Margreet removed the bedlinen in the vacant guest room and set the washing machines to work. She hung up the laundry of towels and went back upstairs. She had a pretty good idea of what she wanted to do, which was convenient: continue cleaning the bath that she had been working on when Henk raided her, get the guest room ready for the new guests, make up the bed in the attic, and get the room ready for Lisa. 

Later she would have coffee with Annerieke and Sjaak, and if she was lucky she would be able to go to the thrift store before lunch. It was quite a lot, but both rooms were not really dirty, so it would not be a heavy, big job.

She worked smoothly, sometimes calling herself to order that she didn't have to hurry up herself, that she could do it smoothly in a quiet way. That was what she found most difficult, she was used to whipping herself to work as fast and as well as possible.

No, working in a relaxed way... that was not always possible... She sometimes envied Annerieke, who managed to do a lot, but always seemed to be working in a relaxed way.

While she was working, her thoughts often went to what had happened in the bathroom, to what Henk had done and said. Again and again she felt the fear she had felt when he grabbed her and started kissing her so savagely. And her anger, her intense anger at what he had said about Huib. She had immediately felt how he had smeared Huib with his words! Huib treated her so completely differently than he did! Every time her mind went back to Henks words, it made her angry again.

When she finished, she still had an hour before lunchtime. She got into her car with a box beside her, in which she could take her vases. Last time she had seen a large collection of glass vases, with a rather narrow top. Two branches of the Hydrangea could easily fit in there!

She walked into the store with her box and put it in a shopping cart. She greeted the employee she met, and walked straight to the shelf where she had seen the vases. They were all still there. She thought she hadn't even counted how many she would need...She went around the boarding house, picking up five vases for the guest rooms, then eight for the living room windowsills and the dining room. And then a few more, just in case she forgot a window or a vase fell in the future.

She looked around, not knowing exactly what she was looking for, but sensing somewhere that something was still there. Her eye fell on two large vases, the kind you don't put on a windowsill or a table, but somewhere in a corner on the floor. They were beautifully painted, in different shades of lilac and blue. Margreet grinned, she hadn't expected this, but she immediately knew where she wanted to put those vases. One in the hall downstairs, in an empty corner, where it would stand out beautifully and one in an empty corner on the second floor landing. She liked the vases so much that she decided to place them empty in those places. Even empty, they would be a great decoration! And when the Hydrangeas had finished blooming and drying, they would have a wonderful place in those vases!

She looked around a bit more, maybe she'd find something for home. But she quickly decided that she didn't like anything and went to the cash register. The employee there was surprised by the large amount of nearly identical glass vases and then those two large ones on top. "Are you going to fill your house with flowers? That will look cozy!"

"No, not my own house," Margreet replied. "I work at the guest house just outside the village, Pension Bloemenhof. I'm going to bring in some leftover summer." And she told about her Hydrangea plan.

"That's a cool idea! Have you been working there for a long time?"

"No, only two weeks, and I'm having a great time there!"

"Good for you!"

After Margreet paid and put her smaller vases in her box, the employee called a colleague, who took the cash register from her for a while, so she could help Margreet herself with the large vases.

Everything was in the car, ready to go, but the woman put her hand on Margreet's shoulder for a moment longer. "You may think it's crazy what I'm about to say, but you... you have something special. I feel that you are real, not artificial, not made friendly, but real. I hope to see you more often, here or in the village and I wish you good luck at Bloemenhof!"

Margreet was surprised, "Thank you, that's really nice to hear. I am sure we will see each other here again, I think this is a cool thrift store, no old junk, but nice second hand stuff. So until next time!"

.

Margreet lugged the box and large vases to the laundry room. She wanted to start cleaning them, but quickly came to the conclusion that that wasn't even necessary. She already put the large vases in the places she had in mind. A glance at her watch told her it was almost time for lunch. She only had time to put the glass vases in the dining room and living room. Then she walked upstairs with the box and put the box of vases in the work closet for the time being.

To chapter 55. So much pain

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