A Country Divided : Through Blood United

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: Journey Back to the White House

The sun anxiously greeted me awake, its unusual soft rays barely peeking through the solemn clouds that hung overhead. I decided to wake up and get out of bed so the sun wouldn't bother me anymore, and I sat upward, my muscles aching from the journey Johnathan and I just took that lasted us around a week.

In my head, I went over the journey Johnathan and I took, and I replayed the recollections of the journey to Virginia and back to Washington D.C.

***

After the meeting at Appomattox, Virginia, Johnathan and I made our way back to my mother's house in Washington D.C. We didn't take the supply train in fear that the Union soldiers might mistake us for prisoners, and we walked the entire way back to Washington D.C. since we didn't bring our horses.

The trip surprisingly took about two days shorter than the trip to the small town of Appomattox, and Johnathan and I were way more tired once we reached my mother's house than when we both reached the Appomattox Court House.

Throughout the time that Johnathan and I spent at the courthouse, a small part of me missed my old friend at Washington D.C., Abraham Lincoln. We spent a lot of time together at my mother's house, and our relationship as friends quickly grew.

When Johnathan and I unexpectedly left my mother's house after reading the urgent letter that was sent by my other old friend, Joshua Chamberlain, Lincoln seemed a bit sad, but he was President. He knew that Johnathan and I had a duty to fulfill, and he knew that Johnathan and I would execute the duty well.

I'm a little nervous to see the President again, though. Even though I was separated from him for only a matter of weeks, I still worried if my old friend would even call myself his friend.

***

I flushed my anxious thoughts about the President out of my mind as I groggily rose out of the guest bed that Johnathan and I still shared, my mother's familiar scent of orchids enveloping my body.

I yawned and trudged over to the closet, where my classic purple cardigan that I stole from Evan sat in one of the drawers.

Even though it's been over a year since Evan was killed, I still looked to his old cardigan for comfort. On top of that, the purple cardigan was my signature look, so I was okay with wearing it.

Johnathan then finally exited out of his unconscious stupor and sat upward, his loud yawn somehow echoing throughout the small room.

I chuckled and turned toward Johnathan as he rubbed the warm blanket around him. "Good morning, Johnathan. Did you have a good sleep?"

He shook his head and fell back onto the fluffy pillow and pulled the warm blankets back over him. "Nope, not at all. I was tossing and turning all night, and I had barely any time to sleep."

Johnathan rubbed his arm anxiously, like the sentence he said last was either a lie or an excuse to cover up the truth. My mind suddenly was brought to the time when Johnathan lied about the reason he stole a few shiny rhinestones from Confederate General Robert Lee's sword, but my mind was quickly swept back to reality.

"Hmm," I placed my hand on my chin and raised a brow skeptically. "I don't think that you're telling the truth."

Johnathan's face flushed to the color of a ripe tomato. "What do you mean? I'm telling the complete truth."

I crossed my arms, my brow still raised, but I puckered my lips this time skeptically. "I clearly remember you sleeping like a baby last night. I also remember in the middle of the night you kind of woke up once, but only to hug me while you were half asleep. I won't count that as 'waking up'."