While Annerieke put their own trays on the table, she asked Margreet if she had been successful this afternoon. Margreet told enthusiastically about everything she had bought and asked if Annerieke would like to come and have a look later. “Especially that rocking chair and bedside table, you really have to see them. If you have the time and if you love to of course…” she added hesitantly.

“You bet, I'm looking forward to that and I’ll make time for it! We'll just have to see how it works out, but I think we'll have some time before the coffee, otherwise after the coffee. Eat well guys, don't let it get cold!"

Towards the end of the meal Margreet suddenly thought of the books. “Annerieke, Huib told me that you have a lot of books and…” She hesitated for a moment as wondering how to ask further. “May I borrow a book from you?”

“Of course, as many as you want. Do you like reading?”

“Yes, I think needlework and reading are my biggest hobbies,” Margreet replied.

“I already thought we would get along well,” Annerieke smiled. “I like that too, and mess around in the garden. Have you ever read anything by Nora Roberts?”

“No, I had never heard of that writer until Huib told me about it this afternoon.”

“Margreet, I tell you, it is the pride of my book collection. I really do have all of Nora's books. I have them, how could it be otherwise, I have collected them in the thrift shop. Only the new books she just has written, I usually buy new. She has written many novels, thrillers, and under an alias her "In Death" series, a detective series."

"Let's start with those novels, I'm not in the mood for nightmares yet!"

“Then you can go on for months, there are plenty of novels. Walk with me to my house tonight, if you like, you can pick a few.”

“Yeah, nice, I'm intrigued, you make me curious about that writer. If you have that many of her books, it must be worth it!”

“Certainly,” Huib said. “They have only one drawback, when you start in it, you forget the world around you. I remember well, when Annerieke was reading, she had no idea of ​​our existence!

Annerieke laughed: “Yes, just like when you are woodworking.”

“Mommy...”

Margreet saw that Huibs face grew dark from one moment to the next. She looked uncertainly from one to the other.

Annerieke grabbed his hand: “I know dear, it's a difficult subject. You loved it so much, together with Erik… I didn't mean it wrong, you know that, don't you?”

Huib nodded: “Yes, I know that, I was able to get absorbed in it just as much as you were in reading, that’s what it was all about it, but it just hurt for a while. I just miss Dad so much, especially with that, with my woodworking…”

"I feel bad I haven't known him," Margreet replied, "when I hear you talk about him, I know he must have been a good man."

“He was, Margreet, he was a very lovely man and a great father to Huib. I'm not able to do it well right now, but I'll probably tell you more about him later, maybe show pictures. We'll see, we'll just have to give it some time…”

Margreet nodded understandingly. If the bond had been this good, they would need that time badly.

.

After dinner, the women cleaned up together and went upstairs. “It already feels so familiar that you're here, and it's only your first workday. Does it click for you too?” Annerieke asked as they went up the stairs, dragging the awkwardly large box with balls of wool with them.

“Yes, it clicks well, although I do notice that I still find it difficult to believe that all this is real. It's so different from home, I'm not used to the warmth you have and give, but I do enjoy it."

“Our warmth, you have put that into words beautifully… It's true, I experience it that way myself. And as you say, I also recognize. I didn't know that warmth originally either."

“How old were you when you got married?”

Margreet saw that Annerieke smiled. She just looked in love for a while. “Erik and I had known each other since primary school, we were not in the same class, he was two years older, but we saw each other on the playground and walked to school and home together. He was a bit like an older brother to me…” She paused, remembering that beautiful, simple part of her childhood. “I found it difficult that he went to secondary school earlier, for me these were two difficult years in primary school. And when I went to the same high school, he had changed, logically of course, he had started puberty. And yet it turned out that he still had a place for me in his heart. When I was fifteen years old, there was a party at school. Then he caught me up by asking me if I wanted to date him. I didn't see that coming. You know, he really felt like a brother, and a friend somehow, but I didn't expect him to want to have that kind of relationship with me. And yet my heart jumped, I did not hesitate for a moment: I would love to continue with him, for the rest of my life!”

Margreet laughed: “For the rest of your life, did you know that when you were fifteen?”

“Yes, already then, right away… I now understand that there had always been a soul connection between us, we were soulmates, destined for each other. If you're going to read those Nora Roberts books, you'll find the same thing. She writes a lot about that, how people experience that click, compare it with previous relationships and realize that those relationships had been empty, that they have now found someone who really suits them. Really like: you and me and no other possibility is imaginable. Do you understand what I mean?"

"I think so," Margreet replied hesitantly, "although I haven't experienced it like that yet." She wondered if this was what she had noticed with Huib, and how she felt with him, if it could be something like that…

They were in her room now. Annerieke walked to the rocking chair with a surprised cry: “What a cutie! I can already see you sitting here with a Nora book, or with your knitting.” Annerieke sat in it, rocked. “Just what I thought, this is a great model, fits well, swings without any bumps. I'll ask my friend from the thrift store to keep an eye out for another one like that."

“There is another one, I've seen it, only the pillow of this one caught my eye right away, I loved it so much! The other has a faded pillow.”

“That's no problem, I still have enough pieces of fabric, there will probably be some with which I can make that pillow beautiful. I will ask Huib… yes, ask, ask nicely hahaha… if he wants to pick him up tomorrow.”

She got up abruptly, because she suddenly discovered the nightstand near the bed. “Did you buy this one there too? It looks like a work of art by Huib…”

“Yes, that’s the same I thought, so nice, I couldn't resist. That's a bit like what you just said about relationships and soulmates. I felt such a click with this nightstand, this was just it, and no other!”

Annerieke smiled at her happily: “So cool to hear that you can feel something like that too. I don't think there are many people who can do that and that's a damn pity!"

Margreet also showed her her other acquisitions. Annerieke admired her glass kettle and thought it was smart that she had bought knitting needles in just about all sizes. That way she would never be short of the right needles!

Huib had also come up for a moment, knocked on the open door. “Margreet, do you already have an idea where you want those towel bars? Here in your room or by the sink?”

“If it's okay for you, at the sink please, that seems to be the most convenient place.”

Huib saw his mother looking questioningly and started to tease Margreet: "Yes, Mom, she doesn't want to load herself too much, she wants to spend at least a month with one towel, until the whole attic smells musty!"

"That’s not true! You know…” Margreet began, but then she realized he was far from serious. “Never mind… men…” she teased back with a made-up sigh.

“You'll get that one back, young lady! As if you can lump all men together, as if I am not a very special young man, completely different from all that male scum in the dark world outside…”

Margreet raised her eyebrows, her mouth slightly open as if she wanted to respond but didn't know what to say to so much pompous self-importance.

“That looks nice on you, you look beautiful!” Huib chuckled.

"Come on guys!" Annerieke laughed. “I'm going downstairs, make some coffee. You better figure it out with that towel rail, I'll see you downstairs soon." She roffeled down the stairs, whereupon Huib called out in surprise: “Boy, she always taught me to be quiet, listen to her now! Hahaha!”

Margreet laughed with him, then turned to the sink.

“What do you think of this place, this height approximately?” She pointed to the left of the sink.

“I don't think anything of it, I think of something else…” Huib said mysteriously.

Margreet looked at him in surprise. What did he mean? She saw him looking at her with his bright blue eyes, so intense it confused her.

He reached out, twisted a curl of her hair around his finger. “I think of you… It touches me every time you laugh so happy, then your beautiful face opens, then you look so free… You have beautiful eyes Margreet.”

For a moment her eyes widened in surprise. After that, the shyness immediately gained ground. She lowered her head, not daring to look at him anymore. Huib understood, but couldn't help lifting her head with his other hand under her chin.

“Margreet, I'm serious, you really have beautiful eyes, such a special shade of green, with very small golden speckles. But I don't want to embarrass you again… come on, let's go downstairs, that towel bar will come another time.”

He gave her a brotherly pat on the shoulder, unaware that she was trembling inside as if she were cold. Margreet really had no idea what had just happened to her, she was completely confused.

She followed Huib, looking down at his head full of blond wavy hair. He wore it quite long, down to his shoulders. She thought it looked good on him. She couldn't imagine ever getting it cut into a courteous short haircut. Then it wouldn't be Huib anymore, she thought. She was astonished about her own thoughts. She had never thought of a boy or a man like that. What the hell happened to her?

In the kitchen, Annerieke immediately felt that the atmosphere was different. There seemed to be some sort of tension, but not an awful tension. It didn't seem wise to her to ask, she suspected it might be something very personal and delicate. Don't ask… She laughed inwardly at herself, in fact she would prefer to hear them out, find out what was going on between the two of them.

Margreet tried to calm herself by asking about the pie. "Isn't that tiramisu?"

“Yes, that's right, people often eat it for dessert, but I also really like it with coffee and tea. That's why tonight we had a little bowl of vanilla custard with a small dot of strawberry jam, simple but deliciously sweet. Not a single full bowl had been left at the buffet in the dining room. Quite funny actually, I usually make an effort to make something special, tasty and also festive to look at, but when I do something so simple in between, people enjoy it just as much too.”

“That's right, it's ordinary, but it's also just delicious!” Huib ate his pie with joy.

“Tiramisu as a pie with the coffee… I know it,” said Margreet, “my grandmother used to do that too. I don't think she made it herself, but it still was delicious with coffee, well, for me with a glass of juice. I've never heard anyone complain about it! And that, you can put it in the newspaper, because my mother is capable of complaining about everything…”

Slightly embarrassed, she bent her head a little over her pie. What the hell had she said! She really didn't want to talk about her past at all, about all the negativity from her parents.

Huib and Annerieke looked at each other, understood… So she had come from such a nest. Negative and cold…

To chapter 13. Annerieke's book paradise

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