Page 53 of Love Hollow at Last
Noah shook his head.“She’s not m-mine dad, not in any way.She’s not even answering my texts right now.”
“Your Aya,” he said, that time with a slight smile, “she really did the best she could.The museum got all kinds of grants.There were lots of fundraisers.Everyone who had ever visited was asked to contribute.But without visitors and without community support?It’s been an uphill battle.”
“So what’s going to happen?”
His father shrugged.“Housing costs are going up,” he said carefully.“And the land it’s on is very valuable.So it’ll likely be sold to pay off debts.”
“But the main building itself could stay open, right?”
His father gave a sad smile.“Noah, you have a fancy house.Do you really think you would want to share it with a museum?One that reminds everyone that this is just a place, one with a dark past, not some sort of Western paradise?”
Noah felt another jolt of guilt at his father’s words.“My house isn’t that fancy,” he said.“Not for the neighborhood.Not for LA, really.It’s just that I needed something private?—”
His father waved a hand.“It’s okay, Noah,” he said.“You give what you can.”
Noah squirmed.He hadn’t been giving, not really.He went to fancy charity galas, sure, the ones with the best canapés and the highest chance of being photographed with beautiful women.What a waste all that had been, he reflected.He should have just written checks instead.And he should never have forgotten Love Hollow.In the days when he’d had more cash, he could have made sizable contributions, maybe even kept the museum from floundering.Now, when they most needed his help, he couldn’t open his wallet.
45
Aya
Of course Noah Kato thought he could just show up at the museum, expecting a tour.Aya pulled her hair back, walking briskly to the door to let him in.
“My dad told me what happened,” he said without preamble.“I w-wanted to come and see the museum.And there was something I wanted to ask you about too.I feel b-bad for missing the Pilgrimage this year.”
“If you wanted to come, you shouldn’t have scheduled a festival that’s going to take place at the exact same time.”
He nodded vigorously.“I know.I’m terrible at scheduling.Justin was just telling me that.”
She frowned.“Nobu’s fiancé?Is he here?”
“Yes,” he said then he started speaking quickly.“And he told me I should take you to their engagement party tomorrow afternoon.I mean, if you want to come.As my date.You don’t have to.But Justin asked, so I mean, I guess I need to tell him?”
A little bubble of happiness welling up inside Aya.She tried to stop it, of course, telling herself she wasn’t even really being invited by Noah.She was being asked by Justin.And probably just because he felt sorry for Noah.But Aya had always liked Nobu, and she missed the Kato family.
“Of course,” she said.“Tell them I’ll be there.”
She looked around the museum.Beyond the entrance, one large gallery was open to the public.The archives were in a separate room, and there was a reading room too.
Her back became straighter.In spite of the lack of finances, she was proud of her work at the museum.And Noah deserved to see just what he had neglected when he let stardom go to his head.
“We can start with the gallery,” Aya said.“We have one of our best exhibitions out.We were really lucky to get this in time for the Pilgrimage.”
The exhibit was fantastic.Noah said he had expected the museum to have just one set of material on display all the time.
Aya shook her head.“It’s dynamic,” she explained.“As the director, I really wanted to focus on collaborating with other institutions.So we loaned a bunch of things to the Civil Rights Museum for one of their displays, and they gave us these artifacts.We shared a lot of designs beforehand, of course, so we could make it fit together.”
As Noah walked around, examining the exhibit, he whistled.“This is amazing.I’ve n-never seen something like this before.”
Aya didn’t explain the background of the exhibit, though she wondered if he might be able to guess.Thanks to Carl, the town’s resident antimuseum crusader, there had been a lot of accusations that they were “playing up” a rare, ugly facet of American life during the Second World War.Apparently, everything else was fine and dandy, and any individual who didn’t land in an internment camp was either fighting Hitler in Europe or living a full, happy life.Aya had designed and gotten funding for an exhibit showing what life was life in Memphis and Love Hollow during one particular year, 1943.Alongside pictures of Japanese American families with suitcases and strained expressions, there were Whites Only signs on lunch counters and news articles about lynchings.Young men of every color were dying in Europe then coming home to a violent, segregated society.
Of course, Carl would never get near the exhibit.He was a person who would probably say that the centuries-long suffering of any group of people was not a big deal.
Aya tried to forget about Carl for a moment.“I’m glad you like it,” she said, sighing.“It might be our last exhibit for a while.Or maybe ever.”
One donation from Noah could change the entire course of the museum.All they really needed was a small one.Okay, maybe two hundred thousand dollars, enough to fund part of the renovations and pay one staff member.
And Aya wasn’t willing to admit that the donation controlled something else too.It controlled her life.If the museum were funded, she would be able to leave, carrying only her guilt with her.She could go finish her PhD without worrying that the place would crumble, even if she would still feel bad for not finishing everything she’d meant to do.At the moment, as hard as she was working, she wasn’t going to have much of a choice.She couldn’t just let the museum sit unattended for a year, not allowing visitors.It would mean the death of the only institution in Love Hollow interested in preserving the town’s history.
