During the coffee break, the doorbell rang at the front door. The man standing at the door was barely visible because of the three colossal bunches of flowers he held in front of him.

"Good day, ma'am," he said to Annerieke. "These bouquets are for the people who live in those three houses behind here, but no one seems to be home there. Can I drop them off here?"

Annerieke took a quick look at the cards. "Fine, give them to me, as all these people are in here at the moment," she said, smiling. "What a nice surprise, thanks for bringing, I'll pass them on! And have a nice day!"

When she came into the kitchen, with the flowers in front of her face, Huib shot into laughter, "So mom, you've turned into a bunch of flowers!"

"My dearest is getting more beautiful by the day," Simon grinned infatuated.

Annerieke laughed happily, "A surprise from our security teams!"

She handed out the bouquets and they all read the same thing on the cards:

.

.

A big hurrah for the victors

Moving forward together in a new free life

.

Signed by ‘your security teams’

.

.

"What a sweet gesture!" thought Lisa. "And what beautiful bouquets they are!"

"It's also so nice that we all get such bouquets," thought Margreet.

"They've felt our unity," remarked Huib, "that's what one of those men told me. They've seen it, heard it, felt it, and they're just happy for all of us now. Marieke must have told them, how it ended yesterday."

As he spoke, Lisa felt the buzzer of her cell phone. She looked for a moment to see if it was important. An email message from John Meertens, the real estate agent. She opened it and read through it cursorily.

"What?!" exclaimed Lisa. "The house has already been sold, for almost a million and a half! John has already deposited the money into our account." She immediately looked on their bank's app and saw that it was correct. "Look at that Sjaak, what an amount! Simon, if you have time in between, would you like to start making a sketch for the shelter? Something with a central common living room, and around it four little houses, where the women who come to live there can support themselves completely, so with kitchen, bathroom. Just a small house. And then the ability to go inside to that central living room. Do you want to do that? Or should we apply for a building permit first?"

"Oh yes, I would love to do so!" Simon smiled, "It's a wonderful project, so it's an honor for me to help with it. I'll have a look at that planning permission. And I'll let my thoughts run over a blueprint."

Huib's mobile was also buzzing. He had received a message from Elly: the mural in his building was ready! Huib sent a message back, saying that he hoped to be there in fifteen minutes to see it.

They all decided to go there. Annerieke put the three beautiful bouquets in a bucket of water for the time being, after which they drove to the building.

Elly was just approaching from the other side and opened the door for them. But before they stepped inside, they all looked through the windows into the building.

"Beautiful, Elly, it is very well visible through the window what you have made. So simple, and for that very reason so beautiful! I'll have a quick look inside," Huib said, as the others came up behind him.

Inside they looked their eyes out. There they saw what was less visible from outside. Now they could see the small parts that made up the painting. When they had looked in through the windows, they had merged into somewhat larger wholes. What looked like a bush of flowers from the outside appeared to be the same inside, but different. Inside, they could see how Elly had painted a flower or a leaf. They saw how a flower consisted of a whole bouquet of little flowers. And how those little flowers were actually not much more than dots, which together formed the whole of that flower bouquet. They saw how the leaves were painted very globally, no more than little swipes in different shades of green.

"What a special technique you have used here," said Margreet, "little dots, smudges... a bit like that one bird in the children's room, but this looks even more like the style of Vincent van Gogh. Only it's not noticeable at all from the outside. You can only see it inside here how it's constructed. And the result is great, both inside and outside!"

Huib nodded, "I can't put it in better words. Thank you Elly, for your artwork! It's totally different, with a totally different way of painting than what you did in our nursery. How many more possibilities do you have?"

Elly shot up in laughter, "No idea, I also only knew this from Vincent van Gogh. I wasn't going to do it at first, I had never done this before. But the moment I stepped inside with my bags, I knew I was going to do it this way. The dots and swipes should do their own work for the people looking through the window. People will see it as a whole, because the little parts blend together in a way."

"That's it exactly, that's exactly how I experienced it!" stated Huib. "I'm very happy with it, Elly. I'll buy some more spotlights, not too conspicuous, but light enough to make your work stand out even better. And now I have to get to work as soon as possible to fill the space. I have already discovered that I really enjoy taking home some leftover pieces of wood in the evening, and making little animals out of them by filing and gushing. I already have a nice collection of them, and I'm going to make more of them anyway. And during the day some more flower boxes, big and small. And the hobby cabinet I made for Margreet, which actually consists of three cabinets. She doesn't need them all yet, she left two empty, so I can put them here. And what else I want to put here... I have no idea yet, but that will come. The beginning is there, I'm going to put that both cupboards here in any case, with some animals in the window sill, and maybe also a few in the cupboard."

Margreet put her arms around Huib: "There comes a time when this space is too small. Or not, because people will buy you out!"

Smiling, they stepped out the door again, giving Huib a moment to take some more pictures of the work. Elly promised him also to send her pictures, which she had made during the work.

"Well," said Huib, "I have another idea. If it's convenient for you, I'll bring that cabinets here first and then come to you. Then I can teach you how to make a collage of the pictures and how to post it on the website and on your social media. Good plan?"

"Perfect, then I'll try to prepare a bill for you in the meantime," promised Elly.

"That's what I like to hear, you're already becoming a businesswoman!" laughed Huib.

"Oh no, I don't want to become one, it's just a necessary evil that comes with it. But I'll get used to that, it'll just become a small part of the whole thing, something you do in between."

"You're absolutely right," Lisa thought, "for you it's all about the painting, the rest is secondary. It's like running a guesthouse, that's the main thing, and some of the work that goes with it, that's a side issue, but you can't do without it."

Annerieke smiled at Lisa, "That's just the way it is. Baking cakes is the most fun, as is cooking, by the way. But I also have to clean up the mess I make. That's the less fun part of the wonderful whole!"

Simon chuckled, "You can leave it for me too, I love licking out those bowls of dough."

Laughing about Simon, they said goodbye to Elly, while Huib promised once more that he would visit her in a moment.

.

Only a few hours after Elly, with Huib's help, had shared her collages on the website, and on Facebook and Twitter, she received the first reactions. Mainly thumbs up and hearts on the social media, as a sign that people liked it. Later that evening she received an email from a friend, asking if she wanted to make a mural like this for her, and what it would cost. Elly emailed back and forth with her a bit to find out what she wanted painted on the wall and how big the area was. Her friend passed on the size of the wall. And because she loved deep sea diving, she would love it if she could paint the world of the deep sea, as if she were swimming through it herself. Elly was immediately enthusiastic, but realized, that she would need some preliminary study for that. What would live there, in the depths of the sea? She chuckled as she figured out that it would be very safe to paint a shark, he couldn't get to her anyway.

Using her fee schedule, she determined the price she would charge for it. For a moment she found it difficult, because in total it was quite an amount. But she realized that paint was not free, and that she could also charge for her hours and any travel expenses. Becoming businesslike, she would succeed, but she decided that she always wanted to experience it as a necessary evil.

After emailing a quote to her friend and soon getting a message back that it was OK, Elly began searching the Internet for pictures and videos. Surfing the Internet to deep sea diving, to the wonderful world of plants and animals, which lived there in the depths and almost none of which she had ever seen before. She hadn't thought before that this could be a part of her work, but she enjoyed it, the ideas she got, the fish that were so special, that they gave her the idea to use her imagination again and paint fantasy fish to go with it if her friend agreed. She collected pictures on her hard drive, in a folder with today's date and her friend's name. While browsing and collecting, she got more and more excited about it!

To chapter 223. The beginning of something new

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