Breakfast was awesome. Beth and Cara received several text messages during breakfast, and neither of them looked pleased. After we finish breakfast, we have plenty of time to do dishes, and then I have everyone follow me to work. After all, this is my first day as a fully accredited doctor.
As soon as I walk into the ER, standing in my way is a large group of my friends and a very sorry-looking State Police trooper getting quite the earful from everyone. I decide to have pity on him.
I walk up to the officer, “I’m Peter; I believe you have something for me.”
He talks and moves quickly, handing me a large manilla envelope while saying, “You’ve been served.” He then tries to run off. Both fathers just happen to be blocking his quick exit.
I freak him out when I say with a smile, “Have a good day, officer,” something he clearly was NOT expecting.
Mom looks at me, “You were expecting this?”
About twenty people are hanging on my words. I speak slowly and with a loud, clear voice, so they all hear me clearly, “When Neil was here, he all but told me he was going to sign off on going after me legally to shut down my teaching operation. I expect this is a cease-and-desist letter. As Jim says, it means nothing. I am not hosting a website. They will then come after me for the course. Again, I am not even an admin of the site, let alone the content.
“Eventually, they will catch on and get a court order to stop me. The problem is I have no direct contact anymore; Jim does. He’s hosting it on a rotating server by rotating companies. His programmers are working in their spare time to improve it.
“When they get mad, they’ll go after Jim. He told me they would do all of this. He wants to play with them, then he will start playing hardball until they cry uncle. He’s an expert at that stuff. I have faith that in the end, he’ll win. He hates to lose. He’s already buying into a University to help get the courses certified. The University wanted to get a nursing program and jumped at the chance to get a leeding edge program.”
Cara’s father sheepishly asks, “Who’s Jim?”
Kate, the ER front desk’s daytime check-in clerk, happily says, “Peter’s first operation using his procedure was Jim’s wife. Peter was their last chance, and Jim was very appreciative of everyone. He’s a super nice guy, madly in love with his wife, and insanely rich. To him, Peter walks on water, and Jim is helping build Peter’s nursing program.
“I’m taking that program right now, and it’s amazing. In about six more weeks, I will be taking my test. I had taken a regular class; I have the practical training. I just couldn’t pass the test. It’s hard. OK, it’s hard unless you’re Peter. He aced it.”
Cara explains to her dad, “He started here in billing, then became a nurse. He took the test and got a perfect score. How? He wrote the state’s standardized test. As you know, just yesterday, he became a certified Doctor of Medicine.”
Winnie adds, “This is a small town, yet a lot happens here. You need to keep up, or it flies by at the speed of light.”
Beth adds, “This used to be a quiet town. Then Peter turned up. This year is going to stick out for decades.”
Dad shows extraordinary wisdom, “No. I suspect this is just the start. This town will grow around Peter, his program, his practice, and his school. It may be in Jim’s name, but it’s all based on Peter. People are going to come here from far away.”
None of us had any idea how accurate his prediction would turn out.
Beth says it best, “So. A big-time lawyer just told you to stop what you’re doing. You’re going to ignore them due to technicalities. When they catch on, they will use the courts. Eventually, they will go after Jim, and he uses a bigger hammer to squash them.”
I hug Beth, “You took it a step further, but yes, to everything you said. Jim’s not going to let a group that’s gotten lazy interfere with his eighty-million-dollar project.”
Cara screams out, “Eighty million?”
I add up the projects, “IT infrastructure, buy into a University, build a school, build a dorm, build housing, fund scholarships off a fund’s interest, advertising, faculty, it adds up.”
Cara’s dad says, “That doesn’t make any sense. No way he recoups his money.”
Mom educates him, “People that have enough money can sometimes donate things to charity. Often, it’s money, food, clothing, a new wing on a hospital, or money for cancer or heart research. Jim selected making nurses. A food pantry is short of food. A fundraiser gets them the money they need to buy food. In this case, the entire healthcare industry is short on nurses. Jim is funding the creation of a hundred or so new nurses every year.
“It’s just money to him, but like a five-course meal to someone that can’t afford one, it provides a service the community needs. In the case of nurses, everyone benefits from that eventually. With nurses, you get a trickle-down effect. Jim is only funding poor people. That’s roughly 100 fewer people on welfare, not needing meals or basic groceries because they now have a job and feed themselves.”
Beth adds, “Not just a job, a good-paying job, in high demand.”
Ray is astonished, “My son started all this, and you all have added gas to the fire to help him realize his goals in making the world a better place. I thought I did my part by giving to several charities. I know it helps, but it feels so inadequate now by comparison.
Cara’s dad admits, “I was expecting more fire and brimstone out of you.”
Cara makes me laugh as she tells her father, “This IS Peter’s fire and brimstone. He’s standing up and projecting his voice. That’s all you get.”