The schmunzeler. Deaths diary: the parisians

THE SCHMUNZELER

 
 Minutes later, a second knocker was at the door.
 
 Good Lord, another one!
 
 Worry resumed immediately.
 
 Max was covered up.
 
 Rosa trudged up the basement steps, but when she opened the door this time, it was not the Nazis. It was none other than Rudy Steiner. He stood there, yellow-haired and good-intentioned. I just came to see how Liesel is.
 
 When she heard his voice, Liesel started making her way up the steps. I can deal with this one.
 
 Her boyfriend, Papa mentioned to the paint cans. He blew another mouthful of smoke.
 
 He is not my boyfriend, Liesel countered, but she was not irritated. It was impossible after such a close call. Im only going up because Mama will be yelling out any second.
 
 Liesel!
 
 She was on the fifth step. See?
 
 When she reached the door, Rudy moved from foot to foot. I just came to see He stopped. Whats that smell? He sniffed. Have you been smoking in there?
 
 Oh. I was sitting with Papa.
 
 Do you have any cigarettes? Maybe we can sell some.
 
 Liesel wasnt in the mood for this. She spoke quietly enough so that Mama wouldnt hear. I dont steal from my papa.
 
 But you steal from certain other places.
 
 Talk a bit louder, why dont you.
 
 Rudy schmunzeled. See what stealing does? Youre all worried.
 
 Like youve never stolen anything.
 
 Yes, but you reek of it. Rudy was really warming up now. Maybe thats not cigarette smoke after all. He leaned closer and smiled. Its a criminal I can smell. You should have a bath. He shouted back to Tommy Mller. Hey, Tommy, you should come and have a smell of this!
 
 What did you say? Trust Tommy. I cant hear you!
 
 Rudy shook his head in Liesels direction. Useless.
 
 She started shutting the door. Get lost, Saukerl, youre the last thing I need right now.
 
 Very pleased with himself, Rudy made his way back to the street. At the mailbox, he seemed to remember what hed wanted to verify all along. He came back a few steps. Alles gut, Saumensch? The injury, I mean.
 
 It was June. It was Germany.
 
 Things were on the verge of decay.
 
 Liesel was unaware of this. For her, the Jew in her basement had not been revealed. Her foster parents were not taken away, and she herself had contributed greatly to both of these accomplishments.
 
 Everythings good, she said, and she was not talking about a soccer injury of any description.
 
 She was fine.
 
 
 
  

DEATHS DIARY: THE PARISIANS

 
 Summer came.
 
 For the book thief, everything was going nicely.
 
 For me, the sky was the color of Jews.
 
 When their bodies had finished scouring for gaps in the door, their souls rose up. When their fingernails had scratched at the wood and in some cases were nailed into it by the sheer force of desperation, their spirits came toward me, into my arms, and we climbed out of those shower facilities, onto the roof and up, into eternitys certain breadth. They just kept feeding me. Minute after minute. Shower after shower.
 
 Ill never forget the first day in Auschwitz, the first time in Mauthausen. At that second place, as time wore on, I also picked them up from the bottom of the great cliff, when their escapes fell awfully awry. There were broken bodies and dead, sweet hearts. Still, it was better than the gas. Some of them I caught when they were only halfway down. Saved you, Id think, holding their souls in midair as the rest of their beingtheir physical shellsplummeted to the earth. All of them were light, like the cases of empty walnuts. Smoky sky in those places. The smell like a stove, but still so cold.
 
 I shiver when I rememberas I try to de-realize it.
 
 I blow warm air into my hands, to heat them up.
 
 But its hard to keep them warm when the souls still shiver.
 
 God.
 
 I always say that name when I think of it.
 
 God.
 
 Twice, I speak it.
 
 I say His name in a futile attempt to understand. But its not your job to understand. Thats me who answers. God never says anything. You think youre the only one he never answers? Your job is to. . . And I stop listening to me, because to put it bluntly, I tire me. When I start thinking like that, I become so exhausted, and I dont have the luxury of indulging fatigue. Im compelled to continue on, because although its not true for every person on earth, its true for the vast majoritythat death waits for no manand if he does, he doesnt usually wait very long.
 
 On June 23, 1942, there was a group of French Jews in a German prison, on Polish soil. The first person I took was close to the door, his mind racing, then reduced to pacing, then slowing down, slowing down. . . .
 
 Please believe me when I tell you that I picked up each soul that day as if it were newly born. I even kissed a few weary, poisoned cheeks. I listened to their last, gasping cries. Their vanishing words. I watched their love visions and freed them from their fear.
 
 I took them all away, and if ever there was a time I needed distraction, this was it. In complete desolation, I looked at the world above. I watched the sky as it turned from silver to gray to the color of rain. Even the clouds were trying to get away.
 
 Sometimes I imagined how everything looked above those clouds, knowing without question that the sun was blond, and the endless atmosphere was a giant blue eye.
 
 They were French, they were Jews, and they were you.