LERNERT ENGELBERTS Real Bad People - De Harmonie

ecause everyone apparently knew that he’d had to go into hiding somewhere.Everyone had plenty to say about his moustache though, so that disappeared prettyquickly.The sun had gone down and we were lying in our bedroom. The heat of the day layaround us like a punishment.‘Is Dad giving you anything for all that work you’re doing for him?’ I askedKevin, but he was so tired that he fell asleep halfway through his answer. I looked inthe headmaster’s mirror and could see my parents still sitting out in the garden. Everyso often I heard Dad’s hand squish a mosquito that had landed on him. They weretalking quietly, but I could understand what they were saying because they’d had thesame conversation so many times. Mum was offering to go and get a job again,because we didn’t have much money left. Just to be on the safe side, she said. Dadwent from whispering to a sort of restrained scream and he hissed that no wife of hiswas going to work, not while he was alive. Everything would be fine soon enough.She just had to be patient.‘Have faith in me,’ he said and Mum gave a deep sigh. ‘I’ve already got abuyer for the bricks. Fifty pence a piece from a contractor who’s working on amuseum. Those are exactly the kind of bricks he needs. This is going to be the bigone. That old barn is going to make us some money. They’ll have to let me demolishthe bloody thing if it’s about to collapse.’Mum took hold of his hand and said that she didn’t approve, but that shewould support him, which I thought was kind of the same thing. But what do I know?‘We have to make sure that Claire and Ralph are playing in front of it when thepeople from the council come next week. It’s a real danger, you know. The buildingcould actually collapse.’