Page 3 of Call and Response

Whew.

Despite how proud I’d been to plaster the graphics with “Harmonies in the Heights, curated by Audra Charles” big and bold, his mention of it now made my armpits feel hot.

“Sorry.” I grinned and he shrugged.

“No need, it happens. Besides, it’s nice to have something like this at the park. Kinda wish somebody local had dreamed it up first, but it’s cool.”

My eyes went wide. “Wow… okay. Thanks for your… permission, I guess? I hope it doesn’t disappoint.”

“I doubt that’s a possibility with somebody like you involved, but I’m surprised you’rehereright now. Doesn’t everything kick off in like… a couple hours?”

“My team is on it,” I countered, confused by what I was picking up as… shade?

Why?

“Hey,” I added, after a sudden thought occurred. “If I’d known you were in the Heights, I would’ve invited you to perform. I thought you and Josiah were both still in Cali?”

His free hand went to his head, restless, brushing over his fade. “Uh… yeah, I moved back a bit ago. And I’m not on that anymore anyway, so…”

I frowned. “What are you not on anymore?”

“Music.”

That answer made my head rear back in surprise. “What? I mean, I know the group isn’t a thing anymore, but you had solo music, I thought? And, wait, you were just featured onthesong of the summer last year, with Ky,” I remembered. “What do you mean you’renot on musicanymore?”

“I mean exactly that.” He shrugged. “But… I’m not really trying to get into this conversation, so—”

“Yeah no, I get it. I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s just… you’resotalented.” I shook my head. “Like…sotalented. Voice of a generation talented, so I just… I don’t understand?”

The sadness in his eyes when he nodded almost brought tears to mine, but again, he shuttered it. “I appreciate you saying that, but… I’m supposed to be keeping the coffee pot moving, so…”

“That’s definitely cold by now,” I told him, and he looked at it, a little surprised, before he nodded again.

“Yeah, I guess it probably is. I should take care of that.”

He couldn’t get away from me fast enough.

And instead of minding my business like I knew I should, since, like he’d said, in just a few hours a first-of-its-kind neighborhood concert with my name attached was kicking off.

But likeIsaid…

I didn’t understand.

My carousel started up, decorated this time with what little I knew about Noble Taylor.

I knew Josiah pretty well, but I’d never kicked it with both of them and I knew little about why they’d disbanded the group, right on the cusp of genuine success. They were independent artists and doing well with the preponderance of social media on their side. If they’d lasted just another couple of years, the latest app, which had a background music feature baked into the functionality, would’ve exponentially blown up their success.

Josiah was capitalizing on it now, so booked and busy that he’d had to turn my invite for tonight’s performance down.

But… the same hadn’t been the case for Noble.

Even though he was inarguably the more talented of the two.

And finer, to be perfectly honest.

And his voice?

Whew.

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