It didn\u2019t vibrate loudly, it didn\u2019t ring \u2013 modern devices are discreet, but discreet does not mean harmless; it only means that the attack is quiet. Morgenstern reached into his pocket, pulled it out, looked at the display, and you could see something change in his face.<\/p>\n
A small line around the mouth. A brief hardening of the forehead. The gaze that turns inward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is it?\u201d, asked Mrs. Morgenstern calmly.<\/p>\n
Morgenstern hesitated for a second. And this hesitation, dear female reader, dear male reader, was already system two. Because system one would have lied or exploded. System two hesitates because it calculates.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Bender,\u201d said Morgenstern.<\/p>\n
The name meant nothing to Hans Castorp. But he saw how Mrs. Morgenstern\u2019s eyes narrowed for a moment, not angrily, but watchfully. In this narrowing lay the whole story that Hans did not know.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe leech,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS dryly, as if he were reading from a protocol.<\/p>\n
Morgenstern flinched, half amused, half caught. \u201cYes,\u201d he said quietly. \u201cSo\u2026 yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The phone vibrated again. A message. Another one.<\/p>\n
Morgenstern looked at it. His thumb already wanted to start typing, as if by itself. System one.<\/p>\n
Dr. AuDHS watched him. You could practically see him drawing a curve in his head: pulse, stress, pattern.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does he want?\u201d, asked Dr. AuDHS.<\/p>\n
Morgenstern read. \u201cHe writes\u2026\u201d He swallowed. \u201c\u2026that I have to help him immediately. It\u2019s urgent. And that I\u2026\u201d He twisted his mouth. \u201c\u2026that I promised him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you?\u201d, asked Dr. AuDHS.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d said Morgenstern, almost angrily. \u201cOf course not. I\u2026 I once said: If you need something, get in touch. Like that. A sentence like that. And now\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAh,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS. \u201cA sentence that claims blue grass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp thought of the chapter \u201cThe blue grass,\u201d of the passage in which Morgenstern had still been a donkey, a monkey in a dinner jacket and donkey mask, and of the five resolutions that were written down back then like a remedy. The recurrence was not accidental. In this house nothing that repeated itself was accidental.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Morgenstern took the younger child by the hand. She said nothing. But her hand was a reminder: Here are the lilies.<\/p>\n
Morgenstern inhaled. You could see how he almost wanted to count his breath, as if it were an exercise.<\/p>\n
\u201cRespect,\u201d he murmured. And then, a little louder, as if he were speaking not only to himself but to his system one: \u201cRespect.\u201d<\/p>\n
He did not put the phone away. He held it. He held it the way you hold a snake: carefully, but firmly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is respect now?\u201d, asked Hans Castorp, and he himself did not know why he asked; perhaps because he wanted to learn what cannot be measured.<\/p>\n
Morgenstern looked at him. There was a brief, almost comical seriousness in his gaze. \u201cRespect is,\u201d he said, \u201cthat I don\u2019t pretend it doesn\u2019t matter that he\u2019s writing. But also\u2026\u201d He looked at his wife. \u201c\u2026that I don\u2019t pretend it\u2019s more important than\u2026\u201d He broke off, because the word \u201cfamily\u201d would have been too heavy here.<\/p>\n
Dr. AuDHS nodded. \u201cCompassion?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCompassion,\u201d said Morgenstern, and it sounded as if he had to prove it to himself. \u201cCompassion means: I see that he is panicking. But I\u2026 I don\u2019t have to solve his panic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs. Morgenstern raised her eyebrows, very slightly. That was agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cResponsibility?\u201d, asked Dr. AuDHS.<\/p>\n
Morgenstern laughed briefly, without humor. \u201cResponsibility means: I taught him that this works. I\u2026 fed him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSafety?\u201d, asked Dr. AuDHS.<\/p>\n
Morgenstern swallowed. \u201cSafety means: I\u2019m not doing this now. Not here. Not in front of the children.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPartnership?\u201d, said Dr. AuDHS.<\/p>\n
Morgenstern looked at his wife. And in this look there was suddenly something that Hans Castorp, the man of the in-between spaces, recognized as one of the rare, beautiful things: a silent plea for help that is not weakness, but trust.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Morgenstern nodded once. \u201cI\u2019m here,\u201d she said. It was not a big word. But it was everything.<\/p>\n
Morgenstern typed.<\/p>\n
He did not type much. No novel, no justification, no discussion about green or blue grass. He wrote, briefly, politely, the way you draw a boundary.<\/p>\n
Then he put the phone away.<\/p>\n
It kept vibrating, but in his pocket it vibrated like an insect that you don\u2019t feed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now?\u201d, asked Hans Castorp.<\/p>\n
Morgenstern exhaled. He looked at his children, who were once again looking at a beetle as if the world were not complicated. \u201cNow,\u201d he said, \u201cI move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. AuDHS smiled, and the smile was not mocking, but appreciative. \u201cYou have just,\u201d he said, \u201cswitched on system two. That is exhausting. But, as Zieser says: building muscle is simple, but hard. And relationship is\u2026\u201d He paused briefly, as if searching for the right word. \u201c\u2026even harder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp felt a stab. Not because he wanted to contradict, but because he knew that he had no practice in it.<\/p>\n