The One Who Stole the Sky

Goodbye

"Excuse me." Liesel bowed her head to brush by the cause of her leave. But the reason stood there, unmoved by her attempt to ignore his existence.

"I said excuse me." More stern this time, Liesel went to push through the doorway again, but Max remained still.

"Liesel, wait." Max took her by the shoulders gently and guided her back into the apartment. It was completely silent for a moment as Max bit his lip to buy time to think of what he was going to say.

"No, there is nothing you can do to keep me here. I am leaving today." For the first time since her finger went numb, she looked at Max with a stone cold stare. As for the cause of the upset, he raised his hands to his head and let out a lengthy exhale.

"Perhaps I cannot make you stay, but it is on my good conscious that I explain myself to you. For my sake and yours." The emotions of the room were stunted, dying, and failing without a hope of revival. Liesel's shattered heart turned the entire home into something dismal, but it was not her fault that she felt so used.

"For my sake? I'd rather not hear any words a martyr has to say! Because of you I may be as good as dead." Liesel shook her head, noting that this was the only instance in her companionship with Max that she ever lashed out against him in pure anger.

"I didn't know that Charlie swapped the painting out for her old one. If I would've known, I wouldn't have shown up myself." Max leaned against the wall, releasing Liesel of her captivity so that she may relax her shoulders.

"I must leave too. I am in great danger if I stay here any longer than I already have. If I am caught as an anti-Communist martyr, I will be sentenced to some terrible prison camp. I have already escaped that obligation once in my life, and I would kill myself if I were to wind up in the same position my friends and family were in only years ago." The wavy words Max spoke did not hide well under the tightly clenched brow that came naturally to his face. There is little guidance for Liesel's morality, but she cannot help to feel sorry for her unnerving friend, who stands so tall, yet shrinks away from himself. But the pictures of Charlie and him dug themselves up so that they were fresh in her mind, and abruptly her sympathy spoiled.

"What about Charlie? I saw the papers, Max, you cannot fool me." Max wrinkled his forehead with a distinct tone of annoyance that could be heard as much as seen. There wasn't anything said for quite some time, or any actions acted upon either.

"Do you think I am blind? Explain yourself!" Disgusted, Liesel turned away from her snubbed friend's challenging stare to collect her baggage once more.

"Wait." Max reached out his hand, defeated but otherwise generous enough to answer the question.

"Believe me or no, that is your decision. But what you see in the pictures in the papers is blackmail. She kissed me, not the other way around. She framed me as her lover for what I can only suspect as sabotage of my good name. Do you not think her actions have given me no consequences? Death threats, phone calls, even glares in the streets fight against me in prejudice." The two of them stared at each other, bewildered by the scenario they found themselves in. Max moved over to his studio corner and began to move his art supplies into organized piles. Liesel loomed over his presence as a ghost, observing how his every movement was born from frustration.

"If you are to leave, then so will I. Herr Getz has warned me to leave the city at once, as I have mentioned before." The way Max moved was exaggerated, perhaps even a little violent compared to his usual actions.

"Where will you go?" Liesel whispered, her body shaking at the overwhelming stress being pressed upon them both.

"I don't know. I may go west to escape the growing danger of Russia. I may even leave the country, if I can, to get as far away from the problem as possible." With little breath in his lungs, Max marched to his room and began to gather up his clothes. Liesel did not know if she were to stay or if she were to go. She stared at the door as an escape, but something kept her at bay here, in this apartment for just a while longer.