gra.s.s, there was ice like broken gla.s.s. "Do you have the key?" she asked.

"The key to what?" But it didn't take Rudy long to understand. He made his way inside and returned not long after. In the words of Viktor Chemmel, he said, "It's time to go shopping."

The light was disappearing fast, and except for the church, all of Munich Street had closed up for Christmas. Liesel walked hurriedly to remain in step with the lankier stride of her neighbor. They arrived at the designated shop window. STEINER-SCHNEIDERMEISTER. The gla.s.s wore a thin sheet of mud and grime that had blown onto it in the pa.s.sing weeks. On the opposite side, the mannequins stood like witnesses. They were serious and ludicrously stylish. It was hard to shake the feeling that they were watching everything.

Rudy reached into his pocket.

It was Christmas Eve.

His father was near Vienna.

He didn't think he'd mind if they trespa.s.sed in his beloved shop. The circ.u.mstances demanded it.

The door opened fluently and they made their way inside. Rudy's first instinct was to hit the light switch, but the electricity had already been cut off.

"Any candles?"

Rudy was dismayed. "I brought the key. And besides, this was your idea."

In the middle of the exchange, Liesel tripped on a b.u.mp in the floor. A mannequin followed her down. It groped her arm and dismantled in its clothes on top of her. "Get this thing off me!" It was in four pieces. The torso and head, the legs, and two separate arms. When she was rid of it, Liesel stood and wheezed. "Jesus, Mary."

Rudy found one of the arms and tapped her on the shoulder with its hand. When she turned in fright, he extended it in friends.h.i.+p. "Nice to meet you."

For a few minutes, they moved slowly through the tight pathways of the shop. Rudy started toward the counter. When he fell over an empty box, he yelped and swore, then found his way back to the entrance. "This is ridiculous," he said. "Wait here a minute." Liesel sat, mannequin arm in hand, till he returned with a lit lantern from the church.

A ring of light circled his face.

"So where's this present you've been bragging about? It better not be one of these weird mannequins."

"Bring the light over."

When he made it to the far left section of the shop, Liesel took the lantern with one hand and swept through the hanging suits with the other. She pulled one out but quickly replaced it with another. "No, still too big." After two more attempts, she held a navy blue suit in front of Rudy Steiner. "Does this look about your size?"

While Liesel sat in the dark, Rudy tried on the suit behind one of the curtains. There was a small circle of light and the shadow dressing itself.

When he returned, he held out the lantern for Liesel to see. Free of the curtain, the light was like a pillar, s.h.i.+ning onto the refined suit. It also lit up the dirty s.h.i.+rt beneath and Rudy's battered shoes.

"Well?" he asked.

Liesel continued the examination. She moved around him and shrugged. "Not bad."

"Not bad! I look better than just not bad."

"The shoes let you down. And your face."

Rudy placed the lantern on the counter and came toward her in mock-anger, and Liesel had to admit that a nervousness started gripping her. It was with both relief and disappointment that she watched him trip and fall on the disgraced mannequin.

On the floor, Rudy laughed.

Then he closed his eyes, clenching them hard.

Liesel rushed over.

She crouched above him.

Kiss him, Liesel, kiss him.

"Are you all right, Rudy? Rudy?"

"I miss him," said the boy, sideways, across the floor.

"Frohe Weihnachten," Liesel replied. She helped him up, straightening the suit. "Merry Christmas."

PART NINE.

the last human stranger featuring:

the next temptation-a cardplayer-

the snows of stalingrad-an ageless

brother-an accident-the bitter taste