| |
Tonya
Only a little annoyed that Emma had claimed the front and wasn’t offering it up, Tonya slid into the backseat.
“Church skipper,” Vicky muttered.
“I know, I know. Thanks for picking me up. My feet are killing me. These five-dollar shoes are not meant for walking.”
Vicky eyed her in the rearview. “How is she?”
“Not good.”
“I wouldn’t think so.”
“What?” Emma turned to look at her mother. “What’s wrong with Fiona?”
Tonya didn’t answer her. She didn’t want to speak negatively about church or anyone in the church to her daughter. And Emma wouldn’t understand how devastating the morning’s events could be for someone like Fiona.
But Tonya did want the scoop herself. She chose her words carefully. “Did Pastor say anything about the new team?”
Vicky shook her head. “Not a peep.”
“I know who they are,” Emma said and then rattled off their names. “Jasmine and Vanessa go to Bucksport. The son is older, graduated already. Weren’t they great?”
Tonya had no idea. She’d only heard half of one instrumental.
“They were something,” Vicky said.
“You didn’t like them?” Emma was disappointed.
“They were loud.”
Tonya snickered.
“Poor Vera had to rip out her hearing aids,” Vicky said. “I’ve never seen her hands move that fast.”
“They played so many of my favorite songs,” Emma said, unconcerned with Vera’s hearing aids. “Hillsong and King and Country and ... I can’t remember what else, but I was happy when they played it.”
“Good, honey.” Tonya sighed and relaxed back into the seat. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’m sure the younger people at church are going to like it better than the traditional hymns.”
“Does that mean they’re going to lead worship every Sunday?”
“I would assume so, yes.”
When they got home, Vicky grabbed Tonya’s arm before she could follow Emma inside. “Are you going to do something?”
Tonya stopped and thought. “I’m not sure what I can do. They’re probably here to stay. But I think we just lost Fiona. For good. And that makes me so mad. Maybe we need an infusion of young blood, but that could have been handled in a million better ways.”
Vicky chewed on her lip. “Call the others. I’ll distract Emma.”
“Call them and say what?”
“Rally the troops. We can’t let Fiona go.”
“I think she’s already gone.”
“Rally them anyway.” She turned on her heel and left Tonya standing alone in the mud.
Tonya followed her inside and cleaned off a wicker chair on the sun porch. Then she fished her phone out of her purse and called Dawn.
She answered after one ring. “Hello!”
“Hey, Dawn. How are you?”
“Can’t complain, can’t complain. What happened to you this morning? Thought I saw you, and then you disappeared.”
“Yeah, I went to check on Fiona. She’s pretty upset, obviously.”
“Well, she had to see this coming.”
“What does that mean?”
“You know! Our church is growing by leaps and bounds. We’ve got to get with the times. Those young people don’t want to hear the old hymns. They can’t relate. Organ music puts people to sleep, even when it’s played by a professional.”
This wasn’t helping. In fact, if everyone felt this way, Tonya was going to have to suck it up and accept this for what it was: another broken heart in the name of music ministry. “Okay, well, thanks for that insight. I appreciate your thoughts. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Wait ... why did you call?”
Ugh. Tonya didn’t want to say. She opened her mouth to lie, tell Dawn she couldn’t remember, but she thought she’d better not. “I was just curious what you thought of the new musical direction.”
“Ah,” she said in an obnoxious tone. “Trying to stir the pot, are we?”
“No. I’m most definitely not trying to stir any pot. You have a good day now.” She hung up, wishing she’d lied.
Vicky stuck her head into the porch. “Who was that?”
“Dawn.”
Vicky rolled her eyes. “Call Barbara. She was furious.” She ducked back into the kitchen.
Tonya looked down at her phone. Did she want to call Barbara? Just because Vicky told her to do something didn’t mean she had to do it. She snickered. That was usually what that meant, but it didn’t have to be.
She wasn’t trying to stir the pot, was she? She had never been a church troublemaker, and she certainly didn’t want to be one now, not when things were going so well, not when God was using New Beginnings so mightily. Then she remembered Fiona’s face. She had to do something. Fiona was one of their original people, and it wasn’t fair that she’d been treated the way she’d been treated. Especially since she had been sprinkling in the occasional contemporary song. Tonya didn’t know who’d been picking the music, Fiona, Rachel, or both—oh no, was Rachel heartbroken too? Probably not. Rachel was one tough cookie. But still, she should definitely call Rachel. But first, Barbara.
Barbara also answered after the first ring, and immediately Tonya could hear the fury in her voice. Oh boy.
“I was worried about Fiona,” Tonya said, wishing she’d given more thought to her intro before she’d dialed. “And I was wondering what you thought of the music situation—”
“What I think? What do you think I think? What do you think? This morning was a disgrace! I wouldn’t have been surprised if God had struck us down right there! I already tried to talk to Pastor, but he didn’t want to hear it. I just tried to call Esther, but she never answers her phone. We can’t allow this, Tonya! You know that! That music was satanic! I can’t believe we let it into our walls! We’re going to have to pray those demons back out—”
“Wait.” Tonya didn’t know how to counter this insanity, but she wanted it to stop. “I don’t think the music was satanic—”
“You know what cannibals do to get themselves wound up before they kill their food?”
Tonya rolled her eyes. She was pretty sure they didn’t sing Hillsong hits.
“They pound on drums and dance around! Thank God Pastor got rid of those ridiculous flags before Dawn got them out with those drums today!” She sucked in some air, and Tonya took the opportunity.
“Okay,” she said quickly, “thank you for your input. I will try to talk to Pastor. Have a good day.”
Barbara started talking again, but Tonya pretended she didn’t hear and hung up the phone.
That woman was nuts. Rally the troops? If they rallied that particular troop, she would lose the battle for them. They had to keep Barbara far, far away from the battlefield.
Vicky stuck her head in again. “Well?”
“Well, what? What is Emma doing?”
“We’re making cookies.” She stared at her expectantly.
“Barbara is nuts.”
Vicky laughed. “I know. That’s why I love her. Try Esther.”
Tonya dialed Esther’s number, but she didn’t answer. She was probably having some romantic lunch with Walter.
Tonya tried Vera. She didn’t answer the phone either.
She tried Esther again, and this time, she picked up.
Even over the phone, Tonya was soothed by Esther’s calming presence.
“Is Fiona all right?”
“No, she’s really not.”
“I’m so sorry. I am just sick about it. What can we do?”
“I don’t know. I would like to talk to Pastor about it. Might be more powerful if a few of us went together? Maybe you, me, and Vicky?” Not Barbara.
“Talk to Pastor?” Esther said slowly, and Tonya’s heart sank. Esther didn’t want to talk to Pastor.
“Yes, try to get Fiona her job back. At least part-time? She says she’s never coming back to church, Esther. We can’t sit back and let that happen.”
Esther was quiet for a minute, and Tonya let her think. “You know what? I’ll bake her a pie and take it over tomorrow.”
Tonya took a deep breath. “First, I love your heart, Esther. I too have tried to treat many a church crisis with pie. But I don’t think it’s going to do much good here.”
“Pie always helps.”
Tonya chose to ignore this. “And second, I don’t think Fiona will even answer the door.”
