SPOILERS!!!
Morgan and Lisa go to the gallery to see the mural. They are met there by three men, two works and the curator, Oliver. When they unfold the mural, all of them are shocked. First, there are large parts of the mural where there are abrasion marks, and the motives are also surprising. The artist painted the mill town, the black population, and the women from the tea party, which is an important part of history, but the shocking thing is that between the women there is a motorbike, which clashes with the painting.
Morgan is really confused because she has no idea how to start. Lisa gives her some money to buy herself a mobile, and she also orders a laptop. When she starts researching for videos on restoration, she realises that being an artist and a restorer are two very different things, and you can’t learn restoration online.
Morgan goes to see her probation officer, and in the conversation we learn that the reason why Morgan was in prison was because she was in the car drunk with her boyfriend, Trey. He was actually driving, and he ran over a young woman, who is now an invalid. Morgan blamed herself because she thought she would get a DUI and a fine, and Trey could jeopardise his chances to go to law school. Then when she was charged and realised she could go to jail, she tried to tell the truth, but nobody believed her, and Trey didn’t do anything to help her. When she talks to the probation officer, the woman says that what happened isn’t important for her. What she tells her is that she needs to stay clear of alcohol and the boyfriend, and she needs to go to AA meetings and is forced to wear a bracelet around her ankle which would detect if she is drinking.
Morgan goes to the gallery, and when she starts talking to Oliver, she confesses that she is no restorer and she has no idea why Jesse Williams chose her. Oliver understands her because he was one of the charity cases that Williams helped. He had left his girlfriend pregnant and Williams helped him finish school and even financed his girlfriend’s studies. Oliver offers to help Morgan because she did some restoration practice.
In 1939 Anna meets the postmaster, and then some of the important men in town. Her intention was to stay in town for a couple of days, but the men convince her to stay and work on the mural because otherwise, she won’t be able to get the feeling of town. She stays with a widow whose daughter recently got married and moved out, and she is offered an old warehouse where to work. There is an underlying opposition against her because many people, even the mayor, think that the assignment should have gone to a local artist who also entered the competition. I have a hunch that Anna is going to encounter many problems, and I wonder what happened to her after that and why she left the mural unfinished. Oliver has told Morgan that he hasn’t found anything about her, and I wonder why.
My Reading Journal 