Tension in the house began almost immediately after Stephen’s hospital treatment and recovery. Sarah found she was having a hard time letting him make any decisions around the house. Whenever he brought something up, she habitually corrected him. Not one to quickly back down, the Army Sergeant’s knee jerk reactions were often direct and pointed. When he became tired of being corrected all the time, Stephen began anticipating Sarah’s rebuke. Without even thinking about it he would open a conversation sarcastically. Sarah, more than willing to take the bait, gave it back better than he expected. In response, he began to feel that her condescending responses justified his sarcastic tone and before either of them knew it they were engaged in an all out screaming match.
Before long the Lantz household had developed a pattern of disagreeing, arguing, raising voices and then silence followed by mutual but non-committal apologies. Stephen routinely suggested that all he needed was some fresh air. When they were both home at the same time, Stephen conveniently decided it was time to follow his physical therapist’s suggestion to go out and walk a couple of miles. The most peaceful time in the house was when the voices naturally descended in preparation for putting Hailey to bed. Without even knowing when it began or who did it first, they developed a routine of saying good night to their daughter separately.
Mile 15
The sun continued to push sweat into Stephen’s eyes. Whatever rush that blue sports drink had given him, the effects had unceremoniously worn off somewhere over the past couple of miles. His quads began to strain under the announcement of a soon to arrive muscle cramp. A focused tightness evolved around the scar tissue in his leg. His stomach competed for attention and began to feel like a percolator brewing a cup of something he had no interest in seeing. He passed another aid station but other than taking a small plastic cup of water and dousing it over his head, he didn’t linger. As he passed the table he saw a pink box of energy gels. The mere thought of eating another one of those things nearly made him hurl. Battling nausea, Stephen began having his first real doubts about even finishing the race. Aware of the risk associated with self doubt, he immediately caught the rogue thought, tossed it into a mental trash bin and set his mind straight again.
Really? You’re going to let an upset stomach stop you? Drive on, soldier. You got this.
The thought was ridiculous. He certainly wasn’t going to quit the race because he felt sick. He had been through too much to let a rumbling tummy force him off track. Not after what he’d been through. He knew the sting of pain; there had been too much of it in his world over the past decade. He thought about the screws in his forearm. The scar in his right leg that would always remind him of the impending end he had faced in Fallujah. There had been other types of pain as well. Though he hadn’t thought it at the time, some of the pains he had experienced had been harder than anything the desert could have ever thrown at him.
In the combat zone, Stephen always knew what was expected of him. When he got up in the morning, he had orders to follow and the ever present responsibility to do everything he could to keep his men alive. For the most part, it was pretty clear cut. Rules of engagement and military bureaucracy could certainly complicate even the simplest of days, but the basics of life in theater were pretty straightforward for a squad leader. Follow the assigned mission, achieve your objective and shoot anyone who threatens you or your soldiers. While that life was anything but easy, Stephen could acknowledge an element of simplicity to a combat soldier’s life.
Things were entirely different when he got home. Before his National Guard unit was activated, Stephen had worked for a small, privately owned company as a commercial real estate appraiser. He had joined McDowell and Associates when the company was still in its infancy. The owner, George McDowell, had undoubtedly taken a risk since Stephen didn’t even have a college degree at the time, much less a background in real estate. But McDowell was a risk taker by nature and when he hired people, he hired for attitude and not for skill; firmly believing skill was an attribute which could be taught. He wanted people who already had a hard-charging personality. The way McDowell saw life, much to the contrast of many mothers lecturing their disobedient children, attitude took too much time and energy to adjust. He immediately saw in Stephen, an assertive attitude and a spirit that reminded him of a much younger George McDowell.
McDowell’s faith in Stephen did not have to wait long for a payday. Stephen showed a willingness to put the time in to learn the industry. He successfully acquired the necessary licenses and worked hard to become skilled at his trade. Within the first year, McDowell’s bet paid dividends when it turned out Stephen had a knack for understanding the story behind a piece of property. Stephen’s gift was not so much intuition or insight, as much as it was his diligence to stay on a project until he knew the real value of a property.
McDowell gave Stephen the complete freedom to spend days or even weeks on a property. However long it took Stephen to feel comfortable. More than once, McDowell had been saved by Stephen’s thoroughness, whether the company was purchasing the building outright or brokering it for a third party. Before long, McDowell and Associates would not authorize the distribution of a single dollar for a property until Stephen Lantz placed his personal seal of approval on it.
The small company had done well under McDowell’s leadership and Stephen’s keen eye. After a decade, the firm employed nearly a hundred people and was expanding into other states. Before Stephen left for deployment there were even rumors of the company making a large acquisition so that it could begin eyeing the path to become a publically traded company on a stock exchange. It was something McDowell had talked about for years and Stephen was hopeful it would finally happen. An aggressive expansion plan for a small company meant salaries didn’t exactly match the contribution to the company for employees like Stephen. But he stayed content with the compensation structure because he also received part of the company’s private stock. Stephen knew a public offering would eventually create an opportunity to cash in some of that stock and allow his family to finally enjoy the fruit of growing another man’s dream.
While overseas, Stephen received word that the acquisition had gone through and McDowell was already in conversation with some high powered bankers from a major New York firm about taking McDowell and Associates public. It was a challenge for him to come back after being gone for the combination of deployment and hospital stay but Stephen reacquainted with the company rather well.
McDowell was a great supporter of his reintegration but Stephen had struggled with some of the cultural changes made in his absence. The company had completed the talked about acquisition and there were several new employees Stephen had never met before. The new energy in the office was much more aggressive than what he could recall. Though the company had expanded into new markets, he stayed focused on the commercial real estate side. The commercial staff had dwindled significantly since he had left and there was now a small army of appraisers he was asked to coach. Perhaps it was his own downtime spent through the months of recovery at BAMC, but he still felt a different tone in the office; cordial but in many ways less familiar and less trusting.