Liesel Meminger, Max Vandenberg, and Alex Steiner made their way through the cemetery. They had all agreed to go see their deceased loved ones.
While Alex wept at the graves of his children and wife, Max and Liesel stared mutely at the gravestones of Hans and Rosa Hubermann.
"I'm teaching myself how to play the accordion, Hans." said Max.
That was true. Liesel often saw him playing it quietly. He didn't get far into his lessons, though. Halfway through, he always burst into tears. He would avoid it for a few days, then go crawling back.
"And I'm still reading, Papa." Liesel whispered. "I wrote my own story, but I lost it the day you-" she stopped.
Died.
While Max spoke to Rosa about feeding him relatively well, Liesel wandered to Rudy's grave.
"I kissed you." she whispered to the cold stone. "You were covered in dust and dirt. Like when we raced at Hubert Oval, remember that? You were Jesse Owens.
"You covered yourself in charcoal in order to look like him, remember? And when you took on Franz Deutcher, he gave you a haircut. Then you showed him, didn't you? Just like Jesse Owens.
"You kept on trying to make me kiss you. At Hubert Oval, at the Amper River, even when you were covered in schiesse... and I said no. You even tried to kill the Führer. He took your papa and my papa. Hitler deserved it, didn't he? But your papa's here now. You just..."
Liesel turned away from the gravestone. There was nothing else to say.
The word shaker was wordless.
YOU ARE READING
The Book Thief and the Phantom
ФанфікиLiesel Meminger is seventeen years old, and has strange dreams of the Opera Populaire, which only existed many, many years ago. How does she know about it? Why? From the perspective of Death and herself, Liesel meets and befriends the legendary Phan...
