Chapter 155.

'The Transporter'

Sjaak and Lisa nestled on the couch, Margreet chose her rocking chair, and Huib, who had quickly looked up the movie, sat down in his easy chair with the remote.

"Are you guys ready?"

"Yes, just start it!" Sjaak replied.

At the beginning of the film it became immediately clear that the main character was a package delivery man, but not an ordinary one. He carried a gun with him by default, because he knew that transporting and delivering the packages he was given posed a danger. The world behind it was a dark one. He was never allowed to know what was in the package, nor did he want to know. That way he could never accidentally run his mouth. His assignment was standard: take this package to that address, don't ask for anything, don't say anything, just deliver it!

This time he received a hefty package, wrapped in an oblong bag, which was placed in the back of his car by an employee of the man who wanted to send it. He received an absurdly large sum of money and left.

On the way he discovered, that his package contained a living content, a young woman. She was tied up and her mouth was taped shut with a wide tape. She looked at him with frightened eyes. After some back and forth, it was clear to him that he was not going to do what he had to do. He wasn't going to deliver her to the address given to him. He decided to take her to his own house, where she was probably safer, at least until whoever had sent her, or whoever was supposed to receive her, tracked them down.

It was not easy for the woman to trust this package delivery person. She had no reason to trust people. People had hurt her, and if she had arrived at her final destination, it would almost certainly have meant her death. But this man, who should have brought her there, had taken her in, in his house. Who was he and why didn't he take her directly to the address?

After all sorts of entanglements, an attack and a successful escape attempt, with the package delivery man taking charge and protecting her, she was free! And at that moment in the film the song started that Lisa had played so much on her violin and had sung along to for Sjaak at the dance night. That song, which sang about a woman in danger, in need, who was saved by a stranger.

The song touched them all again, tears flowed. Margreet grabbed a packet of handkerchiefs, handed them around and put the packet on the table for those who needed more.

When the credits started, she went to the kitchen. So much was going through her. She herself, she also felt saved by a stranger. After all, she had not known Huib. She herself was set free from oppression, from controlling, intimidating and manipulating parents. But Lisa, her new friend, with whom she had so quickly developed a close relationship, had been in need even more than she had, in oppression, in an even more severe abuse situation. Her heart went out to Lisa as she cut the piece of cake into quarters and divided it among saucers.

She brought the cake to the living room, where  Lisa was laying against Sjaak, sniffling. Margreet asked who wanted coffee and who wanted tea. All coffee, thankfully, Margreet thought. Her head was so full, she was so emotional, that it was hard to think. Now she could just put four mugs in turn under the coffee machine, and bring the full mugs, spoons, sugar bowl, and coffee milk cups on the tray to the living room. She handed out the mugs, leaving it up to everyone to add their own milk and sugar.

"Pfff what an intense thing that was," Lisa sighed. "I felt so connected to that woman, as trapped and frightened as she was! When I was abused at that time, I didn't experience it that way, it was just the way it was, although I didn't like it at all! But now I suddenly saw it before me, that I was just as trapped as she was. I couldn't move, I couldn't flee. I was silenced, frightened, did not even dare to think of fleeing. And besides, I was married to Henk, didn't I love him?

With hindsight I know that I did not love him anymore for a long time, maybe even never really had loved him, but that I was fooling myself with that idea. I was married to him, so I loved him, that is how it felt, that is how I convinced myself. That all happened very unnoticed, I never consciously thought about it. I slipped slowly into that situation, slowly, unobtrusively, and suddenly there I was, in prostitution. I always felt that I didn't want it, but it was just how it was. I played the game, and somewhere it felt like I did want it, I was good at my 'job’."

With her fingers, she drew the quotation marks in the air. "And then on top of that, the betrayal of my body, the desire of my body that kept getting fired up. Only now, in retrospect, can I feel how awful it was in reality, how incredibly awful. I can compare now, how it was then and how it is now, now with Sjaak. And that is a difference between black and white, between night and day, darkness and light. Especially now I have discovered that it was much darker than I knew then. You had already told Huib that, hadn't you, Sjaak?"

"Yes, vaguely, I didn't tell Huib much. At that time it was not about the content, but about the protection. But if you want, just tell what you want to tell Liesel, because your girlfriend here may not know anything about it yet."

"No, I don't know..." Margreet shook her head, looking from Lisa and Sjaak to Huib, "what else is going on then?"

Lisa told what she had seen in the recordings, what had happened in her ex's administration office. She told of the candle with the strange marks, of the clients who knelt and wrote down their wishes, wishes of wealth and power, of the spells they cast, and the embrace that followed between her ex and the client.

"It looked like Henk was giving them that power, and using me to reinforce that power, to seal it, something like that. I don't know exactly how it works, but it was really a very shady business. I am almost certain that there will be a court case for this, those perpetrators must not escape their punishment. If they continue to walk around free, they will find other addresses where they can do the same thing. Other women will become victims while they become richer and more powerful. I also know by now that these are fundamentally some kind of satanic rituals, and that they usually end in death. It didn't look that way to me yet, but I think that if I had started to resist, it would have turned out that way."

Sjaak took over for a moment: "That is why I have informed Huib and Simon, asked them to keep their eyes open. It may be that Lisa is still in danger, although we think that the perpetrators did not know that they were filmed. But I am thinking now, that if they think a little, they will realize that Lisa could eventually find those papers on which they had written their wishes. And their names were on those papers, like 'I.... and then the name..., declare... and then the rest'. So those perpetrators are in danger of being discovered, and they won't want that. And beyond that, if we file a lawsuit, what we have discovered becomes visible to them, and they will not be happy about that. Then all they have to do is bring in a few friends or a hit man. I don't want to scare Lisa, and I don't want to scare you either, but Bloemenhof is not as safe anymore as it has always been."

"Tomorrow Marcel is coming, with his wife Janny," Lisa continued, "Marcel is a cop we met when we picked up my stuff at Henks house. Marcel and Janny are coming to stay here for two weeks. I want to show them the screenshots I took for each perpetrator as soon as possible. The name of one of the perpetrators looks familiar to me, but I don't know where from. I suspect they do know, they have been living there much longer, and Marcel works among the citizens there. We want to ask him for advice, how to proceed, with a lawsuit. I think I'm going to call in Ellen on Monday, too, ask her if she can help us."

"Ellen Hendriks, that lawyer?" asked Huib, and when Lisa nodded, Huib continued, "I would prefer that if you are going to file a lawsuit, Lisa, that we all do it together. I do know that it will be in your name, but I want to stand behind you, be there whenever possible. You too, Margreet?"

Margreet nodded fiercely, "Oh yes, definitely, I find it immensely scary, that's why I just fled to the kitchen, just after the movie. I felt so much fear, because of the movie, but especially because of you, Lisa. But I want to go right through that, I'm standing with Huib behind you!"

"Shall we also talk about it further with Annerieke and Simon tomorrow at breakfast, if they also want to form one front with us?" suggested Huib.

"Good idea, let's not disturb those lovebirds tonight, tomorrow is early enough, I suppose." Sjaak looked questioningly at Lisa, as if to ask her if she agreed.

She nodded lightly at him. She was tired, exhausted. The movie, the situation she had come out of and in a way was still in the middle of, all together had stirred up so many emotions....

She understood Margreet's fear, it was also her own fear, the fear of being so trapped, the fear in the struggle for freedom. Yes, on the one hand she felt free, free with Sjaak, but on the other hand she still felt trapped in the old situation, because it had not been solved yet. Those perpetrators were still walking around freely. And she did not know them, did not know who they were, how they were. And she didn't know how they would react if it turned out that they had been recognized. What would they do, if they, these weighty men, were taken to court?

Lisa named her feelings about this to Margreet, expressing that she understood her fear and that the fear was justified. "I am so happy that you are my friend, that you are our friends together, we are going for it together. And now...I'm dead tired! Do you mind if we go home already?"

"No ya, of course not!" Margreet got up and walked over to Lisa, "I can imagine you're dead tired after watching all those bits of footage. And now that film... it has stirred up a lot." She hugged her friend, stroking her back, "Go home, rest, sleep, whatever you need."

"Thank you Margreet, thank you Huib, you too, I'm so happy with you!"

Sjaak smiled, putting his arm around Lisa as Margreet let go of her. "Come along Liesel, we'll continue tomorrow! Thank you Huib, Margreet, also for the film, it portrayed our situation perfectly! And see you tomorrow then..."

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The Transporter (You saved my life), Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5sGjBIwlAQ