Silver Currents of Change

Chapter 12

Zarah took Mr. Wilson the back way to the makeshift Green Room—a small costume closet and dressing room behind the auditorium stage. She and Marcus set it up to be a place where speakers could relax before presenting. She explained to her famous guest they were taking the long way to get there because the only other route would require them to walk through the auditorium where people were waiting to hear him in about ten minutes.

"A Green Room," he said. "Nice touch."

"Thanks." She looked up at him and smiled. What he said made her glad she'd fought to get the room. They reached their destination and she opened the door.

"I've never known them to have a Green Room, and I've been coming to Communications Day for at least two years."

"You wouldn't believe how hard I had to fight to get this." Walking through the door, she looked at him as they headed inside. "But I won."

He laughed. "I'm glad you did. It's a very classy touch."

"We're using a talk-show format for the afternoon sessions, so I thought our guests should have a place to be, to relax. Maybe talk to each other. We have cameras and monitors, so you can see everything that's going on out on stage, and my staff can see backstage. It's right next to the stage, and it only takes seconds to get there. That makes it perfect."

"Just like late night."

"Yes, like late-night talk shows. All my professors and the dean asked me to host the talk show, so they finally listened when I kept asking for a Green Room. If you look around, you'll see. This room? It's a costume closet for live theater, but it's in the right location, and it works perfectly as a Green Room." She watched as he looked around and saw, in a corner, several iron bars against two walls holding costumes of all kinds.

"I think you're right," he said, "and as one of your guests, I'd like to thank you for insisting. This is a great place to relax."

She noticed him taking in everything and hoped he could see that people worked very hard to put the day's events together. Now that they'd met and he knew she'd organized everything, she hoped he wasn't surprised to see things running smoothly. Several members of the event committee started to trickle out of the auditorium and into the Green Room. She showed Mr. Wilson to the sitting area and got him a bottle of cold water before her team gathered around her to make sure they were carrying out their duties to her satisfaction. Her nerves kicked in when, glancing from her team to Harvey Wilson, she felt him listening as she thanked the group for helping to get the morning off to a great start. After she talked with each team member—reiterating details about things she needed them to do, she introduced them to their guest, then told him who would be escorting him to the stage when it was time for his speech. Before leaving, she told him she would find him after the morning conference session and would escort him upstairs, to the luncheon being held in the JCU Faculty Club.

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Feeling completely blown away, Harvey Wilson was incredibly impressed with the work and the professionalism of Dr. Josie Brion-Davis's little sister. She was managing a million things for Communications Day events, handling it all like she was born to manage. She wasn't afraid to lead and she was a great writer and editor. Yesterday he learned she was an eloquent and powerful speaker, and now he'd seen her being terrific at managing people and tasks. The Green Room was just icing on the cake. Once she left the room, he called Laura with an update.

Twenty-seven minutes later, his keynote speech ended in a standing ovation from a standing-room only crowd. He noticed Zarah when she arrived backstage, but she stayed back as people gathered around him. Cameras were flashing, several reporters were asking questions, and hordes of students and faculty were asking him for autographs. Probably wondering if he was feeling like a big rock star, because that's how he was being treated, she got close enough to tell him he'd be seated next to her at lunch upstairs, in one hour, in the Faculty Club. He nodded okay while responding to another reporter's question. There was a social media seminar being held in one of the conference rooms downstairs, and after attending it, he was eagerly looking forward to his after-lunch chat with the young and brilliant Miss Brion. After the seminar, he texted Laura to tell her what he'd decided. He was "pretty sure," he wrote, "we've found our 'beautiful miracle.'"