16

John spent many a night crammed in a chair beside Jim or sleeping in the truck parked outside his window. He was there all the time and soon earned the trust of the staff. He started working there first just sorting out patients in the waiting room then patching up little wounds and stitches. Eventually they sent him out on house calls as the doctor’s assistant and when it was really busy (which was most times) he would go alone. Some houses were cool like when he had to treat a woman’s hurt foot she would have a good-looking daughter or niece but most were awful. Either they had dogs chasing him or he’d be sent to the nicer side of town because they wouldn’t be caught dead driving there. They were ungrateful, rude and downright obnoxious everything he hated in people. It amazed him that he never met any of these people on the road; this was his first encounter with snobs of any kind.

They released Jim and the three of them moved into an abandoned house not too far from the hospital. It was old not quite broken down yet but not too far from it either. It was the only house on the street without a number and was regularly avoided apparently there had been to deaths (On separate occasions). It was big, two stories but only two rooms were safe for staying in. It even had a garage that had a lot of junk; it seemed that not everyone that left here came back for his or her things. Anna a very helpful, very beautiful nurse moved in with them. In the beginning, John found himself beyond jealous when he found out about Jim hooking up with her. Firstly, she was gorgeous; she was older and most important she was a nurse. The three became best friends, she loved hearing stories about their travels and John’s mind completely fascinated her. Hermanos didn’t get these kinds of people so at first she was confused by their lifestyle and philosophy but like everyone that comes in contact with these contagious beings, she was infected. They had the life or when looking from the outside in he saw that Jim had the life. He’d read stories about it but seeing this was beautiful. It was the story of an aspiring writer or journalist, something like that. He lived in a tiny apartment but couldn’t care less because he had his beautiful soul mate. The girl that loved the tiny apartment just as much as he did and didn’t mind eating scarps every day. Their whole life was a rom-com montage and it was spectacular.  They had had two steady income flows and she instructed Jim to recover.                             “Honey I’m home” John screamed as he stepped inside                                        “Oh sweetheart how was your day?” John replied, “Let me get you a glass of scotch you hardworking beast of man.”                                                     Anna embraced and loved everything about them but she could never understand how they could always be like this. The fact they never took anything serious mystified her. She got up from the couch and walked out to the garage, which held the only working fridge.                                             “Johnny pop the question.”                                                              “Jim serious face here, when are we leaving? Someone’s been nagging me all day.”                            “I’m recovering man,” He yelled from the couch, “Someone should chill out.”                               They sat on the couch and did the one relaxing they knew.                              “You’ve been home for two minutes and already you two are lazed out smoking that stuff,” Anna wasn’t the biggest fan of smoking but indulged more than once or twice herself. She came in with cold cheese and was preparing to make her famous grilled cheese sandwiches, a supper they had grown accustomed to.                  

 

He had to make a living although the money he made being a makeshift doctor wasn’t half bad. However, that was all go away money, John wanted to make it up to Jim. He wanted a treasure full of gold when they left. He wanted them to live lavishly because he couldn’t help feel a little guilty for the accident. He did after all put the idea in Jim’s head and drag him along not once but twice. The Job was rewarding in other aspects the women and believe me John enjoyed the women. Meeting amazing children, he loved smart children and occasionally he’d treat them and it was especially good because kids don’t really have the snob gene although with parents like this it’ll probably kick in later in life. They were jerks and he used that to his advantage. They loved to pay on the spot, they’d count it out in front of him to show “Yeah this is nothing, I sleep on a bed of hundreds.” Then John would simply reply, “Due to unforeseen circumstances we’ve had some increases but if you need time or can’t afford it we could let this one slide,” they would argue at first and John would just play hard to get, “That’s fine we understand your situation, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.” That sealed the deal, the snob ego would never let that one go and the suckers would pay up whatever amount John decided to charge them depending on how irritating he found them. The three roommates would take the five-finger discount at some stores, mostly for food, which would be bread, and cheese sometimes they mix it up with spaghetti, chicken and so on. John and Anna did moonlighting (With the recommendation of the doctor of at their Hospital) and they have pudding cups, jelly and toilet paper to last a year. Anna didn’t know it but John in his infinite wisdom managed to get his hands on some morphine, yet another ‘muscle relaxer’ her roommates occasionally indulged in. That was among other pills and medicine he stole from them, the morphine-based medicine got monitored and recorded so he only took a few of those and kept that to himself and Jim. The other less effective pills he sold to dope heads and idiots that believed whatever he said it would cure. The Jerks he sold those pills to would drive a hard bargain and John would let them get away with it because the ornaments, art and knickknacks he borrowed from them fetched a nice price at the pawnshop. He was the Robin Hood of Hermanos; he stole from the jerky and gave to the cool. He had bits and scams he played on them, they were suckers and he’d read and watched enough Simon Lovell to con circles around these people.