Bianca stored her purchases in the large wardrobe. She laid out her sewing utensils on the tray. She went to work on the two cushions first. A new cloth around the cushion of the rocking chair and making the small cushion she had just bought even smaller, filling it with stuffing and closing it again, so it would be a fine pin cushion.

While she was doing that, there was a knock on the door. She suspected it would be Huib mounting the clothes rail to the wardrobe. It indeed turned out to be so. He did so deliberately silently, seeing that Julian was asleep. With a questioning face, he made it clear that she could decide where she wanted the rod. He fixed the rod and worked the screw on the inside of the cabinet as nicely as possible, so that she would not damage her things or her hands on it.

"Thanks!" whispered Bianca, to which Huib raised his thumb and left with a wink.

.

Bianca worked steadily on both the cushions, simply because she was so excited to get started with the doll clothes. When the cushions were ready, Julian just woke up. For a moment she bummed about that, but seeing his radiant snout, she didn't really care. Besides, she had to go downstairs to work in the kitchen in half an hour anyway.

"Nice timing, Julian, I'll just give you a clean nappy, then you can drink with mummy and then join Annerieke in the kitchen in the playpen."

After she had breastfed Julian and let him burp, she put him in the car seat and took him downstairs. They were both happily greeted by Annerieke and Simon. Bianca put the car seat in the playpen, tickled Julian under his chin for a while and went to help Annerieke.

Simon thought aloud, he was not such a great cook, but he was an excellent nanny. "Can I get that little guy of yours out of his seat?" he asked Bianca.

She burst out laughing: "You do that, I think it's fun for both of you." She watched him undo the clips on the seatbelt, meanwhile making goofy faces at Julian. Julian was beaming and that made his mother happy. Julian was definitely in good hands with Simon. As she continued preparing for dinner, she overheard Simon talking to Julian: "Do you know what I regret, young man? I am a little sad that Gloria no longer comes here during meals. I do understand it, but I think it's quite a pity. On the other hand, it's nice for you, of course, because now you get all the attention. So I think we disagree for a moment... What? Does that make you laugh? Nice is that..."

Annerieke and Bianca looked at each other, grinning. "Listen to him now, whole stories!"

"Yes, he needs that, that's a piece of education for him. I'm helping him become a super speaker. What about you, Julian, you're going to be a chatterbox that makes people laugh terribly, don't you think?"

Annerieke looked back in surprise: "What are you talking about?"

"No idea, it just came swirling out of my mouth. It seems quite fun, Julian, if you become such a chattering clown. What's the name of such a weirdo, such a cabaret-talker, of course, a cabaret artist! Just the thing for you, don't you think? Making everyone laugh and making fun of all the people who make life miserable. Boy, how did I come up with that?"

Simon looked at Bianca, surprised at the tears streaming down her cheeks.

"What is it, Bianca, did I say something wrong?"

"No, no, not at all. I said to Lisa yesterday, with a goofy mouth, that Julian was already practising talking because he was going to be a speaker. I just blurted it out, didn't know where it came from. This morning Huib came with a clothes rod, for on the side of the wardrobe, just like he made for Gloria and Sjaak and Lisa's baby. For our rod, he had made a microphone with a piece of cord attached to it, because he had a feeling, that Julian was going to speak, not seriously, but as... traraaaaaaaaaaaaa... as a cabaret performer! Now you again! Three guesses what this little fellow is up to."

"Trumpet music and a whole lot of humor!"

"Well, he has that trumpet music more in his nappy!"

"I'm sure he does..."

.

After dinner, Bianca picked out two cheerful pieces of cloth, which she draped around the largest doll. She tried to envision how she would cut and sew the fabric. She pictured a Spanish dancer with a wide skirt. She decided to cut the fabric into narrow strips and make it into a strip skirt, indeed, she would make the strips into a kind of ruffle, quite wrinkled. She realised it would be a big job, a delicate job too, but she didn't mind, she liked that. She cut strips the width of a fingerbone, making sure that each subsequent strip was a bit shorter than the previous one, so that she could start with the shortest strip at the waistband of the skirt and then work down strip by strip. She folded all the strips, secured them with a pin and laid them in order of length on her tray. The shortest strip was bright blue, different from what Spanish dancers were used to. They used mostly bright red and black. Bianca had chosen plain corn blue and lilac with a fine stripe. Totally different, but it felt right. Her doll was to be a Dutch dancer in Spanish style, something like that.

She chose yarns of exactly the same colours, but decided to use them in contrast. Using the lilac yarn, she started working on the blue strip along the border with a festoon stitch. In doing so, she made sure, that the fringe curled very slightly towards the back. If anything else wanted to fray, which was actually already out of the question, it would happen on the invisible side.

Her face was completely relaxed as she worked. Her thoughts went to Julian. She had rolled into it, into motherhood. At first it had felt like she had been tricked into it, but she enjoyed her little son so much and was so happy with the new opportunities here at the boarding house, that she could only welcome his presence.

She had already finished a few strips, when there was a gentle knock on the door. Bianca got up and opened the door.

"Hey, I just came to ask if everything is okay with you because you didn't appear in the kitchen. Or did you forget the time?"

Bianca looked at her watch: "Forgot the time, I was sewing so nice! I'll just turn on the baby monitor, then I'll come."

Lisa watched as she tapped and activated an App on her mobile and put her mobile back away. Bianca also flicked on the transmitter of the baby monitor on the cupboard, looked at her sleeping little guy for a while and joined Lisa.

"What kind of baby monitor is that?" asked Lisa, as they walked downstairs.

"A fairly new kind, I think, I had never heard of it before. The transmitter looks familiar, and the receiver is on my mobile, like an App. I find it really handy, I have that mobile with me all the time anyway."

"Right yes, I'll have a word with Sjaak, it might be suitable for us too. Do you have an idea how big the range is?"

"Big enough for this landscape. He can easily handle that distance from your house to here I think. Even for Gloria, it would be suitable. You just have to ask yourself whether you like it, having your child sleeping there while you are here. Not all parents like that idea. For me, it's just a little different because he's in the same house."

"I will think about it. Actually, it feels most comfortable for me to just stay at home when he is asleep. At home I can also make coffee and eat. Then, of course, we see each other less at those fixed times, but we can also visit each other at other times, right?"

"Ah yes, that is true too."

Margreet was glad Bianca was there, looking relaxed. "For a moment I thought you might be going through a big dip, and although that's necessary every now and then, it's never nice. Have you started your sewing yet?"

"Oh yes, the cushion for the rocking chair is already done, and from the little cushion I made a pin cushion. That was a fumble! I had put the stuffing in a plastic bag, cut a piece off the cushion, and sewed most of it closed. Then I had to fill it, through the small hole I had left open. What a hassle! It worked though, and the result is nice. The cushion has become quite sturdy and does well as a pincushion. And now I am working on a sort of Spanish dance dress for the largest doll, but in completely different colours than they are used to. I chose corn blue and lilac. I have cut thin strips and I am now working them over. It will be a huge job, and a tinkering job, but that's exactly what I always loved as a child. That's why I chose to cut really narrow strips. This will make it a wide skirt with fine ruffles. And the bodice will be a tight fit, I think."

Huib was following her story and asked, "What do you think, could you use another clothes rail for your doll dresses?"

Surprised, Bianca looked up, "That would actually be quite nice, but wouldn't that be too much work?"

"Well no, the rods are standard, just broomsticks. I'll just make a knob to go with it. I'll 's see if I can saw and file a doll with a nice dress. That looks like a nice job for tonight, at Margreet's dinner table."

"At the dining table?"

"Yes, a protective plate on the table, and then nice working. Then I can get on with my hobby, and still be close to my wives. By the way, what do you want to do with those doll dresses? Sell them?"

"Eventually, I think so. Anton already urged me to do that, and you had a website for that, right?"

"Yeah right, wait, I'll get it." On his mobile, Huib looked up the website and showed her how it worked: "Here's a general page, with references to the pages of Margreet, Elly and myself." He clicked from one to another, showing her how they tried to lure customers with fun photo collages.

"But how do people know how to find your site?"

"We promote the site on social media, just look at it. It's simple, but you have to start somewhere. If you want to join, feel free to do so, I'll add a page and change the text on the home screen. Do you already have accounts on social media yourself?"

"I used to have it, but I wouldn't remember how to log in there. It was really long ago. I think that would make it easier for me to create new accounts."

"Just let me know if you want to participate in this. It costs nothing, and it does pay off! But now, had you heard that from Elly, that she wasn't going ahead with murals for a while?"

"That's right yes, she found it annoying when she had to take a few days off, stay somewhere, to get such a mural done. She had done that at a friend's house. At the time I thought to myself: I could do it at a friend's house, but with strangers... That wouldn't be anything for me!"

"I'll look up Joke in a moment," Margreet responded, "she was talking about small paintings, that that would suit Elly better."

Huib put his hand on her hand and looked at her kindly: "Elly will find out for herself. We'll just keep an eye on it a bit. I remember, when she painted with us, she said that she had also painted on one of those Action canvases, but that it wasn't for her. Back then, I wondered if that was really the case, or if there were emotional wounds behind it that caused her to reject paintings. It seems, she has to go through something first. No idea what, but her soul will fight that out with her! We'll keep in touch with her, then we'll find out how it goes on."

Margreet smiled and nodded, "You're right, we don't have to arrange anything."

.

For the rest of the evening, Bianca enjoyed her sewing. When she felt it was time to go to sleep, she had already worked over almost all the strips. Continue tomorrow, she promised herself.

To chapter 14. The choice is always yours

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