The papers from the education inspector had arrived. Patrick and Bea signed them, made copies of them and sent the originals back to the inspector.

Patrick and Bea were in good spirits. They simply could not believe that anything or anyone could still stand in the way of their beautiful plan.

"I would almost say it's time for a party!" thought Bea, "but how and where?"

"To be honest, I always find it quite festive with the Bloemenhof family. Shall we take our drawing of the discovery centre to them and ask Simon for help with the building permit and a blueprint?"

Bea perked up: "Hey yes, that's the best idea! Rosalie? We're going to Bloemenhof, will you join us?"

"Yaaaaa! Can I go to Gloria's then?"

"That's fine. We want to have a chat with Simon. I'll send Margreet or Huib a message where we found him, then you'll also know where we are."

Together they walked to the estate, where Rosalie ran through to Gloria's house. The fact that it was already dark and they only had mood lighting burning on the estate did not bother her. She was not afraid of the dark and she knew her way around.

Meanwhile, Bea sent a message to Margreet: "Rosalie is on her way to you, we are at the guesthouse now, go find Simon."

She soon got a response: "Fine, I can see her coming!"

Bea sent back a thumbs-up.

In the kitchen of the guesthouse, everything looked tidy, but there were no people in sight.

"It's also far too early for coffee," Patrick said, "shall we walk over to their house?"

Bea nodded. They set off briskly together and dropped the cute wooden knocker on the door at Annerieke and Simon's house.

"What an idea huh, a wooden ball on a rod falling on a wooden plate. That Huib has some skills!" Bea took the ball in her hand one more time, but it immediately flew out again as Simon opened the door. Simon responded enthusiastically, finding it cosy that they were there, and stepped back to let them in.

"We come with a work question, Simon," Patrick prepared him.

"Work questions are cosy too, Patrick, otherwise I wouldn't have had to start this work! Tell me, is the permission for the centre official?"

While Bea quickly sent another message to Margreet that they were at Simon's house, Patrick told him that everything was in order, papers from the Education Inspectorate signed and returned. He put the sketch they had made for the centre on the dining table.

Annerieke, who had been reading quietly and unnoticed in the rocking chair, now stood up and came over to them: "It's great that you have crossed that threshold! Ineke was also so happy when she came back from the conversation!"

Together with Bea, she bent over the sketch from the other side of the dining table, while Patrick told Simon what he had drawn: entrance with space for coat racks, staff room, toilets, kitchen, and a few rooms. "We prefer to talk about rooms instead of classrooms. I've always found classrooms chilly, so I don't want to make a connection with that. It should be rooms, rooms that will have corners, with a different subject in each corner. And what those subjects will be, that will depend on what the children need. At least a room, where they can work in peace at a table or on a computer, read, write or do maths."

Bea dropped in: "For reading, a cosy corner with nice chairs, maybe also a chair wide enough to fit two children, so they can read to each other."

Simon looked up and said, smiling, "You're really looking forward to it and you can already see it all! But first the building has to be there. The sketch is clear to me. I wouldn't give the corners of the rooms standard walls, rather those movable partitions, so you still have possibility to change. That also seems fine to me for children who are easily distracted. Then they can shield themselves a bit more with such a movable partition."

Patrick shot in laughter: "I think you see it too, Simon. Only I don't see a child lugging a partitions around yet."

"They exist on wheels, one of which has a brake. Children can soon enough take them off the brake themselves, move them and put them on the brake again! Maybe Huib would enjoy making such partitions. Keep that in mind. I'll go back to the construction work for a moment, my work so to speak. At least, since you are coming to me with this, I am already kind of assuming that you want me to build the place, is that right?"

Patrick nodded: "Indeed, we would love that. We just have a question, which Huib says you will probably like a bit less. We would like it if the walls are made in the factory, put down and then you make them beautiful on the outside with bricks and wood."

Simon chuckled: "Huib remembers that from his younger years, that I was always grumbling about those ready-made kits. 'That's not building,' I used to say. But I've since found out that it's very practical, and if you put bricks against it, or finish it with wood, you no longer see anything of that base, so it's just beautiful. And also well isolated, so of course we'll take care of that right away. Let's agree that I will soon draw up a construction plan and discuss it with you. When the building permit is in, we'll talk further about the outside, what kind of bricks and wood you want on it. If you like it, you can start browsing around the internet. I'll send you a link of a nice site, you can at least get ideas there."

Bea looked at Patrick and nodded. To Simon, she said, "That seems like a good plan. Just keep that sketch here, we have the original on the computer."

"Good, then we'll do it that way! By the way, where is your merry daughter? Let me guess... at Huib and Margreet's! No, I said that wrong... at Gloria's, of course!"

Annerieke, Bea and Patrick shot into laughter.

"Those two girls do have a very special bond. If this continues, they will become, as we used to call it, heart friends!" predicted Annerieke.

Bea nodded: "The thought has even crossed my mind, that they could well be soulmates, and spend the rest of their lives together. Patrick knows it, and so do you now, but we don't want to publicise it further. Let them grow up together, then they will discover for themselves whether it is like that or not."

Annerieke nodded: "I didn't want to name it like that yet because I didn't know how you would take it. But it wouldn't surprise me either!"

"As far as we're concerned, it would be good if it came to that. That soul connection is the most important thing, and if they can't go on without each other, who would we be to stop it?"

"I expect Huib and Margreet to be like that too," Annerieke thought aloud. "We had two young women at the guesthouse, Rosanne and Angelique, who were married the day before they arrived. Margreet and Lisa were very welcoming and accepted them completely, had good contact with them. I would love to know how those ladies are doing..."

Bea smiled, "I can imagine that... but I think we are going to take a look at our young lady, don't you think Patrick?"

"And we urgently need to go to the guesthouse, coffee time!" said Annerieke.

"You'll hear from me, about that blueprint," Simon added, walking with Patrick and Bea to the front door.

As Patrick and Bea strolled to Huib and Margreet's house, Bea typed a message to Ineke: 'education inspection papers are in, Simon is going to arrange building permit and blueprint!'

She got back a few happy emoticons.

To chapter 37. Ilse finished the website

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