The work could begin. While Sjaak and Lisa, with Alexander's help, started working on the wooden floor in the large living room, Huib put aside the slats for the balustrade of the guesthouse veranda, and started working on the bed for the first cottage. He thought of the bed he had made for Johan and Marieke, and decided to decorate the foot of this new bed with butterflies, to symbolize the freedom of the women. The drawing with the measurements he made for making the bed, he would keep, as he was used to do, in a folder, so that he could use it later for the other three houses.

Margreet rolled up the tapestry she was making for Sjaak and Lisa and put it aside. She cut four pieces of fabric, the background fabric as she called it, and used a zigzag stitch all around to prevent the fabric from fraying. Three of the four pieces she put away for the time being next to Sjaak and Lisa's tapestry. Then she put a basket on her desk and began collecting the materials she would use for the tapestries in it.

Lisa had taken her aside after the initial consultation about the tapestries about the size and colors. She had told her that they would almost certainly buy light, pastel blue curtain fabric and creamy white wallpaper. She wanted to give the cottages quiet, soft colors, with just a few striking elements. And with that, the first thing she had thought of was the tapestries, which were allowed to stand out. Lisa had encouraged Margreet to follow her heart, just to make what she wanted.

Margreet did not yet have a theme in mind for the first house, but began to gather fabrics in shades of red. She also pulled out the roll of gold-colored satin. As she let her eyes wander along the different rolls of fabric, she also found an ivory satin. She loved this satin, slightly smooth and shiny. She felt that these were exactly the fabrics she needed and then began to gather together balls of knitting thread and finally sewing thread. She gathered everything into the basket on her desk. She looked at it, feeling the warmth radiating from it, and smiled contentedly.

Still she had no theme. She decided to just start, maybe there would be no theme at all and would this be her first one hundred percent abstract tapestry. The warmth she had just felt in picking out her materials intensified as she began to work with them. She cut a small piece, shaped it on the tapestry, placed a slightly thicker thread of almost the same color on one of the edges of the piece and secured the piece and thread together with small stitches. She had discovered with her own tapestry, that by attaching a thicker thread to the edge of a piece of cloth, the cloth was immediately protected against fraying.

As she quietly continued working, she felt the intensity of warmth inside her, and thought of Rosalie. So this is it, she thought, this is what Rosalie had experienced. I work for the woman who will have this tapestry in her temporary home, and I radiate power to that tapestry. She thought about what effect this would have on the women who came to stay in that house. She came to the tentative conclusion, that everything they did for the shelter would hold the power of their radiation and pass it on to the women who would come there. It would probably be something like that.

By ten o'clock she was well on her way. She looked at the result from a distance and then saw in her mind, that all the shades of red were meant to be a base. With gold and ivory she would put small figures on top. She did not yet know what kind of figures, or whether it would remain abstract, but she would find that out later.

.

Over a mug of coffee they all shared what they had been working on. Lisa noticed that Annerieke was withdrawing a bit. She had been busy in the kitchen with the daily cake, but had not yet been able to do anything for the shelter. Lisa whispered to Sjaak that maybe she and Annerieke could go to the thrift store to look around for household effects.

"Do that, if she feels like it. If you go there regularly, you can probably get a lot of good stuff from there alone. Alex and I will manage with the floor."

Lisa suggested the idea and saw Annerieke's face light up. "What a good plan Lisa, I was already feeling uncomfortable about not being able to do anything for your shelter. If we find stuff at the thrift store, we can store it in two rooms in our house for now, if you want, or maybe in your own house too. Do you have a list of what you need?"

Lisa laughed, "Yes, I have a huge list, for every house, and a separate one for the great room. But I'm not going to take that list at this point. Let's get our bearings first, look around quietly and take what seems nice to us. We have three empty rooms upstairs that we can also use to store things. In addition, those two of you. So we have five rooms, and that would be perfect, for each cottage and for the central living room a separate room. Shall we get going right after coffee?"

"We will!"

The first thing Annerieke, who actually rarely came to the thrift store anymore, noticed was the mattresses lying on shelves against a wall in shapes and sizes. "Shall we get right to it, and pick up a few nice mattresses?"

Lisa laughed, "Well, let's get rough right away! I'll just ask Huib exactly how wide he makes the beds." She called him and a little later told Annerieke that the mattresses had to be 90 by 200 cm.

"Quite wide," Annerieke thought, "but when a young child comes along, it's just handy, then the little one can crawl into bed with mom."

At first they searched among the mattresses themselves, but eventually called in the help of an employee. He told them that he had tried them all himself, because he didn't want to sell flabby stuff. He assured them, they were all perfectly firm.

When Lisa told him they needed four, he looked surprised. "Four at a time? And all the same size?"

Lisa told him, they were going to set up a shelter for women in need.

"Cool, then we'll pick out the nicest mattresses for those ladies! There's nothing like a good night's sleep," he laughed.

He immediately helped them load the mattresses into the pickup and put a bill with the prices at the cash register. "These ladies will come and checkout the mattresses later, they're going to do some more browsing first."

Lisa and Annerieke found a couple of kettles that still looked nice and a couple of coffee makers with thermos coffee pots.

The employee who had just helped them came up to them with a box. "Ladies, I was just checking out newly arrived items and came across this. Is this something for you?"

"How nice of you to think of us like this," Lisa said as she looked into the box. "Oh how cool, sturdy glasses!"

"I haven't counted them yet, but if you want them all, you can take them for five euros."

"Really, that's a bargain," thought Lisa.

"Do it!" said Annerieke, "you wanted to keep it nice and simple, then this will fit right in."

"Deal sir!" smiled Lisa to the employee.

"I'll just put them in your pickup and have them write it on your bill at the checkout."

"That's how it goes, that's how it goes even better!" Lisa grinned at Annerieke when the man had walked out.

They decided to go through all the shelves and collected plates, bowls, cutlery. They agreed to be choosy, to take only what they really liked. And especially per house, so that it would not become a mishmash.

When they finally drove home, they had already stocked up on possessions.

Lisa parked the car near their own house. "Let's just put those mattresses in the living room. It's nonsense to lug them all upstairs first." Together they brought mattress after mattress inside, laughing at Annerieke's "we tough women!"

Then they unloaded the other stuff and brought what was meant for the first cottage into the first empty room. Annerieke helped Lisa tick off the lists she had made to mark the items they had bought.

The box of glasses had been so full that they had enough for all the cottages and the large living room at one time. Large tall glasses and slightly smaller glasses, all of the same model and of sturdy thick glass.

.

After a few days of quiet working on, the large living room was ready to the point that Lisa decided to call Elly. "If you feel like it and have time, you can start working in the living room from tomorrow morning!"

Elly felt like it, felt a lot like it, and at least a week's worth of time to get busy. She had already looked at her stock of paint and found that for the time being she had enough in stock of the colors she wanted to use. She loaded everything into the crates she used for it these days, put her folding table in the car and set off early the next morning.

After a cordial greeting, Lisa brought her to the house. "I'll make sure the front door is unlocked every morning so you can always get in and out."

Lisa pointed to the wall in question and indicated with pencil to where Elly could paint. "Next to it will be a wall unit. I don't really have any further questions, I'll just let you get on with it. The builders have already installed the toilets and fountains and connected the water supply there. So you can tap water there and pour your dirty water into the toilet. I'll come get you later when we go for coffee."

"Totally fine, I'm going to go all out to make it something beautiful!"

.

While Elly was getting everything ready to start painting, Sjaak and Alex were working together on the floor in the first cottage. Lisa wanted to help them, but felt a bit like she was in the way. She decided to drop by Huib's barn to see how far he was with the bed. To her surprise, the frame was almost finished. Only the footboard wasn't in yet, because Huib was busy gouging the butterflies into the footboard.

"I picked up again the technique I learned first," he said, tapping the narrow gouge quietly with a hammer.

Lisa remained watching for a moment, marveling at the precise work. "I see you used gouges of different widths," she said.

"Right, a slightly wider one for the outlines, a slightly finer one for the body, for the distinction between the different 'parts' of the butterfly, and the very finest one for the lines on the wings. All the gouges are hanging on the board there." Huib nodded his head toward the board where gouges of all sizes hung with his other tools.

"Handy, a tool board like that! Nicely organized," Lisa thought.

"That's why, otherwise I'd spend half the day looking for my tools," muttered Huib, as he turned his smallest gouge around a corner. Every now and then he blew off the loose bits of his work.

When the butterfly he was working on was finished, he stroked it with his hand. The way he did that struck Lisa; so much love for his work spoke in that simple gesture. She put her hand on his shoulder, "It's going to be lovely Huib, I'm glad you're making this so beautiful!"

Huib grinned, "Anything for our ladies! After all the shit they've been through, they get to enjoy something beautiful! How's it going in the house?"

Lisa told how far along they were and that Elly had already started painting. "And for the furnishings we have quite a bit together too. I just realized that I don't have a list of the supplies yet, of toilet paper, coffee, tea and things like that. We can use the pantry you are going to make for the large living room for that. Maybe you would like to take that into account when you make it? Maybe it should be a little deeper than usual"

"All right, as soon as I get started on that, I'll come begging sizes and ideas from you!"

Lisa laughed, "Great, now I'll sit down with my laptop at Margreet's to set up such a supply list and then give my head a rest."

Huib put both his hands on her shoulders, "You're doing well Lisa. It's a huge job to organize everything, but you clearly have a talent for it. And to let that talent take its course, it is indeed a good plan to take a break now and then. See you later, over coffee! Unless you've fallen asleep in the meantime..."

"No ya, that really wasn't my plan!" Laughing, Lisa walked out, picked up her laptop and went to Margreet with it.

.

"Hey Margreet! Can I keep you company for a while?"

"Sure Lisa, come on over! Would you like a drink?"

"No thanks, coffee later at Annerieke's. What a beautiful combination of reds! Such warm colors... As far as I'm concerned you can use these colors for all the houses! Or have you already got other impressions?"

"No, actually the same idea as you. Same colors, same materials. That seems boring at first, but the results never become the same anyway. I had these gold and ivory fabrics to go with it. I felt they belonged, but I didn't know yet what I was going to do with them. And I still don't know."

"That ivory makes me think of pearls. Wouldn't you be able to find a pearl necklace at the thrift store? Then you could loosen it and use the pearls for it. Maybe form shells out of ivory and gold, a pearl on top. Does that sound like something to you?"

Margreet looked at her friend and smiled, "I think it's happening again, just like when you got that image about your son. We're together and the impressions just spill out! I like the idea, I definitely have a click with it. After the coffee, shall we go to the thrift store together? Maybe Annerieke would like to come along too. Then we'll just see what else we can find."

Lisa nodded gratefully, "Yes, nice to do that together. When I went together with Annerieke, I enjoyed it too. It all went so smoothly too, so well, and that employee there was so helpful."

"Was that the big slender man maybe? A little young still, curly dark hair?"

"Yes, that one!"

"That's what I thought when you told me about it. That man feels good, he is so open and clearly does his work from here," Margreet patted her belly, the place where she knew she always felt her emotions.

Lisa thought about the man, and felt she was right. "That is indeed how he came across. What a difference that makes huh?"

"It sure does!"

"I'll just grab a chair, then I'll come and sit here with my laptop. I was at Huib's barn before I came here, watched for a moment how he was busy decorating a butterfly wing on the foot of the bed with a minuscule gouge. What an artist that husband of yours is!

I don't remember how it came up, but it suddenly occurred to me, that I also want to stock up on things in the central living room. A stock of things like tea and coffee, packs of sugar, toilet paper, kitchen rolls, jars and cans of soup and pickled vegetables and brown beans and such. Then any security guards can use that too, and the women who are going to live there can get their stuff from there. It won't be safe for all the women to go to the store for groceries by themselves, so I'll take care of the supplies myself, including shelf-stable food. I'm going to make a list of what I want to stock up on."

Lisa grabbed a chair from the dining area and set it by Margreet's desk. She took her laptop on her lap, turned it on, and began typing.

"So," she said after a few minutes, "I've put all kinds of stuff on the list, just not the quantities yet."

"If you ask Huib to make that pantry in the big living room extra deep, you can stuff that nicely."

"Yes, I had already talked with Huib about that depth. And also about the wall unit... we are not going to buy televisions. We have decided to buy laptops for all the houses. They can also use it as a television. I want to put a bigger monitor in the central living room, which they can then connect to a laptop, so they can also watch a movie together."

"Hang a monitor on the wall, then you can put some nice things on the wall unit. You can put supplies in there anyway," Margreet suggested.

"Even better! Say, a word about those quantities. Is it crazy if I take one of those packs of 24 rolls of toilet paper? It seems so convenient if they never miss out."

"I think they desperately need that peace of mind, the peace of mind that they don't have to worry about anything because you're providing a hefty supply. So ask Huib to make a really big closet so you can stuff it all! Hang a checklist on the inside of the door and check every now and then what needs to be replenished."

"So ten packs of coffee isn't silly to you either?"

"Well no, it doesn't run off and it doesn't eat bread. If it's on sale once, take an extra supply, they'll always have enough. Just do what's easiest for all of them!"

Lisa laughed, "Three guesses what came into play with me?"

Margreet looked at her grinning and she said in a twisted voice, "Something like... wouldn't it be crazy? Or... what would other people think of it?"

"Indeed, but I'm not going to care about that, I'm just going to follow your idea. As soon as Huib gets that closet ready, I'm going to fill it to the brim!"

.

Margreet and Lisa walked together to the shelter, looked at the men how the floor was going. That was making good progress already. They walked through the house for a while. In the bathroom it suddenly came to Lisa's mind that besides a washing machine they also needed a washing rack. "Two laundry racks, one higher, and one wide lower. I'll just email it to myself, then I'll add it to the list later. At first I had also thought about a clothes dryer, but I don't think that's necessary. The space in the barn is big enough to put their laundry racks in.”

They went to the large living room to check on Elly. "Ah, you're at it again with the sponge technique! Boy, you've almost covered that whole section of wall already!"

"Yes, it's going smoothly. I want to use this as a base, and then make waves on it later. Where are you going to put the benches?"

"There against the wall, diagonally across from your painting, and there in front of the window. Two three-seater sofas and here, about in the middle another two-seater sofa, and the coffee table in the middle. From both the three-seater sofas, they then have a view of your mural for the most part. And in that spot you kept empty, we can hang a monitor, with a low wall unit underneath it. And under your work the dining area. Everything will come out just right."

"What else are you going to put along that wall there?" pointed Elly to the other side of the room.

"A small kitchenette next to the main entrance, and next to that connecting door a refrigerator with a sizable freezer compartment under it and a large pantry," Lisa replied. "I'm going to stock up on all kinds of durable items, so they basically never miss out. There will be some women who can't go to the store because it's not safe. Then they'll have their own little store here."

"Lisa, you really have done a fantastic job with this! It seems like a huge organization, but so far it seems to be running smoothly."

As they walked to the guest house for a cup of coffee, Lisa received a message from Janny. She wrote that they had finished the curtains for the first house and had been working on the curtains for the large living room for some time. She asked if Huib could make curtain poles for all those windows. Then they would come and hang the curtains when it was convenient for Lisa.

To chapter 238. The Shelter is almost completely finished

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