A Mountain Range of Rubble

Crumbs

How many times did she have to say goodbye?

On October 8th, 1943, devastation rained on Liesel's world, along with the painful subject that broke her small paradox of happiness. Reality. Reality that was this: Everything and everyone she had ever known had left her. First, her brother. Then, her mother. Max. Rudy. And now, Hans and Rosa. What did she ever do to deserve this?

Nowhere to go, no one she could trust, the book thief wandered around the mountain-range of rubble that she used to call her home, holding an old, beat-up accordion in a broken case. Nearly an hour later, the LSE workers noticed she was alone. Still in her shocked, shaken state, they took her to the local police station. It took three additional hours for the mayor and a fluffy-haired woman to show their faces.

The man and woman, Heinz and Ilsa Hermann, were able to take Liesel in. She was led to an exceptionally nice room, the spare room in their mansion. For the majority of her time there, she would talk and talk to no one but herself. Very little food. No showering whatsoever.

When the time came that she fell asleep each night, she did not have nightmares as she did when her brother, Werner, had died. No, this time, she had dreamless, empty sleeps. And she dreaded waking up, because she knew that when she woke up, there would be no Mama, no Papa, no anybody. When she woke up, reality would continue to slowly eat her up, until nothing was left but crumbs. The memories.

One night, however, the night of October 14th, she couldn't take it anymore. The crumbs were slowly dissolving, drowning in tears. So she ran.

Wearing nothing but a pair of flannel pajamas Frau Hermann had given to her, she ran through Grande Strasse, not taking even the slightest glance at what used to be Himmel Street. She ran to the remains of the church, then kept running until she hit the river. Her skin was still aching from the cuts and bruises. Blood that was too stubborn to get off was still caked on her hands.

The river was in fact still in good condition. At the day of the funeral services of her Mama and Papa, Liesel had walked obliviously into the water, fully clothed, and stayed there, talking to herself with hazy eyes until she was spotted by a certain Ilsa Hermann.

For now though, she sat there, her head aching, on the ledge next to where she and Papa used to sit and read when she first came to Molching. Thinking only one thought, one word.

Hitler.

This was all his fault. Hitler had caused everyone to leave her. There was no one else to blame.

Tears were streaming down the book thief's face as she stood up and kicked rocks into the river. She then bent down and picked one up, throwing it as hard as possible into the waters of the Amper. It landed with a small splash and a thud.

I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill Hitler. I'll do whatever it takes. I'm going to kill him.

She sat down once again and wept into her hands. For a while she stayed like that, unable to control herself, until through her sobs she heard the faint noise of footsteps. Someone had seen her.

Liesel stopped abruptly and listened, to see if they were coming. Was it Ilsa Hermann, wondering where she was? Had she woken her up?

She stood up and started running back to the mayor's house as fast as she could. She was already by the church when she heard someone call out to her, "Liesel, wait!"

But he was too late.