Nancy, when asked what she would like to have, had requested the aquamarine ring upon death. And death had come, and Nancy no longer wished to collect the ring. “You look like Gouda,” her Dutch brother-in-law had joked when she walked through the door wearing a red sweater, white blouse and red skirt, during her last visit to her mother-in-law. Maybe he would have made a better husband than his brother. Thoughts like that ran through her mind these days, because her marriage was standing up like a drunken man trying to pee behind a pole and not be seen. Dressed in grey Nancy had watched the train pull out of the station without her, she knew she would still be on time with the next train. Nancy had learned to be punctual in the Netherlands. If she arrived late people would pull out their agendas, tisk away and suggest meeting some other time. It was strange to Nancy, standing face to face with a person, to schedule a meeting because the occasion they were experiencing at that moment technically did not exist in their agendas. Any discussion became muted, and most often forgotten at the following appointment. Nancy didn’t want to see the ring, drink the coffee and pretend she was staying longer than she had to for appearance’s sake even if it was on the agenda and she was supposed to talk about maintaining family cohesion.
A SAMPLE OF GOUDA
In celebration of the release of our second book, A Sample of Gouda, we have created this Angloinfo exclusive 5-part series of shorts. Each installment in this series features one or more characters found in the book. Nancy from the above short (part 4 in this book launch series), is a central character in the story ‘Magic Potion’ [A Sample of Gouda - chapter 15, page 36].
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Related information…
SOUTH HOLLAND BOOKS & BOOKSHOPS
ROTTERDAM TO GOUDA: RETURN TO BASE
AMSTERDAM TO GOUDA: LET YOU AND YOUR DHARMA GROW
HUNGARY TO GOUDA: ONE PART SAUSAGE
