A broken marriage.
A new job.
She works as a Personal Assistant on the ForNoah Youtube channel.
Noah is on the autistic spectrum and she fixes things for him.
He's a shipwright and creates beautiful works of art.
She's a woman starting over who meet...
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The lights flash. "Please, no flashing lights," Zoey says to the reporter. The flashing stops and the presentation continues. Noah and Sharlotte are seated stage right of Zoey. With Sabali on the left of Zoey on the stage. I move to the back of the room, and Theo walks behind me. He's a hundred percent serious about this conversation we need to have after my work. I am committed to trying to keep things as civil as possible, so I ignore him. I lean against the back wall.
Sabali and Zoey are currently second places in the singing contest. Both young women are lending their support to Noah's upcoming Crocker art museum exhibition. The event has made the small press swell overflowing the press room.
The video presentation plays on the screen. My edited video seems to be playing well in the room of stone face reporters. Sabali and Maurice's mother was a music teacher who taught disabled students. She died of breast cancer but her music learning center for disabled students' lives on. Every year the YouTube channel #ForNoah helps with a donation drive to keep the music learning center doors open to those in need. The scholarships to the learning center help disabled students with things like Autism that don't always qualify as getting disability funding for help. Help and early intervention people with autism desperately need. In recent years more arts have been added to the music center, drawing more people in. Thanks to the money from former students like Noah and the profits from the YouTube channel. The video I didn't shoot, but I wish I did is on the screen. Kids running up to Noah and using him as a big jungle gym, singing the song with the rest of the class. The kids laugh and giggle, a few too shy to play, and some in wheelchairs attack play with Noah as a T-Rex. The unexpected happens as the jaded veteran reporters melted by the end of the video.
The room of reporters claps as Sharlotte takes the stage. Sharlotte in a cardigan and glass in full got my shit together in art mode. She invites the reporters to the upcoming show in the new year. She is welcoming and gracious. If there was ever a masterclass on how to work the press, this woman would give over priced master classes. Sabali and Zoey are ushered away by the singing contest host for more interviews. The gaggle of reality TV cameras people put together a sizzle reel for the singing program. The two look unamused at the interruption but follow the reality tv host.
Noah's eyes track his sister and her friend. His big body shifts in the chair. Sharlotte puts a welcoming hand out to him. The cameras click and flash. Noah flinches away from the camera flashes. His sandy hair comes forward, hiding his eyes. His hands move in a pattern. Thumb to forefinger, thumb to the third finger, thumb to pinky, and back again to the start. What's wrong, Noah?
I push off against the back wall and around the side of the pressroom. Theo touches my arm. He points at the door. I look back at Noah, but in the crowded press event, he doesn't see me. I'll let him get this press crap over with and I'll talk to him about it later. I follow Theo out of the back door. Alone in the front hall of the museum. The conversation he seems to badly want to have isn't one I get to instantly have at his leisure while I'm still at work.
