Margreet and Lisa worked steadily on, they really should have gone upstairs a little earlier, but because of being busy together in the kitchen they had forgotten their work upstairs. The first guests who came upstairs found them in the bathrooms. "We are almost done! We first helped Annerieke in the kitchen and because of that we went upstairs a bit late," Margreet apologized the both of them.

"That doesn't matter anyway, just take it easy!" Janny responded airily. "What did you prepare in the kitchen? Or is that still a surprise?"

"Annerieke is going to make a kind of wok dish of leeks, bell bell paprika’s and corn kernels. She's also baking cubes of potato, and there's chicken filet marinating. That will go into the oven this afternoon. When we were working and talking about it, Annerieke mentioned that she often tried to taste the result in her mind, and I tried that too while we were working. I don't really like leeks, but I think I'm going to like this all together."

Janny also tried to imagine what it would taste like. "I wouldn't be surprised if it does indeed turn out to be delicious. But on another note, we heard that the construction workers have arrived. Marcel has already gone over to soak up the atmosphere. Shall we go and have a look together later on when you have finished here?"

Margreet and Lisa responded in surprise, "Yes, let's do that! Nice of you to join us!"

.

When the work on the guest floor was finished and the washing machines were running, Janny walked with Margreet and Lisa to Sjaak and Lisa's house. Three construction workers were already hard at work on the roof of their house. At the edge of the garden were the building materials that had been brought in yesterday. The construction workers and the women greeted each other friendly.

"Does this house belong to any of you?" asked the one closest to the edge.

Lisa raised her hand: "My boyfriend and I live here."

"We're going to make something beautiful out of it, ma'am, this is going to be a lovely spacious house!"

"That's what I expect too, thank you," Lisa called back smiling, "nice that you guys have dry weather with it."

"Certainly, we're used to expecting anything from the weather, but it's best when it's something like this, dry and not too cold or too hot. As far as I am concerned, the best weather for this work. But I'm going to move on, otherwise nothing will come out of it. See you later!" With a hand salute, he turned and continued working.

"How is your first impression of those men?" asked Janny.

"That man who addressed us comes across as good, at least," thought Lisa. "Those other two ... I don't know, the leftmost one doesn't feel comfortable, but maybe it's not so bad."

Janny and Margreet nodded; they had felt the same.

"Shall we go and look at your house some more, Margreet?"

They crossed the field and walked around Huib and Margreet's house. There they were laying a layer of concrete, the floor of the whole thing.

"I think this is some kind of foundation," Janny said. "I actually thought that in this area they always had to pile first. I'll just ask Simon about it though."

Confidently she walked around the crane to Simon. "Simon, shouldn't there be piles in here?"

"Yes," Simon responded in surprise, "but they're already in there, we drove them in a few years ago. We did the same with the other house because we knew the boys would want this extension when they found the woman of their hearts. We just threw soil over it at the time and sowed grass. That way it just looked nice. This morning we shoveled out that patch of grass, look there, there's the mess."

He pointed to a pile of grass and earth further down. "I'll have to check with Sjaak to see if he can do something with it, maybe make compost out of it for the lawn. I have no idea, I don't know much about gardening.

So now they are busy with a concrete floor. They first measured out exactly where it should go with those strings, and then poured the concrete. I like the fact that you asked about it, by the way. It's very rare for me that a woman wants to know more about our work."

"Ah yes, I would feel sorry for the youngsters if things started to subside. On the other hand, I also assume that you know what you're doing. And so it turns out! Good luck further! I'm going back to Margreet and Lisa."

"Fine, just reassure them, things are going to be solid!" laughed Simon and proceeded to help his colleagues.

Janny reported on what Simon had told her. "And how is your impression of the team here?"

"Hmm, they come across well, they looked for a moment and waved, but then just went on working." Margreet looked at Lisa.

Lisa nodded, "Yes, nothing seems to be going on here. I'm curious to see how the one at our house behaves over coffee later."

"If you have doubts about something, something doesn't feel right, will you tell Simon?" asked Janny urgently.

"Oh yes, I certainly will!" Lisa promised.

.

That turned out not to be necessary over coffee. The man the women had already felt uncomfortable with at their house sought to approach Lisa in the guest house kitchen. He indicated circumspectly that he liked her and wondered if he could get together with her sometime....

Simon had noticed him immediately and called him to order: "Don't you dare, man, to approach one of our women in such a vulgar manner. We don't tolerate that here. So if you want to keep your job, you keep quiet, you understand?"

The man nodded and promptly dropped out, rejoining his colleagues, who in turn gave him a passing over, "Construction workers are known for their slutty behavior towards women, but we don't want to hear about that. At Simon's we found a great working atmosphere and we want to keep it that way. So a little respect for women, okay?"

The colleague in question nodded, looked at Lisa for a moment and stammered, "Sorry ma'am, it won't happen again."

Lisa nodded to him in a friendly way, letting him know that it was a done deal for her.

During the incident Annerieke had already distributed the coffee. She passed around a wooden bowl with slices of gingerbread. The construction workers reacted with surprise, grateful for such a deliciously thick slice with butter.

"Good stuff ma'am!"

"Really tasty, thanks!"

.

The men went back to work. Lisa and Sjaak walked home together.

"You’re zo quiet..." Sjaak put his arm around her shoulders.

Lisa looked up at him and smiled, "I was thinking about that one construction worker. He didn't seem like an evil person at all. I thought it was kind of strange that he just came up to me. It feels like there was something behind it, not in the sense that he was sent by one of the perpetrators, but as if... I don't know how to put it into words."

"As if he knew you would be easy to catch, that you would respond to advances. What I suspect is that he subconsciously sensed that you were deeply wounded in the area of sexuality. Chances are, he is wounded in that area himself. Wounds suck at each other, attract each other. That's why people often marry someone with the same type of injuries, or just someone who looks like mom or dad. Wasn't your father also dominant over your mother?"

"Oh yes, very much so. Also sexually. Because of that, I thought it was normal what Henk did. In the beginning, I even though it was exciting, I thought it was an honor that he approached me like that. My father was crueler to my mother, while Henk actually did the same thing, he also hit, but it seemed to have a good starting point. So because of that he seemed better to me than my father was to my mother. And only now I see, they were just the same. And to me that has felt familiar."

"Yeah, I get that. It often happens that way, it feels familiar. But it can also be that precisely two victims attract each other. Their injuries then click with each other. And I think that was the case with that one construction worker. Maybe he was abused in his childhood..." mused Sjaak. "What a world! I'm glad we can bring some light, but will it ever be enough?"

To chapter 185. When divorce is better

Or to the Table of contents