At dinner, Huib recounted Anton and Joke's visit, and the little conversation between Joke and Rosalie.

Simon shook his head: "What a beautiful girl Rosalie is, so pure..."

"She certainly is," Huib responded, "she really doesn't seem to have any wounds or systematic misery in her at all. She seems to live as she was originally meant to, from within. As she described how she had written a story about a squirrel, or actually from within that squirrel. Swinger, he was the main-character of her story, she wrote from what he thought or said or did. Great right? Somehow her soul makes contact with the soul of an animal. Then again, it's strange, because that squirrel wasn't sitting at her table or anything. She had seen him briefly, and later started writing. I wonder how that works, whether her soul then just made contact with his soul during that brief moment she saw him, and therefore knows what is in that little animal. Or whether it is possible that her soul retains the contact even if she has long since stopped seeing the animal. So far, it's a mystery to me!"

Everyone stared ahead, pondering, aware of the wonder they were experiencing in Rosalie.

Annerieke interrupted the silence: "I suggested this afternoon to have a family reunion with Joke and Anton. Would you guys like that?"

And when everyone responded enthusiastically, "Tonight okay for you?"

That too was answered in the affirmative.

"Shall I then, once I have provided the other guests with cake, take the rest of the cake home? Or to your house, Huib and Margreet, then Gloria can sleep in her own room."

"Seems like a perfect plan," Huib said, consulting with Margreet through eye contact.

Margreet smiled, "I find it funny how quickly we all adapt to the new situation. I feel like Huib and I have been Gloria's parents for years, we're already all in. And you guys rolled right along with us over that threshold. Shall I just ask them for tonight?"

"Go ahead, I'm looking forward to it!"

Margreet left the kitchen and introduced the plan to Joke and Anton. They also felt like it and promised to come around coffee time.

"May be earlier as well, you know, I will go home after cleaning up in the kitchen and only have to tidy up a laundry there. So from about seven o'clock you can feel free to join us if you like."

Anton grabbed her hand: "Always fun, it's always nice to be with our darlings! You'll see us show up."

.

And truly, at the stroke of seven they came in! The laundry had been done and Gloria was lying in the playpen with a clean nappy and a full tummy, still wide awake. Joke and Anton immediately sought contact with her. Margreet enjoyed the fact that they were so delightfully casual with her. They did not talk in a babyish tone, but just like they always did. Joke asked her if she had drunk well, to which Gloria waved her little arms.

"That must mean it was delicious. Then I won't tickle your tummy, young lady, otherwise you'll spit it all out again."

Gloria looked at her wide-eyed and laughed.

Anton put his arm around Joke. "Beautiful isn't it?" he whispered with his head against her head.

"Yes, beautiful..." sighed Joke. "I'm surprised it doesn't hurt me anymore, I can just enjoy it, it's fine. And you?"

"Me too, I can only love it. What a little human being!"

Joke put her arms around him. They kissed each other and were surprised at a crowing laugh from the playpen.

"Well, are you already as wise as your friend?" Anton asked her, bending slightly towards Gloria.

She looked at him with big eyes and gave him a friendly smile.

He gently patted her cheek and whispered, "I love you..."

Apart from Gloria, Joke was the only one who heard what he said. It moved her, her strong man, treating a few-week-old baby in such a way. She had always loved him, but now he was the one showing a new side of himself. And she felt that was a very beautiful side!

Suddenly she thought of the tapestry Annerieke had mentioned. She told that to Margreet and asked if she could see it for a moment.

"Yes of course, it's next door, come and see it!"

Together Anton and Joke walked behind Margreet. Huib decided to come along too, curious about their reactions. Together with Margreet, he held up the tapestry so they could see how it would hang.

They remained silent, but the expression on their faces and their deep sighs spoke volumes.

"Beautiful, really beautiful," Anton finally said in a hoarse voice. "I just feel how perfectly this suits Lisa and Sjaak, this is just what belongs to them. It will look beautiful in their home..."

Joke nodded: "Exactly what you say, Anton! And how will you hang it? Just like the tapestry in your living room?"

Margreet nodded: "Yes, I'm going to make loops at the top and bottom. Had you already been working on the rods Huib?"

"Yeah sure, I finished one, shall I pick it up?"

He had already left the room and returned with only the two caps he would attach to the ends of the rod. "The rod itself is one of those same rods as in our living room. And for this tapestry, I made these caps to go with it." He showed them two wooden caps shaped like a flame going up at an angle, with a pair of musical notes engraved in them."

"Wow, how beautiful those turned out Huib," Margreet responded, running the tip of her index finger over the musical notes. "Did you do that with a gouge?"

"Partially yes, I marked off those flames with the narrowest gouge, the musical notes with a little drill and in them I smeared some brown paint with a squeaky brush, so that they became slightly more visible."

Anton put his arm around Huib's shoulders: "To speak with Erik, this is really the artist's work! If Sjaak and Lisa are not happy with this, I don't know it anymore!"

As if on cue, they just entered. They saw no one in the living room, but heard voices in the hobby room. There, they were immediately confronted with the tapestry Margreet had made for them. The people present saw all kinds of emotions flying across Sjaak and Lisa's faces, saw how Lisa stood with her mouth opening, closing and opening again, as if she kept wanting to say something but then refraining from doing so.

After staring at the tapestry in complete bewilderment and emotion for a while, Sjaak sighed: "Unbelievable... unbelievable..."

"This is so overwhelming, so exactly fitting for us," Lisa complemented. "This is just who we are, don't you think Sjaak?"

Sjaak nodded slowly, as if in a trance. "Something like that yes, I guess it is. All I really know is that it touches me very deeply. Fire and music, music in fire, or just fire in music. I believe it doesn't really matter how you describe it. It just belongs together."

"I think that's the finest response I can get for this," Margreet replied, "and I'm very happy about it! I still need to sew another one of those basic patches against the back and sew loops between them both at the top and bottom. Huib is working on the rods that go through those loops."

Huib showed them one of the buttons in front. "These come on either side of the rods."

Lisa put a hand on his wrist and took a closer look at the work of art. "Great, again fire and music in one, suits it perfectly Huib, thank you!"

She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a few slap kisses on his cheeks. She repeated the same to Margreet. "Sorry, I just don't know how to thank you for this."

"This is more than enough, Lisa, your connection to our work, your joy, that it touches you so much... that's what it's all about, right? How about you guys, shall I make some coffee?" asked Huib.

Margreet put the tapestry back over her desk and took both knobs into the living room, where she put them on the dining table, so Huib could take them back to the work shed. Everyone searched for a place to sit and started chatting pleasantly with each other.

Margreet saw that Gloria had fallen asleep in the playpen. She was tempted to pick her up and take her upstairs to her own bed, but thought, she was now also just sleeping through the chatter. She wondered what was wise. She soon realised that there was a duality going on inside her as she watched her little daughter. For herself, she felt it was best to leave her here. But what would the others think? Would they think it was wrong, think she needed to give Gloria more rest?

I have to listen to myself, she admonished herself. If it makes Gloria restless, I can still always take her upstairs. She grabbed a blanket from the playpen drawer and covered her up. That way, at least she wouldn't get cold.

Margreet was slightly startled by a hand being placed on her shoulder and looked up, straight into Anton's eyes. "What a sweet mother you are to that little big darling. You're doing a great job! I just wanted to tell you that. Don't doubt yourself girl, just follow your heart and you'll be fine."

"What? How do you know...?"

"I saw you standing there, conflicted, and suspected you were wondering what you were doing right. Letting her continue sleeping here or taking her upstairs. I could just about hear your brain cracking. It doesn't matter anyway, you may go through all the doubt, then you will become stronger and stronger in who you are."

Margreet smiled at Anton: "Thank you for your beautiful affirmation..."

Anton kissed her on her forehead and took her to the sitting area.

Huib came in with a tray of coffee mugs, with Annerieke carrying a plate of cake points and Simon following behind them with a pile of cake dishes and forks. On the dining table, Annerieke distributed the cake points among the dishes, while Simon handed them out.

"Need another chair, I guess?" asked Simon.

"No way, I'll sit by Huib on the edge of his chair until we finish the cake and coffee and then I'll crawl on his lap."

"Well, go ahead," Huib responded victimically, "clearly I have no more say in that."

"Poor you," Margreet whispered in his ear, as she sat down next to him on the banister and enjoyed her pie slice. " It succeeded perfectly again, Annerieke! Delicious!"

Annerieke gave her a wink, and turned to Anton and Joke. "And tell me, how have you guys been doing lately?"

Anton and Joke looked at each other. Anton nodded to Joke, indicating to her that she could start.

"I have actually been quietly working on the book I was working on when we were here last time. That one is now finished. My new book is about women who have gone through Lisa shit. That's what I call it, for the convenience, Lisa-shit, you guys know immediately what I mean. It feels like a novel full of opposition, but also unexpected cooperation. A story full of pain and sorrow, but also full of release of emotions and healing. I don't find it easy to write, having never experienced it myself, but I just follow my heart, for better or worse."

"More good than worse, count on that. You already follow your heart much better than you think, dear," Anton complemented her.

"You tell us, what you have experienced," Joke urged him.

"Were you already done then? Has your whole life only consisted of writing books these past few months?"

"In a way, yes, writing is my joy and my life."

"What about me?"

"You? You're just pitiful," she retorted to him. "I think that's not so bad in practice, but... I'm sorry Anton, you are definitely of great importance in my life. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be who I was and would never have come to writing. In everyday life, you are my everything, my pillar of support, my wise man, my... damn, am I almost going to cry too... you are just really my everything. I wouldn't know what to do without you!"

Joke turned slightly towards him on the sofa and hid her face in his neck. Anton stroked her hair and placed a few quiet kisses on it, then he took over from her. "And you, dear Joke, are for me my everything. In all practical things at home, but especially in your love, your peace and the home you give me. With you, coming home is really coming home. You are my home! And I think it's good that we express this to each other for once, we are obviously not used to that anymore... To be honest, dear friends, I have been quite busy lately. My business has been running well, very well, in terms of productivity and pace, but I felt something was going on. I couldn't put my finger on it at first. It took me quite a few headaches. I think it was about five weeks ago that I suddenly realised what was going on. I had lost connection with most of the employees. Just all too busy, too fast, too much, no time for real conversations and some fun together. A month ago, I started acting differently in performance reviews. I sent everyone an email, telling them, people function best when they are comfortable in their own skin and they have fun in the work they do, in everything they do."

As he narrated, he kept stroking Joke. Even when the sobbing had stopped, she continued to lie quietly with her head on his shoulder as he continued to talk about the changes at work.

"I told them, what I had discovered, that I actually didn't really know several of my employees, sometimes barely by name, and that I wanted that to change, to make them feel known. Then, during the familiar performance reviews, I simply started asking them about whatever they wanted to share: family situation, hobbies, problems, just nice things. Whatever they wanted to tell me. I tried to focus mainly on listening, really listening, with my ears and my soul. Sometimes I asked a question, sometimes I summarised what they had told me, sometimes I asked even more questions. I constantly tried to listen to my inner self to find out what the other person needed. I have now had over twenty conversations, and after each one I was thanked, because they had really felt heard, because they were happy to have been able to let their hearts out. As soon as they left my room, I made some brief notes on the PC in their file, in case I forgot important things. Somehow I knew that wouldn't be necessary, that my soul would bring up what I would need, but I had some trouble trusting that completely, so I just did it that way for the time being. It happened, for instance, that while walking past, I asked someone how his sick daughter was doing. Things like that, what they had told me, just came up.

After half of those conversations, about ten or eleven, I noticed that the atmosphere had changed. Then I dared to call them together over a cup of coffee at the beginning of a new day. I told them, how I had started the business with my friend, that we were having fun, and that the customers noticed and appreciated that. I told them that I was proud of them for the pace at which they worked for our company, but that, deep down, I would rather they slowed down their pace and had fun at work, whistling at people's doorbells, so to speak, than have it all happen at a fast pace. I will tell you, a sigh of relief really went through that room! I wrote the same line in an email to the people who were not there at the time. I got nice, relaxed responses back. Since then, it sometimes happens that someone has to wait a day longer for their package. We have also received some questions about that, but never a complaint.

What I didn't tell my staff is what had happened at home before I changed those performance reviews. I did not let them know, that I had been fretting on the sofa about the atmosphere, and that at one point I had got the impression that it was due to a lack of real contact. Do you know what phrase had entered my mind? That I wanted to be a father to my employees! I was puzzled, we never had children, how could I be a father to them? I sat and ruminated on that sentence a few times, repeated that sentence to myself, asked myself, if I wanted to be a father to them and after a few sentences came to the conclusion, that that was exactly what I wanted: I want to be a father to my employees! And do you know what Rosalie said to me this afternoon, even before I had said a word to her? 'You really are a father, a good father!' That was it, she turned and sat down with Margreet and Gloria. I had already understood that it was quite normal for Rosalie to receive and utter sharp impressions, but that doesn't take away from the fact that she took me quite by surprise! I thought I was used to something when it came to impressions from within..."

"She was spot on, Anton," Huib responded, while Margreet, who was now sitting cross-legged on his lap, nodded affirmatively. "And how did things turn out with the staff you spoke to? Do they all now feel that they are in their place in your company, or are there some who have actually discovered that they would actually like to do something completely different?"

"No, not really. There is only one young woman, who recently gave birth to a son, single mother. She has mentioned that she finds it incredibly difficult to have to take her little son to someone else's house every day. Ideally, she would like to take him with her to work, but as a parcel deliverer, that is actually not feasible, also for the child just not doable, far too busy. She asked me if I would join her in looking for work where she could take her child with her without it being stressful for him. She didn't really care what kind of work it would be, first and foremost it was about the much-needed money and rest for her child. But she is the only one, the rest seem to be moving on with more pleasure than before."

As he spoke, Lisa and Margreet had looked at each other, had smiled at the same time. Then they looked at Annerieke, who gave them a wink and asked Margreet what she thought about it.

"I thought about my work, or rather our work, of both Lisa and me. I absolutely do not hate the housework at the guesthouse, but I prefer to be busy with my tapestry, and what is needed for our family. What do you think Lisa?"

"I think the same thing. Our family situation will soon be the same as yours, and I find that I am still going through quite a few pain points. Besides, I would like to spend more time on music and read more. So as far as I'm concerned... she can start like this tomorrow, so to speak."

Annerieke shot into laughter: "Let's at least invite her, don't you think Huib?"

Huib nodded: "I've been thinking about it more often since a few weeks. To be honest, I think Margreet and Lisa are doing fine together, even now that we have gained Gloria's care, but I have realised for quite some time that these ladies' hearts are not in housekeeping. I can imagine that for the young lady you mentioned, Anton, it's not much different, but should she want to take over the work, she's welcome to come by for an application conversation as soon as she likes. By the way, how is she on housing?"

"Lousy, in her parents' attic. If she could live in the guesthouse's attic, she would have a whole lot better, more spacious especially. Then you would just have to check with her whether any adjustments would be needed because of the baby. I am thinking especially of washing the little one. I have no idea how she does it now and what ideas she has about it herself, but if she wants to work and live here, discuss such practical things with her. I personally think, I feel, that this would be a fine place for her, at least for the time being."

"Will you give her a call or email tomorrow, Anton?"

"Fine, I'll give her a call tomorrow! It actually seems to me, the more I think about it, a super fine solution for her!"

To chapter 9. A new colleague

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