Magdalena looked with kindness on how life developed around her. She was not completely innocent. Could you say that? Finally she had invited her niece. But that was all. She would never have taken this step otherwise, but everyone who followed Maria had set her own pace, out of her own strength and force. Magdalena knew only too well that nothing can force anything in life.
Maria came and stayed. She would be free to drive whenever she wanted, but she stayed. By your own decision. What’s more, she could simply have refused or even ignored her invitation. Magdalena did what she thought fit to do. Everything else left her. In it she saw the great art of life, to do what was to be done, what to do for oneself, and to hand over and confide everything else so that everyone could contribute to it. The invitation sent her. She decided to follow her. To come here and look around, that was the act of Maria. She also saw a parallel in it, if only a small one, because Maria had indeed sent a postcard to Uwe, but she only wrote to him that she was fine and that he did not have to worry. That was not even an invitation, at least not a pronounced one. Maria was silent about it, but Magdalena already had the impression that Uwe had read the unspoken. She understood also in what dilemma Maria must have been, because when she invited him, so it was in the wilderness and then Maria did not know if he would not have been a little surprised, if not even indignant responded to such an invitation. So she left it open. He could now have shelved the postcard and think when it comes back, then life goes on as normal, but he decided to come, of his own accord, out of his own strength and force. So they had found each other about the unspoken, in a place where they both felt at home. They had done that themselves, and Magdalena did nothing but lay hands on her lap and watch the things that were happening around her. Doing nothing is not necessarily laziness or ignorance, but concession to the independence of the other. To breathe life, to let life breathe. That was how she had wished, but perhaps because she did not interfere.
Pleasantly rested her gaze on the old Nazl, who ate with ravenous hunger, the soup that she had prepared him. He recovered very quickly, thanks to her careful care. He wanted to get back to his house as soon as possible, which Magdalena understood very well, because he was used to being alone and knew only bad to fit into a house with several people. He did not have to either. Only the promise she made him, that he would come and see from time to time, to look at.
“You old stubborn,” she said to him, “you have to live with us seeing you now. After all, I do not want us to save you and then something happens again. Besides, it does not hurt you to be in love for one or two evenings, otherwise you’ll lose it completely in the end. ”
“You’re probably right,” Nazl said comfortably, “I should’ve done that for a long time, but I’m not afraid of other people, so it does not seem to be too late for me. A little bit I have lost, I like to admit, but most of the time I feel very well in my loneliness, just surrounded by my animals, and I’m so glad that the bitch has found its way to you. ”
“The little ones are developing really well,” Magdalena confirmed, picking up on one of the little rascals who was just cocky about gnawing at their house slippers, “Of course, you little louse, I could have guessed that it’s you. ”
“It’s just sad because of the bitch,” said the Nazl, suddenly very serious, “It was a wonderful beast, and I let it down.”
“Do not grieve,” said Magdalena indulgently, “you did not choose it either. But now you know who can help you if you are too much with the animals or if you have not the strength to take care of them.”
“But you cannot come up,” said Nazl in amazement, “you’re not much younger than me either.”
“I did not mean me, either,” Magdalena countered with a mischievous smile, “I do not even bother to go up there in the monolayer, but if I see it right, I will not be alone anymore.”
“What do you mean?”, the Nazl asked.
“That the two young people will stay and you can bring them to help, if you need them,” Magdalena responded frankly. “Sometimes I get the impression that having too much of the way out there in the other world is the one thing which stands against the view on being. You have to step aside a bit, get out of the wheel to really see it. You have the opportunity here. Only then, once you have seen it, is a real decision feasible. ”
“That was also the reason why I went here,” replied the Nazl, “It was probably not as bad in my time as it is today, but I could not stand it even then. One day, when I could not go on, and at that time, you did not know about Burnout or anything, at that time you said you had a nervous illness or something. Anyway, I went for a weekend excursion just to hike, all by myself, and then I found the yard, in the middle of the forest, and never went back to packing my things. From morning to day, I left everything behind and never regretted it. For possession limits freedom.”
“Yes, because as soon as I cannot start, just like that, then I’m unfree,” confirmed Magdalena, “and he stirs up mistrust between people. As soon as I have more than someone else, I have to be on my guard, because the other person might try to take it away from me. The more I have, the worse it gets. You lose friends and cannot talk openly with people anymore. I always have to remember that this is a potential thief. Life is easier, the easier I make it. ”
“And what really matters?”, the Nazl mused, “It’s about keeping the pulse of life.”
“That’s what my Toni would have said as well,” Magdalena said, smiling.
“Do you miss him?”, the Nazl asked sympathetically.
“Any moment of the day,” Magdalena replied, “And neither, because I feel his presence here with us, I feel it from the work of his hands and from the traces he left in me. Sometimes I’m standing by the fence and it feels like he’s there. He puts his hand on mine as he did then. He looks at me as he did then. It’s as if our relationship has just reached another level, nothing more. And then I’m sure I’ll come back to him. We will meet again. ”
“It’s wonderful how you handle it,” said the Nazl.
“I’m not dealing with it,” Magdalena objected, “It just so happened. Otherwise I could not have lived on for a day. ”
“So people do not just go away and leave us alone, as long as there is someone who thinks about them and lets them stay,” said the Nazl, “And if there is no one else, then it is right. Even though people renounce religion, they still want something that remains after their death. Is not it really nonsensical? Why is it so difficult for us to conclude? ”
“I’m ready,” Magdalena said with conviction, “I’ve done what to do. Everything else will be found.”
“What are you ready for, Auntie?”, asked Maria, who had entered the house with Uwe and had probably heard the last sentence.
“I’m ready to make dinner,” she replied with a smile, “and maybe you can keep those bullies off my neck so I do not accidentally jump on one.”
Thus, Uwe took over the supervision of the puppies, while Magdalena and Maria were busy in the kitchen and living room, so that they could sit down together at once to eat together, while the weaving boat this on the web image of life held. And it was the evening of the eighteenth advent.