The Safekeep

Content Warning: This section discusses anti-gay bias, racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, sexual assault, and genocide.

At her home in Zwolle, Isabel digs up a shard from a broken plate while tending to her garden. The shard is decorated with the same pattern as all the fine china in the home: three hares chasing each other in the center, with a ring of flowers circling the edge. The set had been her mother’s favorite while she was alive, and Isabel keeps it locked away safely in a cabinet, fearful that someone might steal it. 

She brings the shard with her on a visit to The Hague the next day and shows it to her brother Hendrik, who is dismissive of her concerns about theft, saying that the plate might have been buried long before their family arrived at the house. Isabel is taken aback by this but suddenly remembers that they moved into a fully finished home after leaving Amsterdam as children. Hendrik is preoccupied by the prospect of temporarily moving to France with his partner, Sebastian, to take care of Sebastian’s ailing mother and by the imminent dinner with their oldest brother,

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