The Wembly-Johnson Divide

a prologue

The fence that separated the house-land of the Wembly and Johnson families was duotone. It wasn't striped, checkered, or polka-dotted in any particular way. One side was brown; the other side was white. The birth of the bicolored fence was a hurricane that had swept through their unhappening suburban town a few years prior. The storm was largely unremarkable apart from the fact that it had torn down the previous fence dividing the households with its 74 miles per hour winds -- just high enough for the rainstorm to be classified as a hurricane. A new fence was promptly put up -- because the division of the Wembly and Johnson lawns was of the utmost importance -- and soon after the debate over the coloring of the fence erupted. The Wembly family wanted a deep mahogany brown, to match the sapphire bluestars Mr.Wembly spent much of the springtime tending. Conversely, the Johnson family wanted white, to finally complete the American dream they had spent the past four and a half generations striving for. There was no compromise: no return to the previous oak-shaded fence. And so, the Wembly family painted their side of the fence brown, and the Johnson family painted their side of the fence white. Neither party was completely satisfied, but neither party was willing to concede. Thus the fence dividing the two families remained two colors: a rich chocolate brown and a stark clean white.