Margreet and Elly met Huib in the kitchen and told him their ideas about the website and a building for selling his homemade products. Huib nodded, but hesitated: "Sounds nice, but... you know I'm just afraid to start? That feeling that people won't want to buy it anyway, that it wouldn't be good enough. And all that business stuff behind it..."

Annerieke intervened in the conversation, "Your work is great, there's no doubt about that. How about you start simple by taking pictures, of the things you've made here for the guest house, just of everything, furniture, and smaller things like the umbrella stand, and then put them on a website. I understood that you wanted to keep the dresser simple to better showcase Elly's wall painting. That would make for a great set of photos, both of the commode without anything special around it, and with the painting attached."

Margreet echoed her: "That's what I had in mind, Elly really enjoys this work and she does a great job, so she actually needs clients for whom she can do this. Elly mentioned that there was a building for sale in the village, not too big, more like a deep display case, where you could put your furniture and other beautiful things you make, for sale. And I think on the spot that the walls of such a building are of course super boring. Maybe Elly would like to paint a mural there?"

"I'd love to, but it would have to be something that didn't stand out too much. Otherwise the furniture would disappear in it too much. And they should be visible."

Huib had been listening and felt himself getting excited despite his earlier hesitation. "They may both stand out, but I think you should come up with something, although I must say, I have no idea how I would pay for such a property. Then I'd have to take out a mortgage..."

"Or an interest-free loan," suggested Lisa, who had enjoyed following the conversation. "Soon all the stuff in Henk's house will be auctioned off, and I'm sure that will bring in a lot of money. And then the house itself will be put up for sale.

I'll tell you about our desire. Sjaak and I want to use that money from my inheritance for things that come on our minds. First I had thought of that building, to buy that with that money, if you would find that building suitable to exhibit your work. At first I thought of giving you the money for it, but afterwards I thought, and I also consulted Sjaak, that it would be better to make it an interest-free loan. If you make a profit from your work, you pay back what you can afford to pay each time.

And before you start protesting... we don't need the money ourselves. Sjaak has a perfect job here, and we hardly have any fixed charges, so we can save enough from his salary alone. I hope to do something with my violin and cello someday, but that will come later, for now I want to fix up myself and enjoy my musical instruments. So the money from my inheritance is really left. We don't need luxury, we are happy with what we have. I understood that our house belongs to the guesthouse, so we don't even have to pay for the rebuilding. That's more than enough luxury for us!

So the legacy is just there, and we're going to use it for projects that come on our minds. And by making it an interest-free loan instead of a gift, the money will probably keep coming back, too, so we can start new projects. Circle around, and we love it!

I've already called the estate agent who offers that property for sale in the village. He won't hold it for you until we get the money from the auction and possibly the sale of the house. But maybe we can work something out together?"

Lisa was silent, suddenly embarrassed with her long story.

Huib looked at her, with tears in his eyes, "I won't protest about the plan you have with your inheritance, but I do have a question. What if it doesn't work out, if people just don't buy my work?"

"First of all, I can't imagine that would be the case. And secondly, we really don't want the money back if the project unexpectedly doesn't turn a profit. The only thing you can do then is sell the building again and pay back the money you catch for it. Something like that, a sort of escape clause."

"So... actually I don't run any risk then..."

"No, you just have some cost of electricity, and in the winter a little heating. It doesn't have to be really warm there, but the furniture shouldn't freeze either, seems to me. But that's where it ends."

"Boy... I am grateful to you for this opportunity, dear people! And Margreet, if you want to look at the property with me, we can go to the village for it tomorrow. After that we'll just have to wait and see when we can buy it, if it's still for sale then."

"I wanted to go to Action tomorrow. Shall we combine it?" Margreet looked at Huib questioningly.

"Good idea, let’s do that, right after lunch or something?" And as Margreet nodded, "Dear people, I feel quite overwhelmed. You guys are a support for me, to start trusting that I'm going to be able to pull it off to do this work and sell my stuff. Your confidence really does a lot for me! My hobby can become my work! I'm working on a little table right now. When that's done, I think tomorrow during the day, I'm going to take pictures of everything I've made, and look at the possibilities of making a website!"

"I do know a site where you can do that for free. If you put your phone number and email address on that site, people can always reach you. And if you put pictures of all your work on it, and put a number next to it, then people can give you that number in their mail or conversation, so you can check which item it is. It's just a thought, there are also sites where you can arrange things more conveniently, where people can buy items on the spot, but I wonder if that is useful for your work. They're usually pretty big products anyway."

"Just give me the link to that site and I'll see if I can use it, at least to start with. And then I'll have to arrange more of course, in terms of administration, number at the Chamber of Commerce, I think. Well, first those pictures and that website, the rest will come later! Boy, I'm getting excited!"

Lisa laughed, "I'm happy about that! I already opened a new checking account this morning. We can link a savings account to that ourselves. And I called the estate agent for Henk's house. He wants to take pictures with the interior still in place. So I called the police about a date when the house will be released, so we can put a new front door in it. Then the estate agent can take pictures and a video for the ad.

In the meantime, Alexander Hendriks himself has already made an appointment with the police to be allowed to take pictures of the furniture and other saleable items so that he can prepare for the auction. We will probably hear more about that this week or next. After the auction, the real estate agent will put the house on sale. Quite convenient, he can take his time to create that ad and provide it with photos and video. We expect that the auction and the sale of the house will generate a lot of money. No idea what amount we can count on, but the total will probably be more than a million, in addition to the huge amount that Henk has in his account. Still a nice inheritance, a rotten history behind it, but the money we will use for nice projects!"

Sjaak put his arm around her and hugged her. "What a wonderful wife I have, the sweetest one there is, and then so bold too..."

"Sjaak, if you want to argue, you have to start like this," Huib interrupted him quasi indignantly, "because the sweetest woman there is, is mine. Too bad you didn't notice that!"

Sjaak looked at him in surprise and then shot into laughter, "Excuse me, brother, we just have the two sweetest women together, you yours, and I mine! Better like this?"

"Best, that way we can get through one door again," Huib grinned with a wink at Margreet.

Elly was silently watching everything. She felt again what she had felt in the past when she was with Annerieke and Erik: they have something, which is not so obvious with us yet, that absolutely pure contact, that intimate love, and to sit there in public, in this safe circle, quietly teasing about it! And hugging each other openly...

She felt the same pain as in the past, but now with the certainty that improvement was coming. Martin and she were determined to follow in the footsteps of Annerieke and Erik in order to eventually be able to deal with each other in this way themselves. Yesterday the movie had touched Martin as well and they had talked about it while walking home. And that had been good, they had recognized things and chosen to accept, even embrace, all the pain of a healing process.

"I want nothing more, than to have such contact with you as they have, to be so one with you," he had said and thus made her cry. When he had asked her what had made her cry, she had told him why she had allowed her friendship with Annerieke to fade, and that she loved him so much and was so happy that they could now go through this together. In the middle of the street he had hugged and kissed her, they had felt like an adolescent couple in love, wonderful! She smiled at the memory and thought that last night in the street they had done something similar as the couples here....

To chapter 135. Desire to really live

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