Annelies had not yet reached the front door, or Jan was already flying towards her.

"Mum, mum, can Joke come with me to help me prune?"

"Hey Jan, what are you talking about, who is Joke?" asked Annelies.

"Come on, she's inside!"

"Good day everyone, how busy it is here all of a sudden!" she said surprised.

"So cosy mum, we've been eating my cress, on a cheese sandwich, so delicious! And this is Joke," he introduced her. "Joke, this is Annelies, my mother."

"Hey Annelies, Jan told me he wanted to prune your ivy, but that you thought it was too dangerous. Understandable..." she added with a wink. "Jan and I have been working on the garden cress just now, and it simply clicks well, so I was wondering if you would mind if I join you to guide him in pruning. Would you like that?"

Annelies, always very careful, looked at Bea and Patrick, who both immediately raised their thumbs to let her know, that Joke was OK. Annelies looked at Jan, who could see the answer coming out of her mouth!

"Sorry, I always rather feel out the situation," she told Joke, "but I think it's sweet that you want to do this for Jan. I don't seem to have the patience for that myself. I hate that, but I don't know how to change it either. Would you like to go with us right now?"

"That's fine by me, I'm next door on holiday with Anton, my husband..."

Joke pointed at him for a moment and Anton raised his hand with a wink. "He can miss me for an afternoon."

Joke stood up, causing Rosalie to seize her chance: "Annelies, can I come along too? Just for a moment, to see how my books are doing?"

Annelies laughed: "I have good news for you! Bert has already finished your fourth book!"

"Really, Marieke, my fourth book is already on sale too!"

Marieke who had come after her laughed: "I do hear that! Annelies, I'm Marieke, and I would love to buy one of each of Rosalie's books from you, is that possible? Or shall I just drive to you? Or walk, I don't know how far it is?"

Johan also joined us: "Hi, I'm Johan, and if that's OK for you, I'll walk with Rosalie for a while, because I think you need to rest Vlinnie!"

Marieke sighed: "The fate of a heavily pregnant woman... resting..."

Anton intervened: "There is a lovely deck chair on the veranda, I'll put it up for you in a moment, so you can doze off in the shade."

"OK, I surrender, you arrange the books, Johan!"

Annelies nodded, "Good, uhm Jan, shouldn't you help clear the table?"

"No, I think the guests can do that too and if not, they can discover it!"

With a mischievous face, he looked around the circle. "Do you guys want to?"

A cheer went up.

"That will be fine, I'll write down your time Jan, you've had a thick full morning on it!" said Patrick. "He really did a great job, but I suppose Jan would like to tell you that himself."

Jan nodded so hard that he reached for his neck because a muscle protested there.

"Don't throw your head off, Jan," Anton joked. "See you, dude!"

Jan, who was already making his way to the corridor, suddenly turned around, ran towards Anton and threw his arms around his neck. "Thank you, Anton, it was so good!"

He let go of him again, and was gone before Anton could react. Joke winked at Anton and went after Jan and his mother, along with Rosalie and Johan.

"Lucky me, out and about with our two writers!" laughed Johan, wrapping his arms around Joke and Rosalie. "Did you already know that, Annelies, Joke writes too, she just forgets to get her books printed... not convenient for sales, she sells nothing, absolutely nothing!"

"Joh, stop it, my books are not good enough to publish and sell yet. I enjoy writing, and nothing else, full stop!" grumbled Joke.

Annelies chuckled, "Johan does make me curious, can I read a chapter of yours sometime?"

Joke shrugged: "Oh well, you may, but really, it's just not it yet."

"I promise to be honest about it, about how I feel about it."

She grabbed a business card holder from the shoulder bag she always hung around her neck when she went out, and handed Joke a business card.

"Our email address is on it, just send some over, I'd really like that!"

"I think it's a nice book mum, I'm sure it is, Joke is just great, so then she probably doesn't write trash books!" said Jan convincingly.

"Okay, okay, I surrender, even though I find the idea terribly scary! I'll send you a piece later today. Is one chapter enough?"

"In itself, one chapter is enough to see how your writing style is, but honestly... if the first chapter caught on, I'd be bummed if the rest isn't there. So if you get a chance to send a whole book, please!"

"Fine Annelies, since Johan and Jan are praising me so much and since I don't want to run the risk of you sitting around balking tonight... I will send a whole book. That will then be my last book, not the first. I only have the last one left on my laptop, hence."

"I'm looking forward to it, an evening of reading!" said Annelies.

"I hope you will experience it that way..." muttered Joke.

.

Arriving at their house, Jan ran ahead to the barn, while Rosalie pulled Johan along to the print shop in an attached part of the house.

Jan grabbed the pruning shears and came to Joke with them.

"It's closed, and Mum won't let me open it."

He wanted to give it to Joke already, but Joke did not take it.

"Just a moment Jan. Annelies, is it really okay for you if I help Jan?"

"In itself, yes, but I still find it scary. To me, a pruning shear feels like dangerous as a weapon for a four-year-old child. On the other hand, he wants to work in the garden, so he needs to learn how to use pruning shears. Do you mind if I stay and watch for a while?"

Joke laughed: "Well, now you make it scary for me! No, just kidding, that's fine, come and join us."

They walked towards the ivy. "That bush really grows in all directions. Jan, have you thought of how you would like to prune something like that?"

"Yes, I thought this, if I do like this..." he grabbed a long offshoot of the ivy and almost pulled it straight. "Then you can cut it off here," he suggested.

"Me? Don't you want to do it yourself then?"

Jan looked at Annelies in despair. "May I?"

Annelies made a firm decision: "Yes, you can try. How are you going to grab him?"

She saw that Jan was grabbing him the right way.

"Mum, it's just like ordinary scissors, only there aren't those little eyes on them to put your fingers in. Shall I open that lock?"

"Go ahead..." Annelies stood nearby to intervene if things went wrong. Joke smiled. She knew of herself that she was insecure when it came to her books, but Annelies was quite bothered by it when it came to Jan.

Jan discovered, that if he squeezed the handles of the pruning shears slightly, the clasp came off easily. With big eyes and an ever-growing grin on his face, he made a few snips with it.

"Mum, he's doing it! I'll be really careful, I promise!"

"And I promise to stay close to Jan," said Joke, "I will pull the offshoots almost tight but meanwhile stay next to him. Let's see how well that goes, shall we, Jan?"

"Yes, just pull that offshoot!"

As Joke stayed close to Jan and watched his hand with the pruning shears, she calmly pulled the offshoot almost tight.

"Now where should it be cut off?" asked Joke to Jan.

Jan looked at the branch with a slanted eye. He grabbed it a little way from the bush.

"Now if I cut it off here, that piece will shoot back, and I think that will be enough. What do you think?" he asked Joke.

"Try it, if the piece is still too long, we'll cut some more off. And if it gets too short, it will grow back, and we'll just leave the other offshoots a bit longer."

"Ha, you're smart too!" laughed Jan. "Well, there you go, you show-off," he said to the offshoot, cutting it off a little bit from his hand. Right after, Joke said, "and now squeeze the pruning shears closed, you don't have to squeeze hard, but it's best to keep it closed, that way you're least likely to hurt yourself."

"You see, mum, Joke is really smart!"

He grinned at Annelies and gave her a kiss, deliberately holding the pruning shears a bit away from them.

"It'll work out, go to work in peace!" he whispered to her.

"Brave guy of mine, I am entrusting it to you. I'm going to the printer shop. When you guys are done, you can find me there, all right?"

Jan nodded, "Will do, mum! And we'll clean everything up nicely!"

Annelies smiled, put her hand on Jokes shoulder for a moment and whispered, "Thanks!"

She walked on quickly, as she did not like this still unknown woman seeing her tears. Joke had seen it, however, and was not bothered at all, understood her uncertainty and her courage in letting go of her child in the hands of a woman she did not really know yet.

"Next show-off, Joke!" Jan pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Show-off?"

"Yes, those offshoots are show-offs, doing a game of who gets to the other side of the garden first. It's not normal how fast they grow!"

Quietly they went past all the offshoots, pruning them until the bush looked beautiful again.

"Do we really have them all?" asked Joke.

"I think so!" Jan took another look behind the other bushes. "Here everything is really short, yes, we're done!"

He squeezed the pruning shears shut, and put the lock back on. Almost immediately, he opened it again and carefully felt the flat side of one of the blades with a finger.

"That's what I thought, dirty greaseball, you're sticking!" 

Jan closed the pruning shears again and walked to the outdoor tap, turned it open and wanted to clean the cutting blades of the pruning shears with his finger. Joke was just about to stop him, when he himself realised that that might not be such a good plan. He picked up a brush lying in a tray next to the tap, and used it to scrub the pruning shears thoroughly, drying them with the old cleaning cloth hanging next to the tap.

"So mister, clean and fresh back into the shed," he chatted to the pruning shears, putting the lock back on. "Nice and clean huh?" he asked Joke.

"I'm proud of you Jan, you fixed it great," Joke praised him. "Just put it in its place, then we will put those long blades we cut off into the container for a while."

Together they grabbed the clipped offshoots together and took them to the container. Jan could just reach the lid, cleverly swung it open and tried to get the awkwardly long strings into it. He was bummed, he was actually too short for it. He decided to wrap a string around his hand and try to see if he could then throw it in like a package. Joke stood there smiling and followed his lead.

"Good plan Jan, as a parcel they fit in better!"

Jan laughed when he saw Joke doing it his way. "Just kidding, you can reach them that way, can't you?"

"Yes, I can, but those offshoots don't want to stay in. If we throw them in as a small package, they'll be down in the container before they pop out. Then they probably won't come out again!"

"No, I don't think so either. Otherwise I'll have to pick up the pruning shears again and cut them into smaller pieces."

"I don't think that will be necessary..."

They worked steadily and were quite satisfied with their work. Jan gave the lid of the container another push so that it fell back onto the bin with a bang.

"Hoppa, that's sitting! Just see that you get out again, you bunch of show-offs!" he shouted against the side of the container.

Joke laughed!

"Come on dude, we're going to wash our hands. By the way, I don't have any clogs and you don't have your clogs on either. But I see there is a good brush mat by the door. Shall we go and use it?"

They wiped their shoes as best they could, checked each other's soles and went inside, washing their hands in the scullery.

Jan looked at Joke: "I loved it, working with you. I want to do that again."

"You know Jan, Anton and I usually stay at Pension Bloemenhof a few times a year. I promise to come and see you again then."

"Yes! And how long are you staying now?"

"This week and next week," Joke told me.

"Can we do something together again then?"

"Probably, you make something up. I'll send Annelies an e-mail tonight, I'll also put my phone number in there. Then you can just call me to arrange something."

"Cool!" exclaimed Jan, wrapping his arms around Joke with his wet hands. Joke followed his example and pressed him against him for a moment.

"Definitely cool, boy," she said in a voice where emotion was audible.

" Are you almost crying?" asked Jan, looking at her with a tilted head in concern.

"Almost did, did you hear it in my voice too?"

Jan nodded. "Why then?"

"Because you make me so happy. Anton and I don't have children, and because of that I've never done anything like today with you. I really loved it! Come, let's go and see the others in the print shop. Show me the way!"

Jan walked ahead of Joke. She heard him mutter, as if he wanted to tell her the way: "Over here, through the living room, this door, down the corridor, up there are our bedrooms, but the print shop is over there, behind there!"

They entered a large room where there were several machines. Some kind of huge printer, devices to bind or glue the books. Cupboards full of paper and cardboard, and stacks of books with brightly coloured covers.

Joke walked up to Bert and introduced herself.

"Jan and I have just been playing hairdresser with your ivy. He has a beautiful head again now!"

Bert laughed, especially at Jan's hooting laughter that echoed through the large room.

"I can see he is tired, but mostly he is super happy. Thank you, also on behalf of the ivy! And did I understand correctly that you also write books?"

"Yes, and Johan, Jan and Annelies got me this far that I will email my latest book. So if you have no child on her tonight, take that as a good sign for me... I think it's exciting, really!"

"I believe you Joke, somewhere we all have our insecurities. But I have to say, because of the discovery centre, because of the way the companions deal with these two discoverers and with us, I have the feeling that things will get better and better, that we will go through pits and over bumps all the time, but by doing so we will become stronger, more and more ourselves. Patrick and Bea told us something like that when we were with them for the application interview. Annelies and I are also quite uncertain, about how to deal with Jan, for instance. He is not a difficult child, not at all, but he knows what he wants. Bea showed us that this is his strong side, his strength, he knows what he wants. But we sometimes find it difficult, how to guide him."

"I couldn't have told you that yesterday either, but today I learnt this: listen carefully, ask questions and watch and help only when necessary!"

Joke told how she had wanted to intervene when Jan wanted to start cleaning the pruning shears with his fingers, and how he resolved it himself. She told of his handy way of dealing with those crazy long strands, to get them into the container.

"I learnt, that guiding absolutely does not mean taking charge, it does mean intervening if he puts himself in danger. But if he tried other less clever things, I would not intervene but ask questions. To make him think for himself. Simple questions, like "why do you want to do it this way?" or "can there be another way? I enjoyed discovering this. Having no children myself, I never expected to be able to do this, as I have no experience. But it went smoothly, because of what I learnt from Anton, my husband: 'dealing with each other is listening, watching, asking... and above all following your guts'!"

Johan applauded, to which Rosalie and Jan immediately joined in.

"Yes, go ahead, make me embarrassed!" laughed Joke. "On a different note, so you have a printer shop and you have Rosalie's stories in book form here?"

Johan held up the stack of four books: "Tadaaaaaa, these are her first four books! Just the way they look, beautiful right? Hard cover, nice photos front and back. Rosalie chose that nothing would be written about her on the cover. She is just a writer..."

"... Yes, and I don't want people to buy my books because I'm only a kid and it's so cute!" complemented Rosalie.

"Right you are! Also, what good is all this information about the author to people. It's all about the story, isn't it?"

"Don't you want anything about yourself on the back cover either?" asked Rosalie.

"No, I don't think so... I'll have to think about it, but I don't think anything about myself, at most a short bit about the book itself, about the story. Then people can estimate a bit if it seems like a nice book to them."

Rosalie nodded. "Shall we go to Bloemenhof? I think Marieke would like to see the books."

"Good, but I'd really like to buy your books myself. Are they very expensive?"

Rosalie laughed: "No way, Johan paid thirty euros for four books."

"I'm in, I want a set like that too! The books of my dear holiday friend!" Joke winked at Rosalie, who ran radiantly to the cupboard and snatched a copy from each stack and gave them to Joke.

"That'll be thirty euros, please," she said in a weighty voice.

"I would be happy to pay that, Madam Author, but can I also pin here?"

Rosalie turned and pointed to the pin machine.

Annelies stood, hiccuping softly with laughter, already preparing the device for use.

"Great couple you are! Thirty euros please, Ms Joke," she laughed, as tears trickled down her cheeks, starting to flow harder and harder.

"Sorry, I don't know what's going on... Oh, yes, thank you, the pinning was successful, do you want an invoice? Bert, would you mind printing out the invoice? I don't know why I'm crying now, I'm a bit upset or something..."

Bert walked behind her, put his hand on her shoulder for a moment and gave her a kiss on her cheek. "Let those tears go, they know the way," he whispered.

"Oh goofy guy!" responded Annelies, half crying, half laughing.

Bert printed out the invoice and handed it to Joke.

"That's an official piece of printing. Johan had nothing to do with it, and I understand that, but we have to account for our costs and income at the end of the year, that' s why. I wish you lots of fun with the books and we'll probably see you again this week!"

"Joke is staying next week too!" cried Jan happily. "And she would like to work with me again, but I have yet to think of what we will do then!"

Bert laughed: "I'm sure you'll figure something out!"

Joke went back to Annelies, thanking her for entrusting her son to her for a while.

"Oh well, it was nothing anyway, you're welcome."

"It was something, Annelies, it wasn't easy for you, but you did it anyway. And if it's OK for you too, I'll come and work with him again this week or next, either here or at the centre."

"Gladly," Annelies smiled through her tears. "Thanks!"

To chapter 70. Books

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