A Mountain Range of Rubble

Discovery

Liesel's head was aching as she ran. Who was that? And how did he know who she was? There was a voice in the back of her head that was telling her. It was Rudy. That was Rudy. But it wasn't Rudy. It couldn't have been.

Then why did it sound so much like him?

As she ran, thoughts flooded her head. How would he have gotten back to Molching? Did he get a letter? Did he even know about the bombing?

She kept running until she was back at the mayor's house. She was passing through the gate when she heard him again. "Liesel, where are you going?"

Slowly, she turned around. She could see his bright, candlelit hair through the darkness. "Rudy?"

Her blurry eyesight cleared to see him standing there, panting. "Why are you going into the mayor's house? I thought-"

But he was cut off. Liesel hugged him. Her eyes stung.

"Crucified Christ, Liesel, I've only been gone a month." He hugged her back. Once she pulled away, he saw her tear-streaked face and asked her, "What's wrong?"

What was wrong? What wasn't wrong? She decided to ignore his question. "How did you get back here?"

After they'd both sat down on the sidewalk, Rudy told her what had happened at the Elite Youth Camp and the train stations.

It took Liesel a moment to process it. "You walked all the way from Dachau?"

"Ja. And then I saw you at the river."

She could tell he wanted an explanation. "Well, after Himmel-" She paused, however, when she realized. He doesn't know, he doesn't know. Crucified Christ, he doesn't know. "Rudy, I..." She struggled to continue. How could she possibly tell him? Once again, tears formed in her eyes. "Just don't go back home yet, okay?"

Of course, being the stubborn and ignorant person Rudy was, she knew that he wasn't going to let this go any time soon. "Why?"

"Please, Rudy, listen to me, you can't go back there now."

"Why?" he repeated. "What happened, Liesel?"

She was about to reply again when he started running back to Himmel Street. "Bitte, Rudy, warte! Wait!"

But he did not wait.

She began running after him, but he was running so fast that he was out of sight almost before she could start. By the time she got there, she was too late.

Rudy stopped. He started to walk closer to his house. Some of the LSE workers had noticed. Unable to speak, Liesel said nothing. She could only watch as her best friend fell to the ground.