“It’s clearing up nicely. That medication Molson gave me is doing the job,” Geoff put away the soup carefully in his tote. “I’m headed to the south street shelter. Molson told me to try to stay out of weather like this for the next while until I’m fit again.”
“That’s a good idea,” Holly nodded.
“What medication did he give you?” Fielding asked. He’d been questioning every person that they’d been handing out food or medical assistance to. Holly was growing tired of it.
“Antibiotics,” Holly answered shortly.
“For a simple cold?” Fielding frowned.
“There was crackling in the lungs,” Holly informed him. Molson had let her listen on the stethoscope as Geoff took breaths the last time they were out.
“Pneumonia,” Geoff confirmed. “Not too serious. It would have become worse without the medication.”
“Where does he get the medications?” Fielding wondered if it was legally.
“Does it matter?” Geoff asked. “Molson is helping all of us. Without him, we’d all be worse off.”
“Have you seen a single wrong diagnosis today?” Holly challenged Fielding.
“No,” he grudgingly admitted. He couldn’t fault any of the medical advice that Molson had been handing out to these people.
“Can you deny that these people need help?” Holly continued.
“No,” Fielding sighed. “However, it’s against rules and procedures for unlicensed medical professionals to be giving out medications or diagnosing people. Even if he ever earns his degree, any hospital that hires him wouldn’t want him to be doing a street ministry. He’d be bound by the hiring agreement which wouldn’t allow him to expose himself to such liabilities of the possibility of being sued in a situation like this. Not only that, but there’s the source of the medications to be considered. Over the counter meds are one thing but some of the items he’s passing around are prescription only and I don’t think these people are frequenting pharmacies nor is any doctor writing a script. That’s illegal.”
“Helping people is illegal,” Geoff weighed in. “Just feeding the homeless is illegal in this city. You can get fined for handing me that soup. Only licensed soup kitchens can do that. It doesn’t matter where that soup came from, you’re not allowed to give it to me because I’m homeless. You want to give it to Holly? That’s legal cuz she has an address. Sometimes, lawmakers forget about the simple humanity of a situation.”
“Laws are put into place to prevent future abuse of a situation,” Fielding pointed out.
“Yet sometimes, all it takes is one person to mess up a situation that is working for so many others, causing it to become illegal to do the right thing. What is the right thing? Helping your fellow man when you are able to,” Geoff insisted. “You tell me that it’s okay to let a man starve on the street just because he’s labelled homeless. You tell me that it’s okay to turn a person away because they can’t afford medical care. People judge us and tell us to get a job. I’m seventy years old. I lost everything. I worked for three companies and had three separate pensions. All of those pensions disappeared. One company went bankrupt. Another outsourced their pension plans which were mismanaged until nothing was left. The last pension disappeared when the company pulled up and went overseas. I worked hard all my life and have nothing to show for it.”
“There are programs to help people in your situation,” Fielding countered.
“They do help some people,” Geoff allowed. “Most programs are underfunded, over-crowded and try to push you to another program. They can’t help everyone who needs it. There is too much demand. I tell you right now, if it weren’t for Molson helping me, I’d likely be dead from this pneumonia. Rebekah’s leg would be killing her. Ike wouldn’t have the part time job that Molson found for him.”
“He does urge them to use the available programs,” Holly inserted softly. “He keeps trying to get them off the street when anyone is disposed to listen to him.”
“It’s still illegal,” Fielding stated.
“Maybe,” Holly shrugged. “I intend to keep helping him.”
“You could lose your credentials,” Fielding scowled.
“I could,” Holly knew that was a risk. It was one she was willing to take. “I only showed you part of where he goes. I admit, I’m too chicken to go by myself to some of the other areas. We’ll have to wait for him to come back before doing any more than this part of his rounds.”
“Do you think he’s coming back?” Fielding half-heartedly hoped Molson wouldn’t.
“He’d better,” Holly tamped down the worry that she felt. “Otherwise I’m going to cry on you for the next three to ten years and it will be all your fault since you were part of the reason he left.”
“I’m sorry.”
“What?” Holly glanced at him in surprise.
“I’m sorry,” Fielding repeated uncomfortably. “I may have judged him a little severely.”
“Thank you,” she was amazed that he’d admitted it. Normally her father was absolute in his opinions. Holly was glad that she had been able to make him see that he had judged wrongly.
“Don’t get too happy. I still don’t like him or think that he’s worthy of you,” Fielding grumbled.
