Vogel called out from his front step. He was perhaps five foot nine and his greasy scraps of hair swung lifelessly across his forehead. "I'm sorry, Frau Hubermann!"

"Don't wave to that Arschloch," she said. "Now hurry up."

An empty bag was at her side.

Liesel waved at him.

He waved back.

It was not said. It was pulled along, rough-handed.

The rot started with the washing and it rapidly increased.

That night, when Liesel had a bath, Mama scrubbed her especially hard, muttering the whole time about that Vogel Saukerl and imitating him at two-minute intervals. "'You must get an allowance for the girl…'" She berated Liesel's naked chest as she scrubbed away. "You're not worth that much, Saumensch. You're not making me rich, you know."

Come on, Liesel.

Mama castigated.

When Liesel accompanied Rosa Hubermann on her deliveries across Molching, one of her customers, Ernst Vogel, informed them that he could no longer afford to have his washing and ironing done. "The times," he excused himself, "what can I say? They're getting harder. The war's making things tight." He looked at the girl. "I'm sure you get an allowance for keeping the little one, don't you?"

To Liesel's dismay, Mama was speechless.

Not more than a week after that particular incident, Rosa hauled her into the kitchen. "Right, Liesel." She sat her down at the table. "Since you spend half your time on the street playing soccer, you can make yourself useful out there. For a change."

"Herr Vogel didn't pity me."

Liesel watched only her own hands. "What is it, Mama?"

"Well…" Her agitation was obvious. "The others might. So don't argue."

Liesel sat there and took it.

For a moment, it appeared that her foster mother would comfort her or pat her on the shoulder. "Good girl, Liesel. Good girl." Pat, pat, pat.

Instead, Rosa Hubermann stood up, selected a wooden spoon, and held it under Liesel's nose. It was a necessity as far as she was concerned. "When you're out on that street, you take the bag to each place and you bring it straight home, with the money, even though it's next to nothing. No going to Papa if he's actually working for once. No mucking around with that little Saukerl, Rudy Steiner. Straight. Home."

"Yes, Mama."

"From now on you're going to pick up and deliver the washing for me. Those rich people are less likely to fire us if you're the one standing in front of them. If they ask you where I am, tell them I'm sick. And look sad when you tell them. You're skinny and pale enough to get their pity."

She did no such thing.

"And when you hold that bag, you hold it properly. You don't swing it, drop it, crease it, or throw it over your shoulder."

"Yes, Mama."

"Yes, Mama."

"Yes, Mama."

Overall, Liesel enjoyed it. There was no share of the pay, but she was out of the house, and walking the streets without Mama was heaven in itself. No finger-pointing or cursing. No people staring at them as she was sworn at for holding the bag wrong. Nothing but serenity.

Saying those two words was often the best way to survive, as was doing what she was told, and from there, Liesel walked the streets of Molching, from the poor end to the rich, picking up and delivering the washing. At first, it was a solitary job, which she never complained about. After all, the very first time she took the sack through town, she turned the corner onto Munich Street, looked both ways, and gave it one enormous swing -- a whole revolution -- and then checked the contents inside. Thankfully, there were no creases. No wrinkles. Just a smile, and a promise never to swing it again.

"Yes, Mama." Rosa Hubermann was a great imitator, and a fervent one. "You'd better not, Saumensch. I'll find out if you do; you know that, don't you?"

She came to like the people, too:

* The Weingartners, whose bent-whiskered cat always answered the door with them. Little Goebbels, that's what they called him, after Hitler's right-hand man.

* Gentle Helena Schmidt, handing the money over with an arthritic curl of the hand.

* The Pfaffelhurvers, inspecting the clothes and saying, "Ja, ja, sehr gut, sehr gut." Liesel imagined that they did everything twice.

* And Frau Hermann, the mayor's wife, standing fluffy-haired and shivery in her enormous, cold-aired doorway. Always silent. Always alone. No words, not once.

Sometimes Rudy came along.

"How much money do you have there?" he asked one afternoon. It was nearly dark and they were walking onto Himmel Street, past the shop. "You've heard about Frau Diller, haven't you? They say she's got candy hidden somewhere, and for the right price…"

"Don't even think about it." Liesel, as always, was gripping the money hard. "It's not so bad for you -- you don't have to face my mama."

Rudy shrugged. "It was worth a try."

In the middle of January, schoolwork turned its attention to letter writing. After learning the basics, each student was to write two letters, one to a friend and one to somebody in another class.

Liesel's letter from Rudy went like this:

Dear Saumensch,

Are you still as useless at soccer as you were the last time we played? I hope so. That means I can run past you again just like Jesse Owens at the Olympics…

"Do you feel like visiting the corridor, Mr. Steiner?"

When Sister Maria found it, she asked him a question, very amiably.

Needless to say, Rudy answered in the negative, and the paper was torn up and he started again. The second attempt was written to someone named Liesel and inquired as to what her hobbies might be.

Both he and the paint fumes turned around. "Was wuistz?" Now this was the roughest form of German a person could speak, but it was spoken with an air of absolute pleasantness. "Yeah, what?"

SISTER MARIA'S OFFER

At home, while completing a letter for homework, Liesel decided that writing to Rudy or some other Saukerl was actually ridiculous. It meant nothing. As she wrote in the basement, she spoke over to Papa, who was repainting the wall again.

"Would I be able to write a letter to Mama?"

"Not that mama." She swallowed.

A pause.

"What do you want to write a letter to her for? You have to put up with her every day." Papa was schmunzeling -- a sly smile. "Isn't that bad enough?"

"Oh." Papa returned to the wall and continued painting. "Well, I guess so. You could send it to what's-her-name -- the one who brought you here and visited those few times -- from the foster people."

"Frau Heinrich."

"That's right. Send it to her. Maybe she can send it on to your mother." Even at the time, he sounded unconvincing, as if he wasn't telling Liesel something. Word of her mother had also been tight-lipped on Frau Heinrich's brief visits.

Instead of asking him what was wrong, Liesel began writing immediately, choosing to ignore the sense of foreboding that was quick to accumulate inside her. It took three hours and six drafts to perfect the letter, telling her mother all about Molching, her papa and his accordion, the strange but true ways of Rudy Steiner, and the exploits of Rosa Hubermann. She also explained how proud she was that she could now read and write a little. The next day, she posted it at Frau Diller's with a stamp from the kitchen drawer. And she began to wait.

"She asked me," Papa answered, "and I couldn't say no. How could I?"

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph." Again with the whisper. "She should just forget her. Who knows where she is? Who knows what they've done to her?"

The night she wrote the letter, she overheard a conversation between Hans and Rosa.

Where was she?

"What's she doing writing to her mother?" Mama was saying. Her voice was surprisingly calm and caring. As you can imagine, this worried the girl a great deal. She'd have preferred to hear them arguing. Whispering adults hardly inspired confidence.

In bed, Liesel hugged herself tight. She balled herself up. She thought of her mother and repeated Rosa Hubermann's questions.

What had they done to her?

And once and for all, who, in actual fact, were they?