Feta and Freeways

by Baganz, Susan M. ;

  “Don’t start what you can’t finish? Yeah. Later, dude. Delayed gratification is good for the soul.”

  Niko groaned, downed his coffee, and grabbed his bag and guitar. They headed out the door, loaded up their stuff in the bus, and made their ride on time. Roger insisted on tagging along.

  Arriving at the church, one would never realize a concert had been there the night before. The stage was set for the worship band. As the team finished their rehearsal, Niko applauded them. “You guys rock. Awesome.” He opened his guitar and tuned it, plugged in and strummed a little, and set it off to the side, out of the way of the band’s equipment.

  They checked their lapel mics and met with the worship team for prayer. Tia and Niko continued on to visit a small prayer room.

  “Come, sweetheart. Just you and me.” Niko led her in and shut the door. They sat on the comfortable chairs in the cozy, inviting space. “Lord, please guide Tia and me to share only what will bless and help others. Keep our focus on You and not ourselves. You are the One who brought us together. You are the One who heals and provides. You are love and without You we couldn’t even begin to love each other the way You do. Thank You for the sacrificial love of this woman You gifted me with.”

  Tia chimed in. “Lord, calm my heart. Speak through us all to bring glory to Your name. And whatever happens, Lord, let me relax into the truth of Your sovereign plan and none of this is without purpose, even if my human eyes cannot see now. Open the hearts of those who come, that they may seek You, humble themselves, and let You restore their marriages.”

  Together they sat in silence, holding each other. Niko’s phone chimed.

  “It’s time, sweetheart. Let’s go worship.”

  Tia smiled at him and clasped his hand as they navigated the crowds and found seats in the sanctuary.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Success isn’t how far you’ve come,

  but the distance you traveled from where you started.

  Greek proverb

  The last song ended, and Pastor Jameston walked up and motioned for Niko and Tia to come. A volunteer placed stools on the stage, and Niko helped Tia settle on hers. She was seated in-between him and the pastor.

  “Good morning, Community Church. I’m pleased to introduce new friends, Nikolos and Tia Acton from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. If you were here either of the past two nights, you witnessed firsthand the blessing of the ministry Specific Gravity provides through the words and music they perform. We are grateful Tia and Niko gave up hours of sleep to be here to share with you part of the journey they’ve been on this past year.”

  “Welcome, Niko and Tia.” The pastor waved a hand to them, and the audience erupted in applause.

  When the crowd died down, Niko chimed in. “Thank you for your invitation to be here today. This is a unique situation for us, but we hope and pray God will use it for His glory.”

  “Why don’t you start by telling us how you met?” Pastor Jameston began.

  Tia smiled. “I met Nikolos and the band years ago. While they’d recorded with Jazzy Records, they were under management with The Gandtique Management Company at the time, where I worked as an intern. The company offices were out in New Jersey where I had been living, and they asked me to relocate to Milwaukee to oversee the band. Peter Moore introduced us, and while he pulled the main strings for what would happen with their career, I was in charge of handling the nuts and bolts.”

  Niko chimed in. “I remember. Tia came in and whipped us all into shape, giving us a firm direction, and prepared us for our first tour.”

  Pastor Jameston piped in. “You didn’t mind it was a woman?”

  Niko laughed. “No. We were young men a little too full of ourselves to notice much. Who didn’t mind a woman waiting on us, hand and foot, and making sure we got where we needed to go? She made things happen, listened to our latest love crisis, and encouraged us.”

  Pastor laughed. “Tia, what was that experience like?”

  “It was difficult. I left my home and a few friends behind. I was often on the road with the band, and it made it hard to make new friends in Milwaukee. The guys became my family, and I loved them like brothers. Well, except for Niko. He was always special to me. But I had a job to do and wasn’t supposed to get involved with the guys.”

  “Fast forward to last spring. Can you tell me what happened?”

  Niko glanced to Tia, who shook her head.

  Niko reached to hold her hand. “We played a festival in the Midwest, about two days’ drive from home. The night before, I met a woman who flirted with me, which was not unusual. We had a double date policy, but we hadn’t even gone out that night. I signed a t-shirt and compact disc and chatted with this woman, as she hung around long after the rest of the fans left. I finally got her to leave when her boyfriend showed up. We left for our next gig. The next night was our last festival concert of the tour before we returned to Wisconsin. We performed a great midday show, and as we finished up the set, I noticed the emergency lights. Afterwards, I discovered the boyfriend to the girl from the night before had come intending to shoot me, believing I had, well, relations with his girlfriend. I hadn’t and never have done anything like that.

  “He tried to get to me from backstage, but Tia stopped him. He attempted to strangle her. She fought him, but he ended up…” Niko was choked up now. “He cut her, strangled her, and battered her before the police arrived. He shot her during the police’s efforts to rescue her. All while we sang on stage about God, oblivious to the terror she experienced.”

  Pastor nodded. “What a horrible experience, Tia. No wonder you don’t like to discuss it.”

  Tia spoke up. “I couldn’t let anyone hurt Nikolos, the band, or the fans. The man had a weapon, and I knew I had to stop him. I wasn’t afraid until he attacked me, and it was too late for fear. I prayed to die. I don’t remember much of the actual event but do have nightmares I can’t recall and more recently, flashbacks or panic attacks that come at the most inconvenient times.”

  “Post-traumatic stress disorder?” Pastor offered.

  Tia nodded.

  “What happened next? Prior to this, you had been manager and he was the band leader. Everything changed?”

  Niko smiled. “Yeah, apparently the entire band knew Tia adored me, while I’d been blind. Seeing her near death shook me to the core. I couldn’t stand the idea of losing her. It was Tia who helped me write lyrics. Tia encouraged me. She had always been there. She was the rock behind the band, and I’d taken her for granted. It took almost losing her to realize the woman I’d been looking for all along had been right in front of me.”

  “You married soon after. Can you tell us about what happened next?” Pastor inquired.

  “We only had a short time before we headed out on tour. We made some choices our record label didn’t like, and one was to keep Tia as our manager. The band encouraged me to marry her. I sought wise counsel and proposed. Keep in mind that even though we had known each other for years, we had never been out on a date and our first kiss was only two days before I popped the question.”

  The pastor turned to Tia. “You said yes. Why?”

  “I’d loved Niko for years. He was my unattainable dream. After the attack, it seemed even more unlikely a man of his integrity would want me. I bear terrible scars. And emotionally, I was a mess.”

  Niko dove in. “I didn’t care. I wanted her anyway.”

  Tia smiled. “I didn’t want to marry Niko simply because I’d always loved him and it was my heart’s desire. I prayed and asked God how I should respond to Niko when He proposed, and God told me to say yes. I asked again and got the same answer. So I accepted his proposal, not so much because my heart longed to, and in spite of a million reasons not to. I said yes because the Holy Spirit affirmed that.”

  “I had also been praying,” Niko added, “and knew it was right to marry her. We had been acquainted with each other for years. We were friends. We complemented each other. Now there was pa
ssion as well, once the blinders fell off my eyes. I needed to marry her if we were going to be on tour together. It would be too hard to be close to her, given my attraction for her. Especially if I wanted to stay pure and honor God in the way I treated her.”

  “The man who attacked you…?” Pastor asked.

  “He was arrested and is in jail. There was an eyewitness, and the man confessed. His girlfriend admitted to lying to him,” Tia answered.

  “Have you forgiven him?”

  Tia nodded. “I didn’t want to but knew I had to if I were to move past the event. It haunts me, but I see him as sick and lost without Jesus.”

  Niko nodded as well. “Initially, I was furious. I wanted to pummel him. Over time, God has shown me I needed to forgive and leave the justice in His hands.”

  “You are now expecting?” The pastor asked.

  Tia grew warm as her hand rested on her baby bump. “Yes, Niko and I are happily anticipating the birth of our first child in June.”

  “Congratulations. These are exciting days for you. Your tour has been getting rave reviews, and your album is selling well. You achieved your fundraising goal for the next album. In addition, Tia’s novel just reached bestseller status. It seems there is a lot of reason to rejoice.”

  “The men have promoted my novel at every venue, helping get the word out. It was an un-looked for blessing in helping sales, but thankfully, the reviews have also been good.”

  Niko nodded. “God’s been gracious. We deserve none of this, and it could go away in a flash. Remember, Specific Gravity has been here before, with sold-out crowds. We burned out and quit when my cousin, Johnny, got sick with cancer. We stepped off a national stage to regroup. We recognize being at the top of the charts is a fleeting thing. The fact is, Pastor, as long as we seek to honor God and our music leads people to him and encourages them in their faith, we’ve done our job. While we would love to support our families this way, we recognize God could close that door at any moment.”

  The Pastor nodded. “If this career path closed, what is plan B?”

  Niko smiled and grabbed Tia’s hand. “If God closes a door and leads us to something else—worship ministry, solo career, studio work—it isn’t plan B. It’s His plan A for the next season of our lives. I love our band. I would hate to see this season end, but life is like that, isn’t it? I treasure our moments making magic with them on stage, and even in the bus as we write new songs and see something that never existed before take form and shape. Singing and playing and hearing people respond to the message of a song is a reward far more beautiful than making money. Having said that, I have a responsibility to provide for my family as well. I expect Tia will keep writing her stories.”

  Tia glanced to the back of the auditorium, where a tall silhouette caught the light. She gasped, and her hand went to her chest as her heart pounded and vision grew cloudy.

  “Tia?” Niko leaned in so she could whisper in his ear.

  He moved her mic away. “A man in the back. The other pastor.”

  Niko stood and went to grab his guitar. “Roger has been added to our crew since the attack. His job is to protect Tia, and we’ve been grateful for his presence with us.” Niko sat back down and winked at Tia. “Pastor, you asked me to possibly sing a song, and I’d like to do it now. It’s a new one. I wrote it after Christmas, when Tia was hurt in an accident.”

  “Go ahead, Niko.”

  “Tia,” Niko whispered even though the microphone picked up his words. “Look at me, sweetheart.”

  Roger sprang into action, and the tall figure disappeared. Tia turned and focused on Niko as he sang to her.

  Almost lost you once,

  Don’t want to be there again

  The empty space where you once sat

  The special spot in my heart

  Is yours alone for

  You are mine.

  Can love be tossed about?

  Will my heart ever recover

  For every chance to keep you here

  Grows love deeper for my heart

  Is yours alone and

  You are mine.

  The future stretches out

  Dreams of together in years to come

  Growing old with you by my side

  More beautiful for in my heart

  I am yours alone and

  You are mine.

  Tremors shook her body as she focused on Niko. Love and compassion oozing out of his dark eyes held her attention. He wouldn’t let her go. He gave her a soft smile as he sang the love song to her. She heard the words as they penetrated the fog, and her shoulders relaxed. When he finished, a raised eyebrow asked silent permission for him to kiss her. She nodded, and he leaned over to place a gentle kiss on her lips.

  The Pastor and audience clapped.

  Tia sighed. “I’m sorry, everyone. That was what a panic attack can look like, and I have no control over when they will hit. Niko, that was beautiful. Thank you.”

  Pastor spoke up. “No apologies are necessary, Tia. You and your husband demonstrated to us today what it is to love and love well.”

  Niko strummed a little. “My parents told me, on the night I proposed, he and my mom have a competition to see who can love each other best every day. He said it was a win-win situation when that was their purpose. I don’t know if I’m there yet, but I’m trying. I owe Tia everything. She is the one God gave us to help us on our way. She has listened, prayed, encouraged, and was willing to stop a bullet to protect me.” A tear slid down Niko’s cheek. “I’m a blessed man.”

  Tia blinked as tears started to flow as well. “I think you saved me in ways you don’t even realize yet, Niko. I do love you.”

  The pastor stood and came behind them. “Folks, let’s pray for this couple and for Specific Gravity’s ministry as they continue on their tour this afternoon. Lord, You have brought two people together for Your purpose—to show the world Your love. To help others see You, not only in the music they bring to hungry hearts but also the example of humble servant love to each other. I know they are tired after a late night, and I thank You for their willingness to be here this morning and baring their souls to us so we can see Your loving hand at work in the lives of not idols, but struggling human beings like the rest of us. Bless them and protect them, Lord, as they continue to serve You.”

  Tia glanced at Niko and saw the question in his eyes. She nodded.

  Niko started finger picking. “We’d like to sing one more song for you. I wrote this one while Tia was recovering from her attack. It’s our hit single right now, For Love of You.”

  The pastor nodded and stood off to the side, leaving them alone, center stage.

  Tia focused on her husband as they sang together. They missed Johnny’s guitar and vocals as well as the rest of the band, but the emotion and the love between them couldn’t be mistaken. Lord, thank You for blessing me with this man.

  * * *

  Niko caught Roger’s eye as they stepped off the stage. Roger came to speak to him. “It was the pastor from the other church. He came to create a disturbance. The police have him.”

  “Why the police?”

  “He carried a concealed weapon he didn’t possess a license for.”

  “Whoa. So Tia’s fear was more real than she knew.”

  Roger nodded. “Nice way to let me know. Glad I could be here to help. He was a nasty piece of work.”

  Niko stood by Tia’s side as people came to talk with them, get autographs, or ask for prayer. Finally, the second service was about to start, so he walked her to the restroom for a quick break before they had to be back and ready for the second interview.

  They sat down front and made it through the second service without a panic attack, but Niko sang the same song again anyway so people wouldn’t hear about it from the first service and feel like they missed out. By the time it was all done, the band had arrived and they enjoyed lunch with the pastor and elders of the church. The group surrounded the band as they sat and prayed over t
hem all before they left.

  Niko shook Pastor Jameston’s hand. “Thank you for your hospitality.”

  “Thank you for your willingness to serve us. If you are ever coming through this way again, I hope you put us on your itinerary. We would love to hear all God has been doing in and through you.”

  Niko nodded. “I’ll let Tia know. She’s the master scheduler. I’d enjoy returning here.”

  “Oh, and realize we do put the message up on the website, and it is visited from places all over the world. I hope it helps spread the truth of not only your music, but inspires others.”

  “Thank you.” Niko jumped up onto the bus, and seeing everyone present and accounted for, he gave the order to pull out. Tia had already gone to their berth, and after some high fives from the band, he headed down to catch a nap with his wife.

  He closed the door behind him and removed his shoes. Tia gave him a lazy smile.

  “You okay, Tia?”

  “Yeah. I am. Just so tired.” She grabbed his hand and dragged him to their berth. Once inside, she pulled him close. “Come here.” Niko did, and he snuggled up behind her, placing his hand on her stomach. Holding her, they both drifted to sleep.

  * * *

  Tia had been on the phone all morning and finally turned it off. “Guys. We have a problem.”

  The men stopped what they were doing to give her their attention. Niko frowned as he watched his wife. Not much flustered her with the business of the band.

  “I don’t want to overschedule you, but the requests are coming in hard and fast, and I don’t know what to do. Some huge venues are asking for you. Saturday morning concerts in the square for national television. The pay is good and the exposure is phenomenal, but it digs into our rest time.”

  “Let’s take a look and decide as a group what we will accept and what we won’t,” Niko offered as he came to lay a hand on her shoulder.

  Tia nodded. She pulled up the calendar on her computer and printed out pages of dates with the already scheduled gigs as well as the new offers coming in as they headed into California.

  The guys all took a copy and studied it. Johnny piped up. “Some of these are for just you and Niko.”