The Book Thief Part 20

By the start of July, she finally managed to convince him that she wasn't going to kill him. Since the beating she'd handed him the previous November, Tommy was still frightened to be around her. In the soccer meetings on Himmel Street, he kept well clear. "You never know when she might snap," he'd confided in Rudy, half twitching, half speaking.

In Liesel's defense, she never gave up on trying to put him at ease. It disappointed her that she'd successfully made peace with Ludwig Schmeikl and not with the innocent Tommy Mller. He still cowered slightly whenever he saw her.

"How could I know you were smiling for me that day?" she asked him repeatedly.

She'd even put in a few stints as goalie for him, until everyone else on the team begged him to go back in.

"Get back in there!" a boy named Harald Mollenhauer finally ordered him. "You're useless." This was after Tommy tripped him up as he was about to score. He would have awarded himself a penalty but for the fact that they were on the same side.

Liesel came back out and would somehow always end up opposing Rudy. They would tackle and trip each other, call each other names. Rudy would commentate: "She can't get around him this time, the stupid Saumensch Arschgrobbler. She hasn't got a hope." He seemed to enjoy calling Liesel an a.s.s scratcher. It was one of the joys of childhood.

Another of the joys, of course, was stealing. Part four, summer 1940.

In fairness, there were many things that brought Rudy and Liesel together, but it was the stealing that cemented their friendship completely. It was brought about by one opportunity, and it was driven by one inescapable force-Rudy's hunger. The boy was permanently dying for something to eat.

On top of the rationing situation, his father's business wasn't doing so well of late (the threat of Jewish compet.i.tion was taken away, but so were the Jewish customers). The Steiners were scratching things together to get by. Like many other people on the Himmel Street side of town, they needed to trade. Liesel would have given him some food from her place, but there wasn't an abundance of it there, either. Mama usually made pea soup. On Sunday nights she cooked it-and not just enough for one or two repeat performances. She made enough pea soup to last until the following Sat.u.r.day. Then on Sunday, she'd cook another one. Pea soup, bread, sometimes a small portion of potatoes or meat. You ate it up and you didn't ask for more, and you didn't complain.

At first, they did things to try to forget about it.

Rudy wouldn't be hungry if they played soccer on the street. Or if they took bikes from his brother and sister and rode to Alex Steiner's shop or visited Liesel's papa, if he was working that particular day. Hans Hubermann would sit with them and tell jokes in the last light of afternoon.

With the arrival of a few hot days, another distraction was learning to swim in the Amper River. The water was still a little too cold, but they went anyway.

"Come on," Rudy coaxed her in. "Just here. It isn't so deep here." She couldn't see the giant hole she was walking into and sank straight to the bottom. Dog-paddling saved her life, despite nearly choking on the swollen intake of water.

"You Saukerl," she accused him when she collapsed onto the riverbank.

Rudy made certain to keep well away. He'd seen what she did to Ludwig Schmeikl. "You can swim now, can't you?"

Which didn't particularly cheer her up as she marched away. Her hair was pasted to the side of her face and snot was flowing from her nose.

He called after her. "Does this mean I don't get a kiss for teaching you?"

"Saukerl!"

The nerve of him!

It was inevitable.

The depressing pea soup and Rudy's hunger finally drove them to thievery. It inspired their attachment to an older group of kids who stole from the farmers. Fruit stealers. After a game of soccer, both Liesel and Rudy learned the benefits of keeping their eyes open. Sitting on Rudy's front step, they noticed Fritz Hammer-one of their older counterparts-eating an apple. It was of the Klar variety-ripening in July and August-and it looked magnificent in his hand. Three or four more of them clearly bulged in his jacket pockets. They wandered closer.

"Where did you get those?" Rudy asked.

The boy only grinned at first. "Shhh," and he stopped. He then proceeded to pull an apple from his pocket and toss it over. "Just look at it," he warned them. "Don't eat it."

The next time they saw the same boy wearing the same jacket, on a day that was too warm for it, they followed him. He led them toward the upstream section of the Amper River. It was close to where Liesel sometimes read with her papa when she was first learning.

A group of five boys, some lanky, a few short and lean, stood waiting.

There were a few such groups in Molching at the time, some with members as young as six. The leader of this particular outfit was an agreeable fifteen-year-old criminal named Arthur Berg. He looked around and saw the two eleven-year-olds dangling off the back. "Und?" he asked. "And?"

"I'm starving," Rudy replied.

"And he's fast," said Liesel.

Berg looked at her. "I don't recall asking for your opinion." He was teenage tall and had a long neck. Pimples were gathered in peer groups on his face. "But I like you." He was friendly, in a smart-mouth adolescent way. "Isn't this the one who beat up your brother, Anderl?" Word had certainly made its way around. A good hiding transcends the divides of age.

Another boy-one of the short, lean ones-with s.h.a.ggy blond hair and ice-colored skin, looked over. "I think so."

Rudy confirmed it. "It is."

Andy Schmeikl walked across and studied her, up and down, his face pensive before breaking into a gaping smile. "Great work, kid." He even slapped her among the bones of her back, catching a sharp piece of shoulder blade. "I'd get whipped for it if I did it myself."

Arthur had moved on to Rudy. "And you're the Jesse Owens one, aren't you?"

Rudy nodded.

"Clearly," said Arthur, "you're an idiot-but you're our kind of idiot. Come on." They were in.

When they reached the farm, Liesel and Rudy were thrown a sack. Arthur Berg gripped his own burlap bag. He ran a hand through his mild strands of hair. "Either of you ever stolen before?"

"Of course," Rudy certified. "All the time." He was not very convincing.

Liesel was more specific. "I've stolen two books," at which Arthur laughed, in three short snorts. His pimples shifted position.

"You can't eat books, sweetheart."

From there, they all examined the apple trees, who stood in long, twisted rows. Arthur Berg gave the orders. "One," he said. "Don't get caught on the fence. You get caught on the fence, you get left behind. Understood?" Everyone nodded or said yes. "Two. One in the tree, one below. Someone has to collect." He rubbed his hands together. He was enjoying this. "Three. If you see someone coming, you call out loud enough to wake the dead-and we all run. Richtig?"

"Richtig." It was a chorus.

TWO DEBUTANT APPLE THIEVES,.

WHISPERING.

"Liesel-are you sure? Do you still want to do this?"

"Look at the barbed wire, Rudy. It's so high."

"No, no, look, you throw the sack on. See? Like them."

"All right."

"Come on then!"

"I can't!" Hesitation. "Rudy, I-"

"Move it, Saumensch!"

He pushed her toward the fence, threw the empty sack on the wire, and they climbed over, running toward the others. Rudy made his way up the closest tree and started flinging down the apples. Liesel stood below, putting them into the sack. By the time it was full, there was another problem.

"How do we get back over the fence?"

The answer came when they noticed Arthur Berg climbing as close to a fence post as possible. "The wire's stronger there." Rudy pointed. He threw the sack over, made Liesel go first, then landed beside her on the other side, among the fruit that spilled from the bag.

Next to them, the long legs of Arthur Berg stood watching in amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Not bad," landed the voice from above. "Not bad at all."

When they made it back to the river, hidden among the trees, he took the sack and gave Liesel and Rudy a dozen apples between them.

"Good work," was his final comment on the matter.

That afternoon, before they returned home, Liesel and Rudy consumed six apples apiece within half an hour. At first, they entertained thoughts of sharing the fruit at their respective homes, but there was considerable danger in that. They didn't particularly relish the opportunity of explaining just where the fruit had come from. Liesel even thought that perhaps she could get away with only telling Papa, but she didn't want him thinking that he had a compulsive criminal on his hands. So she ate.

On the riverbank where she learned to swim, each apple was disposed of. Unaccustomed to such luxury, they knew it was likely they'd be sick.

They ate anyway.

"Saumensch!" Mama abused her that night. "Why are you vomiting so much?"

"Maybe it's the pea soup," Liesel suggested.

"That's right," Papa echoed. He was over at the window again. "It must be. I feel a bit sick myself."

"Who asked you, Saukerl?" Quickly, she turned back to face the vomiting Saumensch. "Well? What is it? What is it, you filthy pig?"

But Liesel?

She said nothing.

The apples, she thought happily. The apples, and she vomited one more time, for luck.

THE ARYAN SHOPKEEPER.

They stood outside Frau Diller's, against the whitewashed wall.

Apiece of candy was in Liesel Meminger's mouth.

The sun was in her eyes.

Despite these difficulties, she was still able to speak and argue.

ANOTHER CONVERSATION.

BETWEEN RUDY AND LIESEL].