Julio – The Growing Years

 by: Miguel Sanchez

© 2006-2008 by the author

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

Robbie reached over and hugged me tightly. “I see why they call you Papa Miguel now. Thank you for letting us stay here.”

Chapter 23 

I got my clothes unpacked and put away while I was listening to Robbie’s tale. I set a pair of shorts out then had the boys leave so I could get dressed. Once changed, I was mobbed by the boys again then we went out back and kicked a ball around for several minutes. The boys formed up teams and I was chosen to be with José, Billy and Chico and we made a formidable team. Chico managed to get by Joey and scored a goal between Robbie’s legs. He was jumping up and down so much you would have thought he’d won a tournament.

After an hour of this, I was hot, sweaty and tired. I went inside and headed for the kitchen. I went rummaging through the ice boxes for something cold to drink when I felt a sting on my butt. “Get out of my kitchen now.”

I stood up rubbing my pride only to see Hanna shaking a wooden spoon at me. I held my hands up and said, “Alright Hanna, you win.”

When she saw it was me she blushed then pulled out a pitcher of iced tea. “I didn’t know it was you Miguel.”

“That’s alright Hanna,” I replied pouring myself a glass. “I knew someone else who was fussy about his kitchen also.”

I drank down my tea then left the kitchen so they could finish getting supper prepared. I was just about to go into my room when I saw Jackie and Christina come back in. Christina saw me and came running towards me. I immediately got worried as I was afraid something went wrong at the clinic. I walked towards her then had a 15 year old girl in my arms. “Thank you Dr. Sanchez. The doctors at the clinic were very nice to me.”

As soon as I heard those works I started breathing again. I saw Jackie walking down the hall then say, “She’s going to be sore for a while but there are no internal injuries on anything broken. They did blood work and we’ll know the results in about a week.”

I gave Christina a kiss on the cheek then she went outside to watch the others. When she was gone, I asked Jackie, “What did the pelvic show?”

Jackie looked around before she said anything just to be sure there weren’t little ears around. “She’d had sex before. The doctor said the hymen was gone and had been so for some time. They also ran a pregnancy test on her and that came back negative.”

I nodded my head then went into my room to get cleaned up before dinner. When I came out, the kids were all heading down the hall towards the dining area. Hanna and her staff did an outstanding job on the spaghetti. The sauce was home made and I ate my fill. For desert we had pound cake, ice cream with our favorite sauces.

I talked briefly with Jackie before she left for the day. Guillermo had the boys take their showers and I went and said the same thing to the girls. Guillermo and I sat and talked for a few minutes until we heard the sounds of playing boys. We followed the sounds and there in Chico and Mikey’s room were José and Billy. All four boys were naked as the day they were born squirting each other with water pistols. I was standing there laughing my head off when suddenly I was squirted. Mikey saw me wet and then froze in his tracks. “I I’m sorry Papa Miguel.”

I couldn’t be mad at the little guy. “Tile floors and wet feet aren’t a good mix boys. Put the water pistols away and hurry in the showers. There is a movie coming on that you all will like.”

Chico and Mikey scurried into their bathroom while José and Billy ran to their room. “Never a dull moment Miguel,” Guillermo said as we headed back to the common area.

A short time later the children started filtering in and taking places around Guillermo and me. Christine, Joey and Robbie sat together while the others were either cuddled on us our snuggled beside us. The movie lasted two hours but some of the kids hadn’t. By 10 all the younger ones were sound asleep. One by one Guillermo took the sleeping children and tucked them into bed. It took almost 30 minutes to get this accomplished then we could finally relax. As the movie was ending the other three started nodding off. I gently shook them awake and said, “Come on guys, time for bed.”

Christina started heading for the girl’s hall then asked, “Miguel, will you tuck me in?”

I walked over to her then we headed for her room. “Miguel, do you have children?”

“Yes sweetheart,” I replied. “I have 4 children. 3 boys I adopted and a foster daughter who married my youngest son.”

“I bet you were a great Papa,” she said. “I bet they will be great parents too.”

“I don’t know about that,” I replied giggling. “Steven and Angel just got married. Steven just started college so I hope it’s a few years before I’m a grandfather.”

“What about your other two boys? What are they doing?”

We walked into Christina’s room and I waited outside while she did her nightly business. She slipped into bed and I tucked her in then sat down beside her. “Jay is in his next to last year in college then he is going on to Medical School. Ronnie is in culinary school studying to be a chef.”

“You must be very proud of them,” Christina asked smiling. “I’m proud of all my children, even you all.”

“Us?” she asked.

“Of course I’m proud of you all. You all took the first step towards better lives for yourselves by coming here. Now you just be the best person you can be. Go to school and study hard and if any of you want to go to college, I’ll see to it that it will happen.”

Christina frowned then said, “No college is going to want street children going to their school.”

“That’s not true sweetie. Guillermo used to be on the streets and he went to college on a scholarship. His grades in school were good enough that they wanted him to attend and it didn’t cost him anything. Victor used to live on the streets and I got him and his two other brothers in with a good man who raised them. A person who doesn’t have a home doesn’t mean they can’t make something of themselves. Jay, Ronnie and Steven used to live on these very streets until I adopted them. All I ask is that you all do your best at anything you do.”

Christina’s eyes were getting heavy and I kissed her gently on the forehead. I gently eased off the bed and headed for the door. I turned the light off and started to close the door when a voice said softly, “Good night Papa Miguel.”

“Good night sweetheart and sweet dreams.”

I closed her door then went back down to the common area. Guillermo was straightening the room up and I went out side to take a look around. “Hi Miguel, what are you doing out here?”

“Hi Victor, I’m just checking the place before I go to bed.”

I heard his laugh then say, “That’s my job now. Don’t worry about a thing. I’m not going to let anyone get into the place that shouldn’t come in.”

Victor and I went back inside and I headed for my room for a much needed night’s sleep. After doing my nightly business, I crawled into bed and as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out like a light. The nest thing I remember was a little boy shaking me saying, “Papa Miguel wake up.”

I cocked one eye open and there was Chico staring at me. “Chico, you better have a good reason for doing this.”

“It’s almost time for breakfast Papa Miguel,” Chico said.

“Ok Chico,” I moaned. “I’m getting up. What time is it anyway?”

As soon as I rolled onto my back, I had a body full of 12 year old boy. Now any other time I would have gladly accepted this as it brought back many memories of when the boys were younger. But at this particular moment Chico found my full bladder. I sat upright and rolled him backwards as I bolted from the bed and into the bathroom. “It’s almost 8,” a voice said as I was emptying my bladder.

I flushed the toilet then stuck my head out. “Almost 8 in the morning?”

I heard him giggling as he ran back across the hall. I put my shorts and tee shirt on then walked half awake towards the dining area for some liquid wake up. “Morning Miguel,” Guillermo said in a very chipper voice. “I see you’re up early today.”

“Not by choice,” I replied heading for the coffee pot. “I had Chico the alarm clock seeing to it I was awake.”

“I’ll have to say something to him,” Guillermo said with a giggle in his voice.

I shook my head no as I took my first sip of coffee. “I’ll pay him back tomorrow or the next day.”

After breakfast, the kids cleaned their room and I took off into town. The first stop was a meeting at The Foundation and the topic of concern was the administrator of the hospital. “What is the problem?”

Pablo put a folder in front of me and I was surprised to see that inside there were bills. I looked at them and the biggest majority were from kids seen at the clinic. The clinic leases space from the hospital and The Foundation pays the bill. The Foundation supports the clinic and takes care of all the supplies and medications. We only pay for radiology when we need x-rays. Pablo pulled out another folder and started looking through it. “We’ve already paid the bill for Mikey when he was there but here is another bill.”

I looked at them and the cancelled check we mailed. I put that along with the bills on the clinic patients then closed it. “I’m going to the hospital to get to the bottom of this.”

I left the office then was on my way to the hospital. I pulled into the parking lot then headed for the business office. I went in and a young lady said, “May I help you sir?”

I set the folder on the counter and replied, “I’d like to see the office manager please.”

She went back into another office then an older woman came out. “Yes sir, how can I help you?”

“I would like to talk with you about some bills we received.”

She looked at me and said, “Well I’m sure they’re correct.”

“May we go back to your office please?” I asked starting to come around.

“Um sure,” she said as she led me down the hall. “Now what seems to be the problem?”

I opened the folder and handed her the bill for Mikey that that The Foundation had already paid. I saw her go to the computer to look at the bill. While she was doing this, I was looking at the bill we just got on Mikey. She looked up at me and said, “I’m sorry, this account is still open. It hasn’t been paid.”

I took the cancelled check out and handed it to her. “How can that be? You’ve accepted this check and it’s been deposited into your account.”

She looked at the check then entered the information on the account. She stamped the bill paid then said, “Now what else can I do for you sir?”

I pulled out the bills from the clinic then said, “Why is the pediatric clinic sending out bills? It’s supposed to be free.”

“It is,” she replied. “I’m sorry sir, I didn’t catch your name.”

I looked at her and replied, “I’m Dr. Sanchez.”

“Ah, my apologies Dr. Sanchez,” she said. “It looks like someone is sending out bills from your clinic.”

She walked out and talked with the other girl in the office. This conversation was getting animated and I had an idea who was behind it. I walked into the office and the two women stopped talking. “I see who’s behind this. I’ll take care of it.”

I left the business office and went to the administrator’s office. I put my ID tag on then walked in and headed for Hector Perez’s office. “You can’t go in there. There’s a meeting in progress.”

“Good,” I shouted. “I hope the whole board is there.”

I opened the door and Hector was running his mouth to the other board members. “As you can see, our revenues are increasing.”

I want over and sat with the other board members. Hector went on with his babble about this and that and when he asked for questions, I jumped him. “The revenues are increasing? How is that?”

“Services are being charged for. Everyone is being required to pay. We’re billing insurance carriers.”

I took the bills from the Pediatric Clinic out and threw them at him. “And billing for services you have no business doing.”

Dr. Ruiz looked at me and shook his head. “Dr. Sanchez, that clinic is a part of the hospital.”

“Doctor that clinic leases space from the hospital and my foundation pays them handsomely for the space. I cover all the costs of that clinic.”

Dr Ruiz just got his eyes opened. “Is this true Hector? Are you basically double billing?”

Dr. Ramirez looked at him and said, “He’s committing fraud. He’s charging for services the hospital hasn’t performed.”

I noticed the hospital’s legal counsel cringe when Dr. Ramirez mentioned fraud. “We can not be allowing that to continue. Mr. Perez, you knew Dr. Sanchez’s clinic was not a part of this hospital. I also heard about the incident involving a resident of his Children’s Home. Do you realize that we have a very close working relationship with Dr. Sanchez and his Foundation? If it seems like he gets some preferential treatment here, you’re right; he does. His father had the children’s wing added to this hospital and that does generate revenue. His Foundation has gotten us things from the States that would have takes us an eternity to get. So what do you have to say for yourself?”

“I’m within my rights to charge them for services,” Perez snapped at the lawyer.

I was steamed at his arrogance. “What services? I pay for the supplies. I pay for their medicines. I even pay the physician’s salaries so what services do you have the right to bill for?”

Perez was looking a little uncomfortable. He started running his finger through his collar like he was trying to stretch it. The lawyer stood up and patted my shoulder. Dr. Ruiz then stood and said, “I put forth a motion the Hector Perez be removed as Hospital Administrator.”

I wanted him off the board but I wasn’t going to second that motion. Finally Dr. Ramirez said, “I second the motion.”

Dr. Ruiz followed my saying, “All in favor raise your hand.”

Everyone’s hand went up and it was final. Hector Perez had been removed as Hospital Administrator. Mr. Golding, the lawyer, stood and asked, “Who is going to replace Hector as Administrator?”

Bill Golding was a fine lawyer. He had a savvy mind and protected the hospital. “Bill, you’re a good man. You’ve served the hospital well as counsel. Why don’t you become the Administrator?”

“But I still have my law practice,” he said.

“I know you do,” I replied as I got myself a cup of coffee. “The hospital here almost runs itself. I also know you’ve been looking to semi retire from your practice.”

He had our confidence so after thinking about it for several minutes he agreed. With a solid Administrator in place, I picked up my folder and headed to my next destination. I went out to the front office and called Pablo. I informed him of Hector’s demise as Administrator then told him to increase the endowment to the hospital by 5%.

I was about to head to my next stop when I realized it was almost noon. If I hurried, I might be able to see the person I wanted to before he left for lunch. I hurried over to the site and found a place to park. There was a steady stream of workers coming towards the gate. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity I spotted him in a crowd of other workers. I walked towards him and waved. He spotted me then I felt a hand on my shoulder. “What are you doing in here?”

“Hey, hey boss you don’t know who that is,” my friend said.

“He could be God for all I care,” the man said. “He’s not coming on my site without my OK.”

I thought I would let this guy stew for a few minutes. “Hi Raul, how’s it going? Would you like to go to lunch?”

Raul hugged me tightly. It had been a number of years since I’d seen them and he was by far the biggest now. “Hi Papa Miguel, how are you. It’s been way too long.”

The man looked at Raul and I saw daggers. “You know this jerk?”

“Yeah boss, I do,” Raul said smiling. “He’s like a second father to me. I’d like you to meet the man whose hotel we’re building.”

The man’s mouth suddenly fell open. “You’re Miguel Sanchez?”

“Yes and I would appreciate it if you spoke to people a little better in the future. Let’s go to lunch Raul.”

Raul and I left the site and got into the Blazer and went to eat. We got back a couple hours later and Raul’s boss had a very different attitude. He showed me around and I was impressed with the progress being made. I was informed that if the weather stayed good, in about 2 months they could be ahead of schedule. It was quite warm that day so I decided to head back to the home and cool off.

To be continued...

Posted: 06/27/08