The Doctor Gets a Visitor III
by: E Walk

(Copyright 2007 by the Author)
 

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...


 

Chapter 6
Wednesday

I awoke Wednesday morning and Jason was backed into me.  Jeff came in with coffee and Beau and Tommy were coming out of the shower laughing.  Jeff was already dressed and announced, “Okay everyone, breakfast is in twenty five minutes.”

Jason jumped out of bed and led me to the bathroom and we quickly did our business and took our showers and we dressed and joined the others for breakfast.  We left for the day, with Tommy going with Eric and Sammy. Jeff dropped Beau off, and picked up Rea and Mrs. T.  They sailed through Econ.  When Jeff and the ladies walked into Sociology, Dr. Armstrong laughed and said, “Well, if it isn’t the matriarch of Fremont society, and the debonair college student/instructor.”

“What are you talking about Maddie?” asked Mrs. T.

Dr. Armstrong showed them the paper, with a picture of the two of them doing the Charleston, with an article describing how Jeff was making learning fun, as well as an educational experience for his students.

After I finished at noon, I picked up Beau and Jason.  We stopped by the house and collected all of the money and checks that we had ready to go.  When we got to the bank, Randy Carmichael was waiting for us.  I looked at him and said, “You may want to get some people in here, to help you count the cash.”

He looked at me funny, but when he saw all of the containers we had, he started to laugh.  He called and got four people to help.  The guys completed the paperwork and signed all the checks.  Beau wasn’t really happy that his accounts had to be in his old name, but we assured him that once his name was legally changed, it would be no problem to change the name on the accounts.

Each of the guys had three accounts, a long term investment account, a college fund account and a regular checking account that earned interest.  We ordered bank cards for both boys.  We took care of Jason’s funds first.  Randy almost passed out when he saw the accident settlement check.  When he finished with Jason’s accounts, I said, “By the way, there will be more when Jason gets through his sympathy cards.”

When Randy totaled all the checks and cash for Beau's accounts there was a total of more than $975,000.00 in the three accounts.  I informed Randy that he should expect more this weekend, when we settled on the house.  When we were leaving, Randy looked at the guys and said, “You are fortunate young men to have so many people caring for you.” 

Beau looked at him and said, “Thank you, sir.  We really have been fortunate that we have them to take care of us.”

I dropped Jason off at the school, and Beau at the Baxter’s and told them I would see them at 3:30.

Meanwhile at school, Jeff and Mrs. T. did a cha cha that brought the house down.  Jeff started the individual projects.  The first person to go was Reg.  He had just gotten through the first two slides, when Jeff stopped him. “Mr. Weaver, unless you have the live singers to sing the song, you can stop right there.  You can try again on Friday, when we can arrange for your live entertainers to be here.  In fact, I think we should arrange for them to be in the literature class too.”

Poor Reg was totally devastated, and Mrs. T. was laughing.  The rest of the class went smoothly, and Reg took the ladies home.  Tricia handed Jeff a copy of the student newspaper and said, “I thought you would like to see this article.”  The article read, “President Campbell announces that Doctor Philip Jenkins has resigned effective immediately.”  There was a picture of the creep on the front page. Jeff put the copy in his backpack.

When Jeff got to the office, Dr. Cornell and Mr. O’Connor were waiting in his office.  After greeting them, Jeff outlined what he would like to see happen.  The counseling class would go as scheduled on Thursday, and go to the home and have choir practice at 11:15.  Jeff would meet with the Psych class at 10:00, and explain what was going to happen before he went to choir practice.

“On Tuesdays, both classes would meet together in room 220, since it was large enough to handle both classes.  I would like to have guest presentations and after the presenters are finished, the two classes will discuss the presentation from a counseling or psychological point of view.

“Next Tuesday, I would like to have Beau be the guest speaker.  I know the counseling class has already heard his tape, but there are some new things that have surfaced that I have not even been told about.  This was Beau's idea, so I’m sure he will come.”

“I have ideas for other presentations where the subjects have had very different experiences to share.  The classes would be required to keep journals and find information on the Internet, or publications that deal with similar situations and will be of value to them later.  I haven’t had a chance to fully develop how this will work.”

“This is still a mystery to me, and last night we gained another stray.”  Jeff finished.

Dr. Cornell and Dr. O’Connor both agreed.  “It sounds like it could be a lot of fun.  Jeff, we are going to give you free reign: so do what you think will help the student internalize the information so they can use it later in their lives.” Dr. Cornell said.

“Well, the first thing is that the required text for Psych has to go.  I tried to read it, and was totally overwhelmed by the trivia and garbage.” Jeff said.

“Jeff, I agree with you, and I found it irrelevant to the to course objectives.”  Dr. Cornell said.

The two Drs. left and Jeff checked with Mitzie to see if there was anyone else or anything to he needed to take care of.  Mitzie said, “You’re free.  I think you have done enough damage for the week.  See you tomorrow.”

Jeff was the last person to arrive at the Tillison’s.  The young guys had just finished loading the gifts.  Rea had returned from Tommy’s house, and handed me a stack of papers and said, “I’ll tell you more later, but I think I have everything that you need to become Tommy’s guardian.”

We formed a caravan and went to The Home for Homeless Young People between the ages of six and eleven.  We entered the home, and Mrs. Tillison asked to see Mr. Young.

A pudgy man came out, and rudely asked, “What can I help you with?”

Mrs. T. frowned, but said, “I’m Agatha Tillison.  These young people here have brought their birthday gifts to share with boys and girls here at the home.  Where would you like them to take them?”

Mr. Young perked up and said, “We’ll just put them here in the closet in my office for now, and I’ll distribute them at the appropriate time.” 

Spencer stepped forward and said, “Sir, we didn’t bring the things here for you to use.  We either pass them out to the boys and girls now, or we’ll take them some place else where the children can enjoy them, immediately,” 

Mrs. T. said, “Mr. Young, Spencer is correct. Now I want you guys to look around and talk to the children, while I talk to Mr. Young.”

Jeff and Spencer went to Mrs. T. and whispered, “Grams, something about this place feels very wrong.”

Mrs. T. motioned to me and whispered, “Jack, show Mr. Young that you are a doctor, and would like to examine the facility while I make some phone calls, and you make sure he doesn’t get near a phone.”

I pulled out my identification and said, “I’m a medical doctor, Mr. Young.  I would like to check your facility for sanitary conditions, please.”

He took me to the kitchen and I really played up all the unsatisfactory conditions I found.  I pointed to a filthy stove and said, “This is totally unacceptable.” 

I pulled out a pad and then looked in the refrigerator and there was almost nothing in there.  If something had a use by date that had passed, I set it on the counter and announced that the things had to go.   Mr. Young was getting uncomfortable, and then I started to go through the cabinets and the pantry, but there was almost no food in them.

“Okay let’s look at the restrooms and the living areas.”  He showed me the restrooms and I kept writing. I said, “These facilities are not very clean at all in fact they are down right unsanitary.  What about the sleeping arrangements?”

He led me to the dormitory and he said, “This is where the kids sleep.”

“Do you mean to tell me that the young men and women share the same area?” I asked.

“Yes, but there is a curtain that we draw at night and they each have their separate bathroom facilities.”  Mr. Young answered glibly.

“How many children do you have in the home?” I asked. 

“Right now there are 50.” Mr. Young answered.

I counted the beds and asked, “Is there another dorm since I only see 25 beds?”

“There are two more dorms, but I closed them in an effort to cut back on expenses.  The kids sleep two in a bed.  I don’t see a problem with that, since they are so young and small.”  Mr. Young said, as if he was proud of himself.

I looked at him in disbelief and said, “I think we need to go back to your office, now.”

Mrs. Tillison was coming out of the office.  “I was coming to find you.”  She led us to the office where Rea, Norm, Chief O’Brien, Mrs. Rose, Colin Montgomery and Jeff were waiting.  Mrs. Tillison sat down at Mr. Young’s desk.  She had already disconnected the phone and Jeff was guarding the door.

“Okay, Jack, what did you find out?” 

I went over my findings and added, “I saw almost no adults, anywhere.”

Mrs. Tillison said, “That confirms what the guys told us, that the children had told them.”

Mrs. Rose said, “I really had a very difficult time finding out much about this home.  I can’t even find which social worker is responsible for this home.  I did find out however, that the state has been paying for the seventy five children that are housed here.”

I interjected, “Mr. Young told me that he had only 50 children here, so who’s getting the rest of the money?”

Jeff asked, “Mr. Young, who is your point of contact at Social Services?”

“I work directly with the regional director, Mr. Workman.” he answered.

“That explains why so little information was available.” Mrs. Rose said.

“Chief O’Brien, I want you to take Mr. Young and book him with misuse of government funds.  I want you to keep him isolated, until we can get to the bottom of this.  Under no circumstances, let him call his wife.”  Mrs. T. said as she dialed another number.

“Hank, I want you to put an immediate freeze on all accounts in the names of Mr. and Mrs. Herb Young.  I’ll explain later.”  She dialed another number and said, “I’d like to speak to Dan Gallagher, immediately.  Tell him it’s Agatha Tillison. … Hey Dan, I have a favor to ask of you.  I need you to call Mr. Workman, the head of the Regional Office here in Fremont, and tell him that you would like to speak to him and his wife in person, immediately.  In the meantime, you need to get an inspection team to his office, and another to the Young Peoples Home for the Homeless.  Keep him and his wife busy, until you can begin your investigation.” 

“I suggest that you arrange to get here as quickly as possible.  I don’t think you are going to be very happy with what has been happening here.” she added.

Mrs. T. called Josh and asked him to come and see what could be done. Spencer and the guys had taken the residents to the dining room and made them a snack of carrot sticks and a cookie.  The guys brought in the toys for them to share. 

Mrs. T. said, “Everyone can leave now, and Rea and I will stay until we can get this resolved.”

When we got home, Tommy and Mickey had fixed dinner.  Beau had walked home.  When we were sitting at the table, Beau said, “Jeff, you need to take Tommy, and get his hair styled, do some power shopping and make sure you get him some big boy briefs.”

“Okay, but you and Jason need to go through his sympathy cards, and get the money ready for the bank.  Remember, just annotate the cards with what is inside and then Jason can start his thank you notes when he has time.”

Jeff and Tommy went and got Tommy’s hair styled and did some power shopping and Beau and Jason did their homework and then started going through the cards.  Jason came to me and asked if I had a box to put the money in.

Jeff and Tommy had just arrived back when the doorbell rang.  It was Roger and his parents.  The Fowlers came in, but refused to stay.  Mr. Fowler said, “Doctor Wilson, we would like your family, Chris and Mickey to have dinner at our restaurant on us.”

“You realize that my family keeps growing.  I now have four sons.  There’s Jeff, Beau, Jason and Tommy.”

Jeff spoke up and said, “We can’t possibly make it this week.  How about next Thursday?  We’ll let you know how many people will be there and we’ll pay for the extra people.” 

The Fowlers agreed, and left.

Beau took charge and said, “Okay Tommy, let’s get your new clothes washed so you have something to wear tomorrow, and then we can get some dessert, so Jason can go to bed.”

After the desserts were finished, I gave Tommy all of the papers that Rea had retrieved for him.  He opened the letter from his mother and read it and started to cry.  “I can’t believe that my father said and did this.  I really am starting to hate that man.  I need to send my mother a note and tell her what really happened, but how do I get it to her?”

Jeff said, “Tommy, you write the letter and we’ll figure out a way to get the note to her.”

Beau took control again and said, “Tommy, you can write your note, while I finish your laundry, and then we’ll take our shower so Jeff and D. Dad can get theirs and we can go to bed.”

“But two people shouldn’t be in the shower at the same time.” Tommy said.

“What’s the matter?  We have already seen each other naked.  Are you afraid that I’m better endowed than you?” Beau taunted.

Tommy grabbed Beau, and started to carry him up the stairs.  Beau complained, “I ain’t no Olive Oyl.  Now put me down you Brutus.”

Jeff and I locked up and went to the bedroom.  Beau and Tommy were coming out of the shower, drying their hair.   Beau said, “Brutus, you’ll need to start eating more spinach, and maybe you will become a real man.”  He turned and ran.

Tommy realized that Jeff and I had seen what happened, and he turned beet red.  Tommy said, “I can’t believe this house.  None of you have any hang ups.”

Jeff went to Tommy and said, “Well, almost none.  No one ever has to do anything that they are not comfortable with.  We are all men, so you’d better get used to it.”

Tommy disappeared and Jeff and I showered and got ready for bed. 

To be continued...

Feedback always welcome:     

Editor's Notes:

I must admit that I am never going to get used to the pace that this story takes.  I never know from one chapter to the next what the number of people in Jack's family will be.  I love it

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 08/10/07