Chapter 26 – Mancave

Secretly everyone is glad that Christmas is over. It has been a fun time preparing for their first real Christmas party together. They have eaten so many delicious things, but in the end they even got tired of the leftovers. Claire has also had enough of cooking. Fortunately, Marc is happy to take over. He has a vacation now and enough time, so he waves her out of the kitchen when she is stalling. She was not even allowed to help. The cook has mixed feelings about it, because she is happy about it and at the same time not. She does not yet know what she wants with their relationship. She would rather not meet him for a while. At the same time, she really wants to be with him. She sighs.

“Let it happen and see what comes of it,” says Lisa when Claire walked restlessly around her studio. “Don’t avoid him. You are longing for a pair of arms around you.”

“I am a little afraid of it too,” she mumbles. “You know how it has ended with the others so far.”

“Yes, dramatic,” Lisa confirms. “Just like me. I’m almost glad it’s not happening to me now.”

They giggle together about their sad relationships.

Marc also goes shopping alone. Mimi is not allowed to come along either, because she has to rest her knee. Soon they will practice together in the hall of his dance company. He often practices there and is allowed to bring his dance partner. Noa is not happy about it, but he has seen how happy his sweetheart becomes at the idea that she can dance again. Moreover, he now knows that she loves him and not Marc. Although Noa thinks that his rival still has a special place in his heart for her. It is not without reason that he still calls her Zwaantje. The shoemaker has also seen how the spark jumped between Claire and Marc. That helps to not have so much trouble with them dancing together. He occasionally sees her doing exercises to strengthen the muscles of her knee.

In the winter cold, Jean Paul starts cutting away the blackberries. Since he said that he suspected that there was a cellar under the house, he couldn’t let it go. Soon Lana came to help him. She was wearing her new hat and a thick sweater. Lana tries to go on vacation, but she wasn’t doing so well. It made her restless. She was happy that she could do something with her big friend again. Together they cut away as much of the blackberries as possible. They could see from the curls on the stems that there were also grapes. They were going to train them against the wall in the spring. Eventually they saw a dark opening and doors.

“Ha,” Jean Paul exclaimed, “I knew it. Then there was a staircase under all that grass and young bushes.”

They decided to curb their curiosity and first clean the steps of beautiful large natural stones. At the bottom there was a bend in the staircase and then they came to the double doors, which looked surprisingly good.

“This is oak,” Jean Paul muttered approvingly as he rubbed the wood lovingly.

“Look,” Lana points, “there’s the key hanging on a nail.” She sits down comfortably on a step just above the bend and watches her big friend busy at the bottom of the stairs. She likes to see him so contentedly busy. He takes the key from the hook. The lock is a bit rusty, but it opens with a little creaking sound. Jean Paul knows his friend well and lets her go first. He knows that she is itching with curiosity. They take the last steps of the stairs and stand at the bottom in a dusty dark hallway. The two clear their throats and wave away the dust. Always prepared, Jean Paul gets out a flashlight. The beam of the light does not reach the back of the hallway. To the right and left they see walls built of old natural stones. Close by in the left wall they see an opening with a round top and an old oak door in it. This one looks good too. Jean Paul lets his girlfriend go first. He points the flashlight at the bolt. Lana carefully lifts it up and pulls. With gentle force the door creaks open. The hinges are solid, graceful and a little rusty. They see a large, almost square room with a beamed ceiling.

“Wow,” Lana exclaims. She crouched down and went through the door. “People used to be much smaller, you know.” She stood in the middle and turned around to get a good look at everything in the light of the flashlight.

At the back in the right corner is a beautiful stone fireplace with a pile of half-burned wood in it. Above it hang herbs that someone hung there to dry a long time ago. To the left and right of the fireplace are benches where the wood for the fireplace is stacked underneath.

Jean Paul explores the rest of the room with the beam of the flashlight.

“Do you see that mangle?” he asks. The beam of light shines in the left corner. They see a wooden bucket with a mangle on it, a set of wooden bins and a hand broom and dustpan.

Lana rushes over to turn the crank. “It’s still working!” she exclaims.

“What beautiful wooden bins those are,” says her friend, moving closer. “Those are made of oak too. No wonder they still look so nice.”

The beam of light shines on the text. “La Cerise” is written on some of them. Further along against the wall is a zinc tub with a washboard and brush with leather strap and a zinc bucket with a mop.

It all looks very good with hardly any rust. “It’s as if people have only just left here,” Lana says on her knees by the old stuff. She is impressed, Jean Paul sees, otherwise she is not so calm. “I think this must have been the laundry room,” she suggests.

“Then they had to climb the stairs to take away the waste water,” he surmises.

“Yes, that’s quite a haul. Close to the fireplace to make the water hot, though,” Lana defends.

“Maybe it is. We’ll never know for sure,” says Jean Paul.

“Here we can make a nice workshop,” she says softly. “It’s dry here, better than working in that too-small shed.”

Jean Paul grins. “I’ve always wanted a mancave,” he says.

“Can I work in your mancave too?”

“You always, my heart,” he murmurs as he hugs her.