1. The hands of Frau Holtzapfel.

THE DUAL EVENTS OF OCTOBER

Rudy was standing next to Liesel. "Looks like they need to fertilize again."

When the next few weeks were raid-free, life almost returned to normal. Two telling moments, however, were on their way.

In the morning, the damage was inspected. No one died, but two apartment blocks were reduced to pyramids of rubble, and Rudy's favorite Hitler Youth field had an enormous bowl spooned out of it. Half the town stood around its circumference. People estimated its depth, to compare it with their shelters. Several boys and girls spat into it.

Liesel heard the words she dreaded.

2. The parade of Jews.

It was actually quite fortunate that they saw Frau Holtzapfel coming from the living room window, for her knuckles on the door were hard and decisive. They meant business.

Her wrinkles were like slander. Her voice was akin to a beating with a stick.

"You go and answer it," Mama said, and the girl, knowing only too well what was good for her, did as she was told.

Frau Holtzapfel was not deterred in the slightest. "Is that how you greet everyone who shows up at your front door? What a G'sindel."

Gelegenheit -- Opportunity: A chance for advancement or progress.

Related words: prospect, opening, break.

DUDEN DICTIONARY MEANING #5

Liesel watched. She was unfortunate enough to be sandwiched between them. Rosa pulled her out of the way. "Well, are you going to tell me why you're here or not?"

"No, not you." She dismissed Rosa with a shrug of the voice and focused now on Liesel. "You."

Mama shifted her weight. "Is that right?"

"Why did you ask for me, then?"

Liesel turned and called out.

"Is your mama home?" Frau Holtzapfel inquired. Constructed of fifty-year-old wire, she stood on the front step, looking back every so often to view the street. "Is that swine of a mother of yours here today?"

Frau Holtzapfel looked once more at the street and back. "I have an offer for you."

Soon, Rosa was behind her. "What do you want here? You want to spit on my kitchen floor now, too?"

"I liked that book you read in the shelter."

"Well, I at least need your permission."

"You've got some nerve, Holtzapfel." Rosa was deciding whether to be furious or not. "If you think --"

"Good, then, it's done."

It was decided.

"Mama?"

Rosa decided against being furious. "And some flour?"

"I'll stop spitting on your door," she interrupted. "And I'll give you my coffee ration."

"What, are you a Jew? Just the coffee. You can swap the coffee with someone else for the flour."

Oh, Maria, Liesel thought, this is all I need. What the hell can Holtzapfel want with me?

By everyone but the girl.

"I was hoping to hear the rest of it in the shelter, but it looks like we're safe for now." She rolled her shoulders and straightened the wire in her back. "So I want you to come to my place and read it to me."

No. You're not getting it. Liesel was convinced of that. "Yes?"

"Monday and Friday, four o'clock. And today, right now."

"Quiet, Saumensch. Go and get the book." Mama faced Frau Holtzapfel again. "What days suit you?"

Liesel followed the regimented footsteps to Frau Holtzapfel's lodging next door, which was a mirror image of the Hubermanns'. If anything, it was slightly larger.

"Chapter two?"

When she sat down at the kitchen table, Frau Holtzapfel sat directly in front of her but faced the window. "Read," she said.

Good God, Liesel thought. This is my punishment for all that stealing. It's finally caught up with me.

"No, chapter eight. Of course chapter two! Now get reading before I throw you out."

Liesel took that as her cue to leave. "Danke schon, Frau Holtzapfel." By the door, when she saw the framed photos of two young men in military uniform, she also threw in a "heil Hitler," her arm raised in the kitchen.

She read for forty-five minutes, and when the chapter was finished, a bag of coffee was deposited on the table.

"Never mind the 'yes, Frau Holtzapfels.' Just open the book. We don't have all day."

"Yes, Frau Holtzapfel."

"Thank you," the woman said. "It's a good story." She turned toward the stove and started on some potatoes. Without looking back, she said, "Are you still here, are you?"

The next day was Friday. "Yes, Frau Holtzapfel. Until tomorrow."

"Yes." Frau Holtzapfel was proud and afraid. Two sons in Russia. "Heil Hitler." She put her water down to boil and even found the manners to walk the few steps with Liesel to the front door. "Bis morgen?"

Liesel calculated that there were four more reading sessions like that with Frau Holtzapfel before the Jews were marched through Molching.

They were going to Dachau, to concentrate.

That makes two weeks, she would later write in the basement. Two weeks to change the world, and fourteen days to ruin it.