Before I called the executive presbyter of
Wyoming Presbytery I recalled an incident in Cheyenne, Wyoming years ago. I was
on a bus going from Baltimore, Maryland to San Francisco, California. We had
been riding all day through Iowa and Nebraska. In Nebraska we were caught in
the middle of a sudden snow storm. Cars and trucks were stopped along the
highway.
As the bus crawled along on the snow covered
road, it stopped a number of times to pick up people stranded in their
vehicles, even tractor trailer truck drivers. The aisle of the bus was jammed
with people. The bus was able to keep going because it was so heavy, and it had
dual wheels on the rear axle with two diesel engines. It moved slowly but
deliberately. Snow was beating against the windshield and was being whipped
into swirls by the wind all around us. After what seemed to be hours, we
approached the next town. The snow slackened off and by the time we reached the
town, there was no snow. In the town itself the streets were dry.
This encounter with snow made the bus fall
behind schedule. By the time we reached Cheyenne, Wyoming it was 7:30 p.m. The
bus “station” was a giant steak house. There was a long undulating counter with
tall chairs. I was hungry, but I didn’t have much money. I looked through the
menu. All they had were steak dinners! I chose the most inexpensive meal. (I
was wearing my Class A uniform because the Air Force had given me a voucher
instead of a ticket. Bus company rules were that they only honored vouchers if
you were in uniform.)
When the waitress brought my meal there was a steak as
big as the plate. She brought another plate with bread, butter, potato, and
green beans. Then she brought my coffee.
I protested that this was more than I had ordered. She just winked. Meanwhile,
almost everyone who passed my chair was saying , “Welcome, Airman”, or “Thank
you for your service.” Or “God bless you.” Or they would squeeze my shoulder in
a friendly greeting. This was surprising to me because it was near the end of
the Vietnam War and servicemen were generally despised.
As I was polishing off my meal the waitress
brought me an apple pie with a scoop of ice cream. I was enjoying the food, but
I was afraid that I didn’t have enough money to pay the bill. Even if I did, I
wouldn’t have any money for the remainder of the trip. As I was finishing my
meal, a man came out of the kitchen.’
“Well, GI, how did you like your steak?”
“It was delicious, sir. I don’t think I have
ever had a steak that good.”
“It ought to be good. It was the best steak I
had in my kitchen. I was proud to serve it to you. Nothing is too good for our
men in uniform. Don’t you insult me by reaching for your wallet. Your meal was
on the house and I have already given your waitress a tip.”
I thanked him and stood up. As I did, a
number of people stood up and clapped and whistled as I walked out the door. I
never see the names Cheyenne or Wyoming without choking up remembering that
incident. That steak was so filling that I didn’t think I would ever be able to
eat again.
When I calledhim, the presbytery exec in Wyoming
was very friendly to me. He asked about me. He wanted to know how I was coping
with my grief over the loss of my wife.
“Frankly, I took this vacation hoping to
escape all the other things that have kept me from grieving for Laura.”
“I appreciate your honesty, Reverend Sterner.
Do you think you would be up to preaching in a strange church? We have a vacant
church in Laramie. If you would preach there as a pulpit supply on Sunday,
December 11, I could come and hear you preach, watch how you relate to the
people, and you could look the church over. Afterward, we could have dinner
together and talk some more. When your vacation is over and you are ready to do
some serious looking, call me and then we won’t be talking as complete
strangers.”
“That sounds all right to me.”
“Good. I’ll make a reservation for you in the
Hampton Inn Hotel in Laramie for Saturday, December 11, and Sunday, December
12. Monday morning you can leave for Montana.”
**********
Nathaniel settled into a one man campaign of
harassing both Blue Team and Red Team. He did all this at night. He would sneak up from behind the guard on
duty, clamp his hand over his mouth, seize the guard’s rifle, sling it on his
own shoulder, tie the guard’s hands behind his back, gag him, and then start
setting off cherry bombs, or stink bombs, or screaming rockets. The whole squad
would be awakened and about that time the guard would run into camp with his
hands tied behind his back and without his weapon.
He was always looking for their food and fuel
caches. If they were guarded, he left them undisturbed. If they were unguarded,
he would steal from them.
The more involved he became, the more it
started to become a replay of Afghanistan. He was working during the day with
the two Team staffs – scoring, critiquing, and advising. He would get some sleep
from supper until the dark of night. As the days went on, he became seriously
sleep deprived.
One night, as he was setting off rockets over
one squad’s tactical position, he fell to the ground on his knees and was
rocking back and forth, screaming and crying, “Make them stop. Make
them stop it.” then “Incoming, take cover.” and “Shoot, man, kill those
ragheads. What are you waiting for?”
At
first the soldiers thought it was another tactic. Eventually, the first
lieutenant who was out in the field with them, recognized that something was
wrong. He took Sergeant Sterner back to the staff position for Red Team. The
Captain had seen this reaction to combat when he was in Iraq. He called for the
medic.
“Do you think that we need to take this man
to the local hospital?”
“Let’s take him to his trailer, put him to
bed, and I’ll give him a shot of tranquilizer. Have a man go with me to stay
with him and call me if he needs help. If we take him to the hospital, the
paperwork is liable to ruin his career.”
The next morning after Nathaniel was awake,
the Captain, who was Red Team commander, came to Nathaniel’s trailer. “You are confined to this trailer for the
remainder of our time here. The medic will give you tranquilizer pills and you
WILL take them. If you don’t, I can’t guarantee that you won’t have another
episode as severe or more severe.
“I want you to relax and sleep the rest of
the time you are here. If you do, I won’t write any of this up. When you get
back to Texas, I want you to voluntarily go to your commanding officer and tell
him that you want out of Special Forces, that you want to be reassigned to some
other branch. Tell him about this episode, any other episodes, nightmares, or
any other symptoms. If you are straight up with him, he’ll respect it, and you
will probably be able to remain on active duty. Whether he does or does not
allow you to stay on active duty, you need help. As long as you deny it, the
more chance that you will hurt yourself or someone else.”
“Yes, sir”
For the next week Nathaniel took his pills,
and did a lot of sleeping and dozing. He tried to write a letter to Joy, but
the words just wouldn’t come. In the end he just started packing and waited for
the day to leave. That day came several days later. He boarded the bus with the
other men, went to the airport, and they flew back to Texas.
Nathaniel didn’t call Joy when he returned to
his quarters at Ft. Bliss. The next day he called his commanding
officer, Colonel Reisner at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina.
“Colonel Reisner, this is Sergeant First
Class Nathaniel Sterner. I am on detached duty at Ft. Bliss, Texas assigned to
the Texas Army National Guard Special Forces units as advisor. I am calling to
request reassignment out of Special Forces.”
Nathaniel briefly recounted what had happened
to him at Camp Dawson. “The Red Team commander said that he would
not put it in his report if I would voluntarily ask for a transfer out of
Special Forces.”
“Good man! Okay, Sergeant Sterner, I will
have my office cut orders transferring you back here. I want our own people to
have a look at you, and have some input on the best course of action. Do you
have any leave on the books?”
“Yes, sir, forty-two days.”
“Good. I will authorize thirty days delay
enroute. That way you can celebrate Christmas and New Year’s before reporting
here for duty.”
“Thank you, sir.”
When Nathaniel hung up, he knew that the next
thing that he had to do was to tell Joy. Tuesday and Wednesday were his normal
days off, so he requested a two day pass to go to Pecos.
**************
Tom began right away to prepare for the next
bar exam in North Carolina. He went on the Internet and found the address for
the forms to apply to take the exam. He filled in the forms as soon as he
received them and mailed them back. He looked for his books from law school and
began applying himself to refresh his knowledge of the law.
On the website of the North Carolina Bar
Association he found some sample questions from the bar exam. He received a
phone call from Matthew.
“Tom, I found out that the next bar exam is
on Friday, December 3. There will be an all day review session at one of the
hotels. I’ll register you for it. Come up on the first. We will have a room for
you. If you fly up here, I have an extra car that you can use. That way we can
have a couple evenings when we can talk and catch up.”
“Thank you, that is very generous of you.”
“Like I told you before, I think our joining
talents will be as much an advantage to me as it is to you.”
“Thank you. I’ll look forward to seeing you
the evening of December 1.”
“We’ll wait supper for you, so don’t be too
late getting here.”
On the evening of December 1 Tom arrived in a
taxi at the impressive white brick home of Matthew Sterner. He and his wife
were warm and cordial to Tom. Matthew helped Tom carry his bags to the guest
bedroom.
“I’ll leave you to get washed for supper.
Then come downstairs. Supper is ready and waiting for us.”
When Tom came downstairs he was shown into a
spacious dining room. There was a white linen tablecloth and napkins with the
monogram “S”. The dinnerware was china and there were silver utensils, as well
as a silver coffee server and creamer. A young Latina maid served the various
courses.
After dinner Matthew and Tom retired to the
den while Traci went upstairs to get their boys ready for bed. Matthew said, "The way I envision our cooperation is this:
When I have legal matters that require Spanish language translation either
Spanish to English or English to Spanish, I’ll send that work to you. Or if I
have a contract or deed that involves property in Georgia, I’ll send those to
you. We can begin there and we may find other possible areas of mutual
interest.
“I have a 2005 Jeep Sport out in the garage.
We use it to go to the Outer Banks or other places where we are going to be
driving on dirt or gravel roads. Here are the keys. Use it while you are here.”
On Thursday Tom spent twelve hours at a review
session in the conference room of the Ramada Hotel. There would be an hour of
motivational lecture filled with the types of questions past exams had used.
Then there would be an hour on the computer taking mock sections of the bar
exam. At the end of the day his head felt like mush.
The North Carolina law exam lasted all day
and was in six sections. During the exam several people got up and walked out.
In the end Tom felt pretty confident that he had passed.
That evening after supper, while they were in
the den, Matthew handed Tom ten $100 bills. “I know you have had expenses coming up here.
This isn’t to reimburse you for those expenses and it is not a gift. I am so
confident that you passed and of our future partnership that I am giving you
this as an advance on your future billings. You won’t get the results in the
mail until the end of December. Use that money for Christmas for your family.”
When Tom came home, the girls were delighted
to see him. Ofelia was cool and a bit suspicious.
“Where have you been since you left home on
Wednesday morning? You left a note on the bed that you had to go out of town
for several days to do some legal work. You told your secretary/legal aide to
collect money and give receipts and to take any messages that came in. You told
her that you would be gone the rest of the week and would return on
Saturday. That is more than you told
me.”
“You were out shopping when I came home to
pack my clothes. That is why I left a note on the bed.”
“Where were you?”
“I went to Charlotte, North Carolina and
stayed at Matthew’s house while I was doing some legal work. The work was just
two days work and it paid me $500 plus my travel expenses. I stayed at
Matthew’s house so that I wouldn’t have to pay for a motel. With Christmas
coming, I wanted to be able to give you enough money to buy some nice presents
for the girls and also the fixings for a nice holiday meal. Here is the $500.”
Ofelia warmed up after that.. “You are giving me all of it?”
“All of it.”
“Then how are you going to buy me a present?”
“I’m hoping there may be another opportunity
for extra money before Christmas.”
Actually Tom knew that there probably
wouldn’t be any more extra work before Christmas. That is why he held back
$500. Ofelia’s attitude toward Tom became warmer and more affectionate in the
following weeks. Tom knew that he would have to continue with gifts of extra
money to maintain her warmth and affection. She ought to have Madonna’s song
“Material Girl” as her theme song. He couldn’t help but contrast her with his
mother, Laura, and with Philip’s wife, Molly. He was sure Ofelia and Matthew’s
wife Traci were cut from the same pattern. The difference was that Matthew
could afford to indulge his wife’s extravagance. Ofelia’s desire for spending
was beyond his ability to sustain it.
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