saumensch

That's just the thing. She's glad too, but she doesn't feel like she should be. It's not fair that everyone else on Himmel Street had to die and she's still here, getting to read books and be in a brand new city. That's why she has to write it down. Her old journal is almost full of the story she'd been writing in the basement, about the train and about Max and a boxing match that had gone on for two years before he slipped away into the night. But now that she's in Darrow she thinks she should write a new story, one about everything she might see in Darrow, as if she could give it to Papa in the end for him to read.

She'll need a new book. Maybe once she's saved up enough of the money the city gives her, she can ask Luke where to buy one.

"I have Papa's accordion," she says. She'd managed to bring that with her at least, and somehow that made her feel stronger. When she's sad she can imagine the music, remember the precise way Papa used to stumble over some of the keys, the music ringing in her ears like sunshine. "And Nicaise helped me." She appreciates that he'd found her and helped her without asking why her clothes were covered in ash, without asking her where exactly she'd come from or what had happened. It's easier to talk about now, but if he'd asked her then she thinks she might not have been able to hold a straight face.