The One Who Stole the Sky

Disparity

Disparity-n.) Inequality or difference in rank, quality, or age.

Liesel wrote this word on paper along with its definition, part of speech, and origin. She wrote it without purpose but with anger. Ilsa watched Liesel with grave concern as they both read in their library. Both were content with the silence and the occasional turn of a page every so often. Poor Liesel's mind wasn't focused on expanding her vocabulary, it was somewhere else, somewhere black and lonely. The sweet silence and the turning of pages noise was accompanied by a thorough knock at the door. Ilsa rose and walked out to find the trespasser at the door. As for her adopted daughter, well she looked hard and long at the clock to decide if it was possibly her father coming home from a restless day. The hour didn't add up, and so she went back to attempting her expansion of vocabulary.
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Ilsa opened the door with an outline of what she was going to say premeditated to the trespasser.

"This is the Governor's-"

"Where's Liesel?" A tall, thin Jew spat with all his might. He ran so far and so fast to reach this point.

"Who is she to you?" Ilsa pushed for a bit of aggression to protect her daughter.

"Please. I need in to see her." Ilsa looked on into the man's fiery, determined eyes. They were quiet for a while.

"She's in the study. It's the first door on the right." Ilsa sighed. The man smiled so big back at her. Jew and German. In one house, not even a decade after the war.

Max slowly walked to the door Ilsa had directed him to. He put his sweaty hand onto the doorknob and twisted. But he never pushed it. The doorknob lay suffering under a working man's hand.

"You can go in." Ilsa prodded. Max stared down at the doorknob.

"That's the thing, I can't." He lifted his gaze to the aging woman whose gray hair shined like buffered metal itself.

"I will leave you to be. So you can of course." At that, Ilsa retired upstairs to her bedroom. Max's heart raced and ached. At last he made a decision and ever so quietly opened the door only to see Liesel's back to him. He stood there staring at her back, and searched his mind to collect words to speak.

"I know it's you, Max. Thin walls this place has." Liesel did not think to turn and look into the eyes of the man she loved and hated.

"Shouldn't you be going back now?" Liesel said in gravity. Max's heart sank and he felt awful. He wanted to punch something, and for his hands to bleed so he could feel more than this regret. He wanted to take his words back, and he wanted to drown them and sink them so deep, so that no one would even know they were his words.

"I wanted to find you." Max answered.

"Well you did, and so now you can happily be on your way. Goodbye." Liesel continued to read her books, but not filtering the knowledge she was learning.

"Turn around." Max spoke so gently and pure.

"Why should I?" Liesel's voice rose at the end of her words.

"Because I want to see you. I came here to see you." Liesel's voice hitched in her throat as she tried not to shed another thousand tears. She stood up, but did not turn to face Max.

"Why don't you want to stay here?" Liesel commanded.

"My girl, life in Munich is right for me. Here isn't where I should be."

"Maybe here isn't where you should be, but where you need to be." Liesel suggests.

"Do I need to be here, Liesel? You are the only thing making this decision harder and harder. No one here needs me though." Max explains.

"I need you, Max. You kept me right when things were bad, you made me strong when I was weak. Most importantly, you were there for me when I was all alone and had given me hope." A long pause was held between the two for minutes.

"If you will not turn around then I will come around to face you." Max did so and walked around the ottoman to make some sort of contact with Liesel.

"Listen to my words-my explanation." After seeing the condition of her face, Max felt sickened.

"Max," Liesel choked, "I love you." Her word was as simple as that. It had absolutely no relation to the former topic, but Liesel needed to spill the words. Embarrassed by this sudden outburst of confession, she watched Max's reaction. He stood and smiled, then looked off somewhere in thought.

"I apologize if what I said offended you." Liesel began to march her way out of the library until Max's hand caught hers.

"I am to marry at Munich." Max's voice shook.

"Then forget all this, all of my words and forget me too." Liesel yanked her hand away and left Max Vanderburg to question his life choices.

That night, Max stayed at the Höpten Hotel, but did not rest. His mind wanted to wander. And it did, all night long. It didn't wander for Sylvi, his soon to be bride, but it wandered for Liesel.