"The week is flying by, Maurice, shall we go to the discovery centre this morning?" asked Jacqueline. "I'm curious, after all the struggle we've had to give Karel that kind of training, how they do it."

"Good idea, and I think we should try to go straight to the print shop afterwards. And painting and drawing again this afternoon. I have the impression that my inner voice is setting that agenda for today. And tonight we will also go out, but I don't know where to go yet. We'll see!"

"Busy day, then! But surely another nice one... Come on, get dressed and have breakfast, sir!"

Maurice, grinning, answered her call.

By eight o'clock, he tried to call Patrick. Patrick, who had just entered the centre, introduced himself and was told a short story by Maurice, and asked if they could drop by their place.

"Fine, come over. Any idea what time approximately?"

"We've almost finished our breakfast... in half an hour?"

"Good, I'll see you then!"

Feeling as if he had just received a deep surprise, Patrick put his mobile phone in his pocket and welcomed Rosalie and Jan, who came in, chatting pleasantly. Jan had by now reached the point where he was ready to write '8 o'clock' after his name with Rosalie's help.

He gloated: "That's getting better and better, soon I'll be able to do it myself!"

"If you like, you may well start copying words, from a book or something, or from the laptop. Would you like that?" asked Rosalie.

Rosalie watched him think and finally nodded. "Yes, I would like that, then I can do it even better later!"

"Patrick, do you know the best stuff for Jan to use?"

"No, I don't know, but we'll find out. Paper is handy anyway, and then we'll have to try out what you prefer to write with. Shall we try that out right away?"

Jan nodded, getting more and more excited about it.

"Annelies says, at a regular school, children don't start writing until they are six. I'm only four, and I'm going to try it anyway."

"Great man! Annelies will be amazed when she sees your first pieces of writing. I'm thinking, shall we start in a notebook right away, or would you prefer loose papers?"

Jan pondered, tilting his head and thinking wrinkles in his forehead. "I think a notebook is better. A loose paper might slide off."

"It might," Patrick said, "and that would be annoying, don't you think?"

He took him to the cabinet with notebooks. Patrick, Bea and Ineke had decided to buy only plain lined notebooks, like the ones they use in the upper grades of primary schools, and not to embark on what Ineke thought was the confusing phase of writing between lines that were closer together, with the loops and sticks in the wider spaces. She had said, it seemed to her to be an unnecessary phase, one that only seemed designed to teach children an unnecessary precision, namely that the loops should be slightly longer than the sticks. Nonsensical she had called it, totally irrelevant to the legibility of the written words. Patrick and Bea had sensed that what she said was right, and together they had picked up a stack of notebooks from Action, the simplest and cheapest notebook to start with, with a plain front. Ineke had been happy with it, had told how schools buy notebooks with all kinds of fronts to make it fun, but that she thought it was baddest uniformity, that it would be much more fun if a child could decide for themselves whether they wanted to stick a picture or a small drawing on their notebook, for example, so that it would really be their own.

Patrick opened the cupboard: "There they are, take one!" he encouraged Jan. "They are a bit boring notebooks. Maybe it would be nice if you drew a picture on a loose piece of paper sometime, or if we took a picture of your vegetable garden and printed it out. Then we can stick that on the front. Think about it, whatever you want. In any case, you can write your name on the label here."

Jan nodded: "I've been able to do that for a long time, write my name. And I really like a picture of the vegetable garden on the notebook!"

Patrick chuckled: "That's what I thought! Then we'll sort that out later. Ha Bea, Ineke! I see you have already received the groceries again, great! By the way, we will have visitors in a minute, Karel's parents are coming by. They are staying at the guesthouse and are there on a mission: 'soul-empowerment' is what Karel's father called it. I'm very curious!"

"Sounds good! If they're like their son..."

Patrick turned back to Jan: "Do you have any idea yourself whether you prefer to write with a pencil or a pen?"

Jan shrugged, visibly finding it a strange question. Ineke shot into laughter, articulating his thought: "Crazy question, isn't it, Jan?"

"Yes! A pencil is for drawing, a pen for writing. Right?"

"I agree," Ineke replied, "but Patrick learned to write with a pencil when he was a child. That's how they do it in schools. You know, it may well be, but I don't see the point myself. Just choose what seems comfortable to you!"

"With a pen, I think, that's what Rosalie and I already do when we write down our time. You still have to do that, Ineke, and so does Bea. You just ran with those groceries. I understand, just a quick clean-up, but don't forget to clock in!"

Ineke burst out laughing: "You're quite right, Jan, I'll do it anyway. Bea, clocking!" she said with a wink at her colleague. "Ahum, even Patrick forgot. Only our discoverers have been faithful in it today."

Patrick pretended to bang his head. "I came in and got that call from Karel's father. Completely forgot about it!"

"Shit can happen!" came Rosalie into the front room.

"What are you saying?" asked Bea in surprise.

"Shit can happen!" she said again. "Doesn't it? It can just happen! Huib says that sometimes, if something goes wrong for a moment, or if Margreet feels she is doing something wrong. He then turns that into a joke!" she explained, laughing.

"Rosalie, Karel's parents are coming to visit, nice huh?" shared Jan.

"Oh really? I don't know if I like it yet, I want to start working very hard!" She turned and went to the room where she had already set up her laptop ready to start.

Patrick asked Jan to write his name on the first line of the label and said he would then write 'Writing Notebook 1' below it. Jan looked at the label and pointed to the second line: "If I write my name there, you can write that other one here, lines enough. My name on the top line... that just looks like it wants to jump right off!"

Patrick laughed: "You're right again, Jan, just do it on the second line!"

Jan sat down at the table, clicked on his pen, sighed deeply and began to write quietly.

"So, there it is, my letters still find it a bit difficult to stand on the line. I guess they still have to learn that!"

"Well yeah, they need to get used to," Patrick said and wrote 'Writing Notebook 1' underneath.

"My letters have already figured out how to do it, see? That's how yours are going to do it in a while, too! By the way, I think you did a good job, it's good readable, and I think that's the most important thing about writing."

Patrick flipped open the notebook and wrote the date in the top left corner on the inside cover. "That's today's date. If you like keeping your notebook, you can always find later when you started in this notebook. Well, what words... I'm thinking of words to do with your vegetable garden or a farm. Do you know why? Because that suits you, I think. Do you agree or would you prefer other words?"

"No, of course not, I want words from the farmer and the garden! Those are really important!" thought Jan.

"That' s why! I thought so too, but if you had wanted something else, that would have been fine too, but now we are just going to do farm words and garden words. How are we going to do that? I can look up words for you on the laptop, I can think of words myself and write them on a loose piece of paper, or I can write those words in your notebook, so you can rewrite them underneath or next to it. Which seems nicest to you?"

"Just write them here, and I'll write them next to it." Jan pointed his finger along the margin.

Patrick nodded: "I had something like that in mind too, but... I see our visitors are here. Do you guys have a moment so I can get Jan started."

"Of course," Jacqueline said, "just do what you have to do!"

She gave Jan a wink. Jan looked at her shyly, then looked at Maurice.

"You look like Karel! Karel was here visiting too. Has he seen a sweet woman yet?"

Maurice and Jacqueline shot into laughter.

"You had said something about that huh? Karel told us, that you had said she was coming! You were right, he found her that same day! And we helped her move yesterday, so she lives with Karel now, along with her little son."

Jan looked at Jacqueline thoughtfully: "Is that the woman with the little boy living in the guesthouse?"

"Yes, that's right, Bianca and Julian," Maurice replied.

"Nice, that fits right in!" replied Jan, turning to his notebook, in which Patrick, enjoying what Jan was discussing with their guests, wrote all sorts of short words.

"Are these all about the farm and the vegetable garden?" asked Jan.

Patrick nodded: "Can you read some of them already?"

"Just this one, it says 'farmer' there."

"Good, shall I read the next words to you?" asked Patrick.

Jan looked at him and shook his head: "No, if Karel's mother wants to do it, I like that even better!"

Patrick made way for Jacqueline, while they introduced themselves to each other.

"Jacqueline, Jacqueline, nice name, you can sing that a bit," Jan smiled.

Jacqueline nodded, "You can do that very well, and that feels like a caress, a stroke to my name! You caress my name like you caressed Karel's forehead. He told me that too..."

Jan nodded: "Yes, I remember. Karel is a beautiful man, a clever man, he discovered himself he, like us here, but he did it at your house. He told us so."

"True, and that's why I love being here, and watching you discover and learn by yourselves. Shall I read you the words?"

Jan nodded and followed Jacqueline. She pointed to the word she was reading out, Jan nodded and imitated it, pointed it out and said it. In this way, they went past all the words on the page.

"All farmer-words and garden-words," Jan sighed happily, "I'm going to read them again."

He pointed to the words one by one, told what it said, and when he couldn't remember, he looked questioningly at his neighbour to hear from her what it was again. When he then went through the list again, he remembered them all.

"Then I am going to write, read and write them now," he said.

He picked up his pen: "First farmer..." and copied the letters.

"This is garden," and wrote the word next to it.

Then Jacqueline put her hands on both his hands.

"Your hands are a little tight, that's why you start squeezing. Your hands are going to relax now, calm down... and so are your arms."

Jacqueline moved behind him and stroked her hands over his arms, placing them on his shoulders, with her thumbs against his neck. "And your shoulders and neck are loosening up nicely too." She stayed like that for a moment, while Jan felt heat migrate from his shoulders to his hands, and also through the rest of his body.

"Wow, nice and warm," he whispered, "wow, how do you do that? Can you do magic?"

Jacqueline smiled as she sat down next to him again, pleasantly surprised that she was much less bothered this time. "It looks like magic hey, but it's not, it's the power of my soul flowing through you. This makes you looser, more relaxed. Try writing again and we'll see if it's even better now!"

"Okay, this is rake..." said Jan, picking up his pen and feeling. "Hey, that feels different, nice and quiet!" He started writing, and Jacqueline could see that he was indeed more calm, more relaxed in his hand. He continued in peace, reading and writing, reading and writing. Only when he had done all the little words, he looked at them with a tilted head, started beaming and looked at Jacqueline.

"They turned out beautifully... Thank you for your warmth. You helped me so much!" Jan put his hand on her arm, and Jacqueline put her hand on his.

"I liked seeing that it made it easier for you to do it, looser, more relaxed. Enjoy it, Jan!"

"Yes!" he laughed happily. "Patrick, can I have more words? No, I want to go outside first. Is that possible?"

Patrick nodded, "Yes you can, feel free to go outside!"

"That was special, Jacqueline, really beautiful to see. So there is more to the power of the soul than I already thought."

"Yes, it does. We are also discovering more and more. But tell me, I don't think Jan is the only discoverer here."

Bea pointed to the corridor. "There sits Rosalie, she writes stories, she writes books, I should say nowadays, because they are being published, and even sold eagerly already! Jan's parents have a print shop, near here. So when you talk about the things you just did at Jan's..."

Maurice chuckled: "We'll go there later too. I already called them this morning."

"Nice," Bea said, "you guys are going along the soul places, it seems."

Maurice was laughing out loud now. "The soul places! Great name for that! Yes, we got the impression, that there are all kinds of lines running from Bloemenhof to some kind of 'projects', where people also really want to live and work from within, to follow their inner voice. We have an appointment for Saturday afternoon with Judge Johan, his wife, and lawyer Ellen."

He saw that Ineke responded recognisably.

"You know them?" he asked.

"Yes, Johan did my court cases, against the men who forced me into prostitution, and Ellen defended me. And Sjaak and Lisa were in the room, along with Marianne, the judge's secretary. I could feel the power, both from Johan and Ellen in front of me, and from Sjaak, Lisa and Marianne in the room behind me."

"And with you, did the suspects also react in the same extraordinary way as happened with Lisa?" asked Jacqueline.

"Yes, all of them, it was incredible. Marianne told me later that they get an awful lot of messages from all over the world. Sometimes cynical, but mostly interested, and some with beautiful testimonies. You should also ask Marianne, Marianne also works from her soul. Johan, Marieke, Ellen and Marianne... it's a great quartet!"

"Thanks for saying that, I'll call Marieke again in a moment and ask her to invite Marianne to it."

He grabbed his mobile as he felt it vibrate. A broad smile appeared on his face. "Speaking of soul connections... message from Marieke, she already invited Marianne too. I'll just send her a thumbs-up!"

Meanwhile, Jacqueline had been staring at Ineke for a while, thinking to herself that this was also something new, as if she was already preparing Ineke for a deeper radiation of her soul power. She took a step towards Ineke, grabbing her hands, ignoring Ineke's questioning, somewhat confused look.

"Ineke, a utensil is a thing, a utensil should never be a human being. But so many people have been used as such, and you know all about that. But being a utensil doesn't fit your soul, it doesn't belong there. It's like a stiff suit and that suit rips open, like a blouse being torn, so that you will be free, utterly free."

She saw that Ineke's face radiated pain and above all dismay, confusion. She continued to hold her until Ineke calmed down internally. Ineke breathed in very deeply.

"It's as if I took off a corset!" she said in bewilderment. "I can breathe much deeper now and feel much freer!"

"I'm glad about that," Jacqueline laughed, "wonderful for you! More healing is coming, one step at a time!"

She immediately continued, "Bea, Patrick, do you want to give each other a hand?"

She herself also gave each of them a hand and began to speak: "You are soulmates, clearly love each other very much, but in the meantime you have also been wounded on the relational level. That makes it difficult for you to entrust yourself completely to yourself and to your soulmate. That wall of caution, of a certain distrust goes away, it breaks down, disappears completely."

Bea and Patrick looked at each other, as if they were seeing each other for the first time, really seeing each other for the first time. The moment Jacqueline let go of their hands, Bea threw herself against Patrick and they embraced each other tightly.

"Magnetism on top!" laughed Jacqueline. "Guys, I'm starting to enjoy this more and more! I think we still have a young writer here somewhere... Oh, how nice she is. Go ahead Rosalie, don't pay attention to us!"

Jacqueline watched her, beaming at Rosalie, as she continued typing. A moment later, Rosalie abruptly stopped. "I can't keep up anymore! It goes so fast, everything I have to write flies up, but I can't type that fast!"

Jacqueline put her hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry, what all comes up so fast doesn't fly away, you don't lose it, but it makes you continue typing without having to think very much. Just start typing, and you will see that everything just keeps coming through. The story is there, in your soul, and has already spilled upwards. That was what just felt so scary for a moment, it's already coming out, but it's patiently waiting for you to type. So again, don't be afraid, you won't lose it, it won't fly away. It is there, your soul has already sort of unwrapped it and sent it upstairs to guide your thoughts so that you know what to type. Do you understand a little bit what I mean?"

"Yes, I think so, it was in my soul, and my soul has sent it to a storage space in my head, and from that storage space it is sent to my fingers, so I can just type without further thought. Something like that, that's how it feels what you're saying."

"And so it is, you sensed it perfectly!"

"Did you do that in me?" asked Rosalie in amazement.

"Yes, I saw that you are incredibly open and strong, a fiery girl, open to receive and give, but that there was still one little channel that was a bit blocked. That was a thinking channel that wants to figure everything out exactly. Very often the information from your soul shoots through spontaneously when you speak, but when you start typing, that little channel is obstructed because you are afraid that you cannot type fast enough. Uncertain because your thoughts are going much faster than your fingers. While your fingers are already going so fast..."

Rosalie smiled: "That sounds nice, then my books will be even better... thank you! I do like it now that you came to visit anyway."

She jumped up, wrapped her arms around Jacqueline's waist and pulled her close to her for a moment. Jacqueline kissed her on her hair.

"Go ahead, Rosalie, we are also moving on, to the next address, the Soul Print Shop. Thank you all for letting us come here. I enjoyed it!"

"Me too," Maurice said in his bass voice. "It was wonderful to see you guys busy. I hope there will be some new discoverers soon. All children should have these opportunities. That Jan, such a little guy, is already starting to read and write, just out of his own desire! Not to mention Rosalie at all! Toppers you all are!"

"Thank you, thank you," Patrick said, taking a slight bow with a silly grin on his face. "And if you guys want to come by again, know that you are more than welcome!"

.

Maurice and Jacqueline walked outside, where they almost bumped into Jan.

"Would you like to see my vegetable garden?" he asked enthusiastically.

"Oh yes, please! Now look, that looks like rucola lettuce, and this one, is that also a type of lettuce?"

"Yes, lamb's lettuce. It' a pity they don't grow faster, I fancy lettuce with cheese on my sandwich!"

Jacqueline smiled, touching the front two plants of the lamb's lettuce, caressing their soft leaves. She did not realise that Jan was looking on in bewilderment. When she asked about the onions, he called her back to the lamb's lettuce: "Now look what you did! Those two little plants you stroked have grown! Would they already be big enough to eat?"

Jacqueline and Maurice looked at the two little plants in amazement.

"Did I do that?" she asked in surprise.

"That looks like it Jackie! Try it at a plant of the rucola too."

"At two plantlets, then we will soon have enough for all of them at lunch!" cried Jan enthusiastically. He squatted down to see what was happening. Maurice stood with his hands leaned on his knees, also staring at the little plants. Jacqueline stroked both the plants and felt that something was moving in them. At the same time, they saw that they were growing upwards and sideways.

"Wow, the others should see that!"

Jan ran off, and came out a moment later with the three companions and Rosalie.

"Do it again a bit, Jacqueline!"

Jacqueline smiled, almost shyly, "This is new to me too, you know, feels like magic, but I don't know any spells, so it must be soul power too..."

She stroked the rucola as everyone watched tensely.

"Those two are really growing..." whispered Ineke. "Did you do the same with these two from the lamb's lettuce?"

"Yes, back then it went unnoticed, I stroked the plants, just because it felt so nice."

She did it again with the lamb's lettuce, and they grew some more.

"Are they that big enough for lunch?" asked Jan.

"I think so, all a sandwich with two types of lettuce and a slice of cheese, delicious!" thought Maurice. "We are really moving on now, goodbye you guys!"

"Goodbye! And thanks for everything!" they called after them, continuing to wave until Maurice and Jacqueline were out of sight.

.

"Are you OK?" asked Maurice to his wife.

"Yes, as such, I feel just overwhelmed by the power that keeps releasing. Even to that lettuce... I've never heard of that before!"

"Neither have I, but apparently it does exist. You should never put your hand on my belly, I'll get mighty fat!"

Loudly laughing, they walked on.

.

They rang the bell at the Soul Print Shop, which since a few days also had an entrance on the side.

They introduced themselves and were immediately welcomed warmly by Annelies.

"Come along, Bert and Cynthia are busy in the back of the print shop, and I was here in the office updating the administration for a while. Such a necessary evil, but it's almost done, so we'll be good to go! Have you been to the discovery centre yet?"

"Yes, we just came from there. Is it true that Jan is your son?"

"Yes, that's right, was he enjoying himself again?"

"He learned new things, and... no, I'm not going to tell you about it. But if he comes home with too wonderful stories, don't hesitate, but believe him at once. No matter how crazy it may all sound. A lot happened there!" Maurice looked at her with a broad smile, at the same time noticing Jacqueline staring at Annelies.

"Annelies," Jacqueline began, putting her hand on one of Annelies' shoulders, "when you were a little girl, you were cornered. You wanted to do all sorts of things, explore the world, discover yourself, but your mother was immensely cautious. That made you cautious yourself too, cautious in the sense of frenetically cautious. It has become a yoke of yours, with which you would prefer to put Jan in a cage, with the best of intentions, to protect him. The only reason you do that is because it is your only example. You don't know how else to do it. Not only that, but it's stuck in you, like tentacles in your thinking and in your body, in your muscles. That makes you convulsive in your thinking and in what you do. But those tentacles have to let go, those tentacles let go, completely let go, so that you become free in every way. Come and sit down," Jacqueline added when Annelies seemed to be going under. Together with Maurice, she helped her into her office chair.

"So that's better," Jacqueline whispered to the startled-looking Annelies.

Annelies took a few jerky, deep breaths, took another very deep breath in and out and relaxed.

"What was that? What happened there?" she asked.

"You called the print shop Soul-printing, so I assume you want to live from within. The rotten thing is, when you are trapped, like in that super protective of your mother, that you can only partly live from your soul. What your mother, from her own wounding and fear, did to you has brought a lot of emotional wounding into you. Large parts of your soul cannot address you, cannot make you feel, because of that. Other parts do, so you haven't gone all black or anything, but wouldn't you love it if you were all bright light? Well, so that's where we just started. Those tentacles of overprotection are loose now, maybe you can already feel that in your body."

Annelies stood up, carefully as she felt that all her muscles had stretched or slackened. She started moving her arms in all sorts of directions.

She nodded, "It feels really different, I can just really move like I never could before! I wonder how I will change towards Jan now, whether I will be able to let go of him better. He is such a sweet boy, and we actually really want more children, but that overprotection scared me, I didn't dare have more children, then I wouldn't be able to oversee it at all. I so hope, that now it's really gone, that I can live more, really live, also with Jan. But... how did you do this?"

"I listened to my inner voice and felt the power of my soul flowing towards you. That's it, soul power! It sounds very special, but deeply this is how we are originally meant to be. Maurice and I are now staying at Bloemenhof for a week, and are being sent by our souls to the different people, 'projects' who want to live in the same way as at Bloemenhof, to support you."

"For convenience, I've called it 'soul empowerment'," Maurice grinned.

"Wow! Very special... Shall we move on to the print shop?" asked Annelies.

"Yes please," responded Maurice, "I'm curious to see what something like that looks like!"

They entered a large room with several machines. A young woman, busy, nodded quickly and called out a greeting, but immediately went on with her work. Bert, on the other hand, attracted by something he had sensed in Maurice when he called, walked away from his work to greet them in person.

"Hey, I'm Bert. How nice of you to drop by. Would you like some coffee?"

"No, thanks, we just visited your son. Great kid, wonderfully open!"

"Yes, he was already quite open, but he has become more and more so since he goes to 'I discover myself!' every day. Lovely environment huh?"

"Absolutely, just like here," Maurice replied.

"And yet it's hard to be completely light when you're weighed down by guilt and shame about things you've done in the past, Bert," Jacqueline said, grabbing him by one wrist. "Those things of the past were not good, absolutely, but there was a reason why you did them. You very much want different, live differently now too, but you do suffer from those feelings, those little voices that haunt you. Voices that tell you that you might just fall back into that same mistake, especially now that you have an employee who could easily fall victim to it. But the past is the past, Bert! By the way, you didn't do those things with malicious intent, but out of woundedness, and out of conviction because of the photos and videos your father showed you, in secret, already making you feel that it was actually wrong. This made you go from one thing to another, simple as that. Guilt and shame have been instilled, but they are powerful snakes that stop you from being completely straight and open, from feeling yourself safe in the presence of a badly wounded young woman. Those snakes of guilt and shame are letting go, releasing you so that you can move freely, think freely and interact freely with any woman."

Bert stared at her wide-eyed bewildered, had turned fiery red at first, and sickly white a moment later. Maurice went to stand by him just to be sure, in case he collapsed. But that did not happen, his colour returned, his breathing, which had become irregular, calmed down and his eyes regained a normal expression.

"I hated having to confront you like this and I was glad that young woman wasn't there. She's busy, she won't have heard. And whether Annelies knew, about your past, I don't know..." Jacqueline turned to Annelies, who shook no with a pale face. "Annelies, it's past, from before your relationship, yes Bert, right?"

He nodded, "Yes, I had stopped when I first met you. I felt I had to pull out all the stops to win your heart, because there was such a deep click. Since then, I never went to other women. But Jacqueline was right, those feelings of guilt and shame are still there, were still there, it feels like that really slipped away, like you were talking about snakes, that they let go of me, slipped away. But how did you know all that?"

"Listening to my inner voice, Bert, living from my soul. Every now and then we go through intense things, then some emotional misery is released, some healing is done, and we find that the power of our soul becomes stronger. And our deepest desire is to help people heal. That it could go like this, we had no idea either. That has only been the case for a few days. I do know one thing for sure: our life is meant to be totally different from what we have experienced in this world so far. But the mess is coming loose, and the true nature of our souls is emerging!" Jacqueline began to beam more and more. "Do you know your employee's past?"

Bert and Annelies nodded.

"I knew it was right, that we had to take her on, that it was right, but it was very confronting..." said Bert.

"That's why it's good that that has slipped away from you now, then you can be even more open with her, just person-to-person, without nasty thoughts in between. Maybe they will still come sometimes, but that will be light and it will disappear soon," Maurice promised.

"Will you ask her to stop working for a while?" asked Jacqueline.

"Cynthia!" cried Bert. "Please come for a moment?"

Cynthia protested, having work to do, wanting to finish it, but she saw that Bert shook no and beckoned. Uncertainly, she put down her things and approached Bert. She greeted Maurice and Jacqueline, wondering why she had to join them.

Jacqueline had been looking at her sternly for some time, which she found quite difficult. Jacqueline moved a little closer and held out her hands.

"Will you put your hands in my hands, Cynthia?" she asked kindly, but with a power that seemed to tolerate no contradiction.

Cynthia put her hands in her hands as Bert whispered to her that it was okay. She nodded to him briefly and then looked at Jacqueline with a frowning face, waiting, wondering what could happen next....

"More than ten years of slavery have made you feel like a slave. Now you are free, but you don't really feel free yet. You try to live like a free person, but run into limits that you don't know what to do with. They are the shackles of slavery that have been slung around you at the time over the years and tightened ever more tightly. The lock is open, but you still feel that heavy chain of shackles all around you. That chain of shackles, symbol of your slavery, comes loose, little by little, further and further loose, more, further, looser, everywhere, even around your neck and around your head, completely loose, completely loose! That chain of shackles falls tinkling to the ground, do you hear it?"

To everyone's surprise, Cynthia nodded violently, and started beaming. "Yes, I felt it come loose, slip off me and then fall to the ground. Just what you say, that tinkling sound!"

She began to move her body. "It feels different, something is really gone," she said in surprise. "I move easier, and my head feels lighter, wow! Thank you! How did you do that?"

Maurice moved a little closer and explained where this came from.

Cynthia noticed that she dared to let this man, unknown to her, come closer with confidence. This was new to her. Before, she usually flinched, but now she didn't even have that inclination! She shared what was going on inside her, and invited Maurice and Jacqueline for tonight, at her home in The Shelter. "Janneke, Sandra and Willeke also need this, although I feel that something has already happened in Janneke, she has changed, become more sensitive, more alive, something like that."

"Ha, nice to hear!" laughed Maurice. "Janneke was the first to be overwhelmed by Jacqueline and received a piece of liberation as a result. Super to hear that that is sensible, palpable for someone who didn't know!"

Jacqueline smiled, "Even so, I am delighted to visit you tonight. We have already walked around The Shelter, seen how nice that building was set up. Should we report to the central front door or to your door?"

"I'll make sure I'm in the main living room from eight o'clock, then I'll see you coming. Just come to the central front door."

"Good, then we'll have coffee at the guesthouse first, because I'd rather not pass up that delicious pie from Annerieke," Maurice chuckled mischievously.

Cynthia shot into laughter. "You'd be crazy if you let that pass! Then we'll see you afterwards, really cool!"

To chapter 90. More liberation!

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