A Country Divided : Through Blood United

The Beginning: Meeting Oliver

    I set my brother's art satchel on the desk and took out one of my best works.

I slid a painting of a scene of a copse of trees and a mountain watching over the small forest. Under one of the autumn trees sat my twin brother, and he was lazily dozing off, his headband at his nose. A single ray of light stretched down from the sky and through the trees to illuminate my brother's tan face.

    Oliver grabbed the painting and examined it, his icy blue eyes sweeping from one side of the canvas to the other. He then covered his mouth with one of his hands in surprise and awe. "Evangeline, this is amazing! How much do you want for this piece?"

    I shrugged. "I honestly don't care. I'll settle for how much it's worth."

    "Well," Oliver said as he scribbled down furiously on his checklist. "It's worth a lot."

    He smiled, stood up, and clasped his hands together. "We'll mail your earnings to you in a few days."

    I stood up and out of my chair to leave the room, but Oliver placed his hand on my shoulder and pushed me back into my chair. "Don't go yet."

    I raised an eyebrow in confusion, but my confusion quickly faded away once I gave Oliver a chance to explain what he was about to say.

    "There's a little tradition we do here in this museum," he began, trying to adopt a confident, non-awkward tone. "Whenever we buy someone's artwork, someone from the museum has to take them out to dinner at the restaurant of their choice, and that someone who's taking you out to dinner is me." He pointed his finger to his chest, right above the teardrop pendant on his necklace.

    I curled my lips and pouted, taking on a skeptic appeal. "I'm not sure if you're telling the truth."

    Oliver's face reddened even more and he shrugged awkwardly. "What do you mean?"

    I rolled my eyes and chuckled. "I mean, so you do this 'tradition' to everyone? Or am I just an exception?"

    He giggled with me, trying to seem like his lie was actually the truth. To be honest, Oliver needs some lessons on lying. "N-no..." he stammered. "It's a tradition that we celebrate how an artist has their, uh, drawings noticed."

    I smiled at Oliver and combed a strand of hair behind my ear with my hand. "Yeah, it's cool, Oliver. You can take me out to dinner."

***

    I happily ate the food that Oliver bought for me, and he smiled at how fast I was eating. Oliver placed his hand over his mouth to muffle his small giggles.

    "Is the food good?" he asked, barely managing to stifle a laugh.

    I rolled my eyes and rubbed my mouth with the sleeve of my brother's old cardigan. "Hey, cut me some slack, this is the first good food I have had in weeks. It's amazing."

    "Wait," Oliver said in surprise. "What do you mean by that? You're famous and inspiring here in Kansas. Why can't you get good food?"

    I inhaled slowly, gathering recent memories that I chose to stuff in the back of my mind. "Well, Oliver, ever since I ran away with a slave friend from my family's plantation in Missouri, I had a bit of financial trouble here in Kansas. I wasn't able to earn money since they don't want to hire a 'law-breaker' like me."

    "I managed to save up a bit of funds to buy myself a place to stay, but I haven't been able to buy sufficient food, so I resorted to hunting. While escaping the plantation with Jewel, we both learned how to hunt," I exhaled after reciting my recent memories.