Ib waved to the curator as she walked through the door of the museum. He waved back cheerfully.
"Back again, Miss Ib?" he asked. She nodded, holding up her sketchbook and drawing tools. The curator nodded and grinned. "Where is Mary? Not coming today?" Ib looked at her feet and shrugged slightly. He understood and allowed her on her way without any more questions asked. Ib walked along her usual path through the museum and waved happily to passersby with whom she was familiar seeing almost every time she came. Although she waved, she didn't truly see them or even pay attention; she rarely ever did. Something else was always on her mind. For a long time, ever since she was still quite small, Ib had always had something pestering her thoughts and invading her dreams. She would talk to her mom and dad about it, but they never seemed to know what she was talking about, only ever replying with, "You're probably just tired sweetie…". Then Ib would always turn to her sister, Mary, and ask her what her thoughts were about all this. Mary, who was usually cheery and talkative, would grow quiet. One time, however, Mary did reply.
"When did you start, you know, feeling this way?" she asked tentatively. Ib thought about it and, after a while, said that it was around the time they and their parents visited the art museum for Mary's birthday, when they were featuring the Guertena exhibit. After this Mary seemed to grow irritated and suggested Ib put those thoughts out of her mind. After that, Ib never spoke to her sister of their time at the museum again but instead decided to visit and see for herself what was clouding her mind. However, this accomplished nothing and for twelve years after their trip there, a dark mist still seemed to cloud over Ib's thoughts and even feelings from time to time. And though she never found any answers to the riddle of her mind, whenever she would visit the museum, she felt she was that much closer to the answer.
Through the years of visiting the exhibits of the art museum, Ib found a delight in the artwork she poured over, and once she was in college, decided to major in art. Being rather gifted with a talent drawing and painting, she was only a short few months away from achieving her degree and was quite excited about it. Her parents were also proud and suggested she travel to France to learn even more about art. The more and more Ib's parents suggested this, the more unsure Ib became and the more jealous Mary became. Mary, roughly around her sister's age, did not have the same drive for school and art, but rather spent her days and nights with her friends, dancing the nights away at grand balls, or throwing ridiculously frivolous tea parties. Their parents described Mary as a "free spirit" and indulged upon her reckless habits, just as they indulge upon Ib's more rational ones. Ib didn't mind, however, as she preferred keeping to herself and immersing herself in her school and artwork.
After greeting almost everyone she came across, Ib finally reached her office. It wasn't really an office, but rather a back room on the second floor in which Ib had found and pleaded with the staff to let her have. They obliged, and Ib fixed it up to her liking. Once the staff had seen how Ib cleaned it up and how she was with the patrons of the museum, they offered her an internship and she happily excepted. Now all the staff called the little back room 'Ib's Office' and even bought her a little name plate. As popular as she was, Ib still had a hard time convincing the art museum's owner to let her hang up one of her drawings on display. And whenever she would ask why, he would always say that her drawings seemed dark and confusing and that he didn't know what to make of it.
Ib would frown at this; wasn't that what art is supposed to be? Regardless, she shook herself from this thought. This next piece she was working on was going to convince him for sure!
Ib sat herself down and was just about to get settled when Mary burst through the door, a tendency she had that was Ib's least favorite of all.
"Ib? What are you doing here?" she asked, as though Ib had done something wrong. Ib looked down at her sketchbook, then looked back up at her sister.
"Drawing." she said bluntly. Mary looked down at Ib's work in what almost looked like disgust.
"Why are you doing that for?" she said teasingly and picked up Ib's sketchbook, holding sideways. "Ohhhhhh, who's this? A boy? Ib likes some boy!" Mary shouted, waving the picture side to side with the tips of her fingers. Ib frowned and reached for the drawing back. Mary yanked it quickly away and wagged a finger at Ib.
"Oh, no you don't! First you must tell me who this guy is!" she giggled. Ib turned away, not wanting to deal with her sister's attitude right now. Mary continued to inspect the drawing. "He looks weird. Why is his coat all tattered? And why does he have purple hai-?" Suddenly Mary stopped and dropped the drawing. The sketchbook hit the floor with a loud thud and Ib quickly snatched it back up. She looked back up and saw Mary staring at her, almost angrily.
"You know you shouldn't be drawing things like that…you could get in trouble." Mary said darkly.
"What?" Ib asked, confused. Mary shook her head.
"Anyway, Mom is looking for you, so you better get home. See you." she said as she turned on her heel and walked out of the room. Mary didn't seem to like spending a lot of time in the art museum, in fact Ib was surprised she showed up at all. Frustrated from having to leave after she had just arrived, Ib packed up a few of her things, leaving behind a few items, for she was sure it wouldn't be long before she was back. As she picked up her things, a piece of paper slid out from underneath Ib's pencil case. She picked it up and read it;
This February, in the spirit of Guertena's birthday, we are bringing back all of his most treasured works to be on display from February 1st through the 29th! Come and join us in celebrating the return of these priceless artifacts back to our museum for a limited time only! Hope to see you there!
Ib felt a huge grin spread across her face. The Guertena exhibit was coming back! It hadn't been here in twelve years! Ib could just feel herself shake with excitement, although not knowing completely why. She slipped the flyer in the pages of her sketchbook, a temporary bookmark to hold against her most recent drawing, and ran out the door to tell her parents the good news.