Kiss me, Saumensch

Prologue

[90% of the following chapter is taken directly from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and all rights go to him, and his editors. Besides this page, and some of the characters, all rights go to me, and my imagination. Thank you, enjoy.]

Rudy?

She did more than mouth the word now. "Rudy?"

          He lay with yellow hair and closed eyes, and the book thief ran toward him and fell down. She dropped the black book. "Rudy," she sobbed, "wake up..." She grabbed him by his shirt and gave him just the slightest disbelieving shake. "Wake up, Rudy," and now, as the sky went on heating and showering ash, Liesel was holding Rudy Steiner's shirt by the front. "Rudy, please." The tears grappled with her face. "Rudy, please, wake up, Goddamn it, wake up, I love you. Come on, Rudy, come on, Jesse Owens, don't you know I love you, wake up, wake up, wake up..."

          But nothing cared.

          The rubble just climbed higher. Concrete hills with caps of red. A beautiful, tear-stomped girl, shaking the dead. 

          "Come on, Jesse Owens-"

          But the boy did not wake.

          In disbelief, Liesel buried her head into Rudy's chest. She held his limp body, trying to keep him from lolling back, until she needed to return him to the butchered ground. She did it gently.

          Slow. Slow.

          "God, Rudy..."

          She leaned down and looked at his lifeless face and Liesel kissed her best friend, Rudy Steiner, soft and true on his lips. He tasted dusty and sweet he tasted like regret in the shadows of trees and in the glow of the anarchist's suit collection. She kissed him long and soft, and when she pulled herself away, she touched his mouth with her fingers. Her hands were trembling, her lips were fleshy, and she leaned in once more, this time losing control and misjudging it. Their teeth collided on the demolished world of Himmel Street.

          She did not say goodbye. She was incapable, and after a few more minutes at his side, she was able to tear herself from the ground. She ran down what used to be the street where she grew up, not looking back. She raced down the street, tears running down her face as the wind hit her face. She found the soldiers. She cried, and she cried. She didn't stop crying. She never stopped crying for Rudy. For mama, and for papa. She cried fro Himmel Street.