The thought of missing it was eased when she found a gap in the bodies and was able to see the mound of guilt, still intact. It was prodded and splashed, even spat on. It reminded her of an unpopular child, forlorn and bewildered, powerless to alter its fate. No one liked it. Head down. Hands in pockets. Forever. Amen.
In the morning’s early hours, quiet voices were loud.
The only sign of war was a cloud of dust migrating from east to west. It looked through the windows, trying to find a way inside, and as it simultaneously thickened and spread, it turned the trail of humans into apparitions.
And far away, in the room that stretched like a bridge to a nameless town, her brother, Werner, played in the cemetery snow.
With a smile like that, you don’t need eyes.
Her papa stood and called her half a woman. Max was writing The Word Shaker in the corner. Rudy was naked by the door.
From Liesel’s position, their voices were only sounds. Not words at all.
Amen,′ I say, delayed, and now, like many of these people, I pray for the first time in years.
Thanks,” I say.
He was caught somewhere, in the current – of destroying everything he had, to become all he needed to be.
We admit to almost everything, and the almost is all that counts.
Writing is always difficult, but easier with something to say.
Returning and being let in: Two very different things.
There was guilt for enjoying anything. Especially the joy of forgetting.
She tried to reassemble herself, to resemble herself...
Carey liked the fact that Michelangelo had had his nose broken as a teenager, for being too much of a smart mouth; a reminder that he was human. A badge of imperfection.
It took three attempts to leave.
You are like he was,” Keith enlightens me, “and just like him you were most likely to die in the same way – a quarter of what you could have been...
As Liesel would discover, a good thief requires many things. Stealth. Nerve. Speed. More important than any of those things, however, was one final requirement. Luck.
Keep living Ed... It’s only the pages that stop here.