Fixing Noah / Finding Noah - #ForNoah | +18 | BWWM

04 | Welcome back to the Crocker Art Museum

Sharlotte Gold was stunning in her midnight evening gown. Noah's art agent was a white woman in her almost forties. She had that classy ice beauty of a woman who would always perpetually appear younger than she was. Sharlotte was that type of New York and San Francisco socialite vibe. She knew the right people in the right places and use her knife-edge confidence for her clients. That kind of long-fought I know who I am women sometimes get when they are older. My mother has that presence about herself, but mostly because it was required as a black woman in America. You got to know who you are and know where you want to be, otherwise, they will force you to believe the false story. Believing the false story is a slow death for black women. And everyone knows the women, both white and black, who believe it. They've got that dead look behind their eyes, and Sharlotte's eyes were sharp.

"Run it again please Tari," she smiles back at me as she moves through the crowd of VIPs.

"Cocktail hour. Guests arrive to walk on the red carpet, the tech VIP not near the Hollywood producers." Because the Hollywood producers would try to get money for projects. A major tech CEO has the starting bid on Noah's main piece of artwork. "The final exhibition tour and then bidding. 80% of the art has been pre-sold with another 10% part of the bidding." Sharlotte nods, along with my words and shotgun list of things she has to know. She's slowed down by smooshing a musician and his date and she talks about the upcoming work. Most of the money raised is going directly into one full month of free museum visits. Another portion of the money raised goes to art and music in public schools. A large effort to rehire the arts and music teachers again. Finally, a small portion goes to Lora's art center Children. It's the charity set up by his decease music teacher who is also his best friend's mother.

My eyes flick to a moving tie. I turn my head away from the two people speaking to follow the thing in the corner of my eyes. Like a ghost moving at the edge of my mind's eye with sandy blonde hair. I raced through the pack of people following that feeling. It was like the packed room were waves and the more I shifted and moved through them the deeper the sea got. Until that thing, I saw I couldn't even guess the direction. I'm not sure why, but I felt even more lost. As if in that second I was the poorer for its absents.

***

Later that night...

"When do you think you will have your replacement trained?" Zoey asks me nonchalantly. It wasn't nonchalant at all. The question was loaded. I was well aware that Zoey didn't want this to be my last job with her and her family. Her dyed black hair fell over her evening dress down. In one of those styles where you think she never once cut her hair her whole life. The darkness of it is in contrast to her fair skin. Even in her fancy evening dress, Noah's younger sister has this Rock and Roll star vibes. When I first met her last year, she was nineteen. It was before she won the singing contest that launched her music career. Her best friend, Sabali, also did music and worked as a teacher of music. Because of that and her new career, Zoey and Sabali needed a talent agent. Even though it had been years, Sharlotte started her career in music. Then she quit as a successful music agent due to a conflict with one of her talents. She is currently their stand-in for a music agent. They needed someone they could trust.

It doesn't change the fact that I'm mentally stalling and haven't answered her.

"Two to three weeks after you have hired them, I can have them trained." I smile at her. The mirror in the little dressing room of the museum was a reprieve from the event. It was originally set up for Noah. He has intense responses when there are too many people talking to him at once. Just in case he came, we set up the room, anyway. When he gets upset, he touches his fingertips to his thumbs and counts them. It has a rhythm to the way his hands move until he shuts down and shuts everyone out. This room was to help him decompress from tonight. Normally he doesn't do shows of any sort, he just sells his stuff, but this was a way to raise more money. The event turns into even more than that. If it happens again next to her, it may turn into an event to rival the Met Gala in New York.