At the junction station of Kestern, within the old buildings itself, among the cigar smoke of the waiting room, within an office there sits, a man and a dog. Both, are veterans... it is only right that we give them their proper recognition. Maybe, one day, there will be a statue of those two.
Henk Jan De Vries
Henk-Jan de Vries was born in 1892 in Jutland. Not much is relatively known about his early life, as he refuses to tell those who ask, but what we do know is that his mother passed of typhoid fever in the 1900ss, and his father became a drunkard. To prove that he was a man to his father, he enlisted [on his own will] to fight for the German Army during the Great War.
It is here where he changed from a naive innocent boy, striving to prove something to his father, to a man hardened and sickened by war, only wishing to leave.
Leaving, he came out a poor man. The losing side of the war had left him homeless, and with no money. Moving from Jutland he roamed, begging for food, and looking for work. It is here where in 1924, after 6 years on the move, he arrived in Streamlined. He had worked three years in odd-railroad jobs throughout Germany and Belgium, and had decided he could try out a chance at working on the railway. It is here where he initially worked as a serviceman in Voorlem, where he slept on the street (with a somewhat stable but low income).
During this time, the Netherlands was going through some somewhat stability, and it is here where Henk-Jan moved to Kestern. Giving up his job as a repairman, he moved to working as a baggage clerk in Kestern, before moving up to servicing the ticket booths. Here he gained a reputation as a friendly man, and one who would tend to every whims despite the limits of his job. It is said, that he once rode a train to Zand with an elderly couple, just to help them get to their ferry. Yet the best was to come.
The 1930s was a tough time through the entire Netherlands, and the Streamlined region was hit hard. However, Henk-Jan De Vries did not lose his job. The man who worked at the ticket station watched as his country shamed down upon those of racist ideologies, and those wanting to bring a regime change. He bought a house during these troubled times, and settled down in Kestern.
However, a empire loomed over, and war was approaching fast. When the Third Reich invaded in 1940, Hank-Jan de Vries had made up his mind. He would not live amongst a new regime. From the very beginning, he would work as a member of the dutch resistence. He worked amongst other resistence members like Floris "Klok" Getis-Vanderbegan, and people like Vanessa Pierche.
It would be in 1941, where Henk would meet a lifelong friend...
Shiiba The Dog
On the infamous Bloodshed Day Revolts, when the city of Voorlem rose up against the vile captors. Here is where Henk fought brutally, building by building against each one of the enemy soldiers with only a rifle and a breadstick. On the night of the second, as his 'squadron' was laying down for the night, a dog seemed to run up barking loudly. It was Henk who arose and attempted to calm the dog, but all it would result with, was more frantic barking. The dog seemed to run away, and Henk only followed it.
He followed this yapping dog all the way to the corner of a street, in which he glanced to the left and found multiple infantry-men of the enemy approaching. So it is, with the help of this dog, that the resistance managed to quickly ambush this attempt at a surprise-attack. The dog followed him all throughout his exploits. At the Battle of Florence Road, the dog was there amidst the chaos with Henk-Jan. When the german artillery and air assaults bombed the entire city, the dog was with Henk in the cellars of the tiny townhouses.
When the enemy assaulted the city from all cities, and when gun fighting turned to hand-to-hand combat, the dog followed Henk-Jan as he crawled through the sewers. When he arrived and splashed into the canal in a desperate bid to escape, the dog paddled alongside him. When Henk hid in a canal boat, crying for his fellow members the dog sat on his lap, soaked to the bone in water and reeking of sewage, but keeping him company. Henk-Jan, hiding in plain sight from the germans, adopted the dog.
In the small town of Westdijk, where he came across a bakery. Shiiba's French Bread. He had found a name for the trusty dog, and named it Shiiba. After the attempted revolution, Shiiba stayed to the side of Henk as he quietly resumed duties. It is true, that they were made for each other.
Conclusion
Nowadays, the two sit and or sleep quietly. Henk works as the station manager of Kestern, whereas Shiiba barks at the birds that fly all around and or the squirrels. It is almost a pilgrimage, to see the two minding their own business happily together. One might wonder, if there are any chances of prying the two apart.