“Howie, what does the off-grid community do for medical care?” I caught Howie in his office as I was on my way to get an update from Jordan and Scott.

“Well, it depends, I guess. Most of the minor stuff they take care of themselves. Home remedies and vitamins. Stuff like that. They’re very self-sufficient. The bigger stuff, like broken bones, they end up going free clinics or to the hospital.”

“There’s no retired doctor that makes house calls or sees patients out of a small office?”

“Some communities have a doctor like that. He’ll barter for things instead of charging for his time. Why are you asking?”

“I’ve been studying to become a doctor and I’ve practiced on corpses and VR. I need to work on real people. I figured that for those that didn’t have access to health insurance, I might be an additional option.”

“Are you thinking of just offering your services as a country doctor or are we talking about surgery as well?”

“Both, though I’d need to outfit a room with some equipment and stock some supplies.”

“Are you willing to be one of those ‘no questions asked’ doctors? Someone who will take in a stab wound or a gunshot wound and not report it to the police?”

“No, Howie. I’m not going to become some mob or gang doctor, putting men back together so they can go kill other men or terrorize businesses and threaten families.”

“I understand. It’s too bad, though. It pays well.”

“I don’t need the money. I just want to help some people and practice my skills.”

“Ok. I’ll see what I can do, but I’m not letting you run a free clinic. You do that and you’ll be up to your eyeballs in patients. Jordan will run the clinic for you and she’ll set up a barter system. I’ll set you up in the back of one of my warehouses. Do I have your ok to have Jordan buy some equipment from the funds that she’s collected for you?”

“Sure, but I want to approve the list of purchases first. Actually, I’ll get a list and send it her. If you’re setting up the clinic, I’ll need a reception and waiting room, a scanning room, an exam room and a surgical suite. I suppose I’ll need another scanning machine like the one I have at Clara’s.”

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“How long do I have to get this all set up?”

“Three months. I still need to finish my gynecology rotation, followed by family medicine and pediatrics. That should give me a strong enough base to start working from.

“How much time will you be devoting to this, Abby?”

“I’m free Sunday nights from six to midnight. If there are enough customers, I’ll add in a morning and an afternoon sometime during the week.”

“You’ll have enough customers once word gets out. You should consider changing up the Sunday night for Friday night. From my experience, most people tend to get sick on Friday afternoons, just as the doctors take off for the weekend.”

“That’s a very good point. Ok, Friday night it is. Before I go see your kids for my update, any luck on finding that helicopter that I’d asked you about.”

“I have a line on a few different models. Did you get your pilot’s license yet?”

“No. I’m thinking of starting courses in the new year. Gerry printed off all the course material for me. I haven’t had time to get to it yet. Any chance that one of the models you’re looking at is a Hughes 500D?”

“Hold on, let me check. Uhmm…no. What’s so special about that one?”

“It’s the one TC flew in Magnum P.I.”

Howie facepalmed and kicked me out of his office. Laughing, I headed to the back of the warehouse to speak with Jordan and Scott. She handed me a breakdown of my off-the-books empire and I gave her the specs for a metallic ink printer that she should use for all future printed reports. Once we’d gone through the figures, it was Scott’s turn and he presented ten new companies that were looking for funding. I agreed with him on his three recommendations and chose one more besides. It was a woman who wanted to build a large greenhouse on her property to grow all sorts of medicinal plants used in home remedies. Her grandmother had trained her and passed down all the old family recipes to her and now that her kids were grown, she finally had the time to put that knowledge to use. I agreed to fund her for a percentage of the company and private lessons. I also suggested to Scott that once she gets up and running, he should put her in touch with the prepper warehouse people that I’d invested in. I was sure that they’d be interested in working with her.

Before I left, I talked to Jordan about the clinic that Howie was going to set up for me and she was very excited about it.

“I’m pretty sure that your first few days are going to be packed. You’re going to have a lot of teenage girls coming to see you.”

“Why would that be?”

“First, you’re a woman. Most doctors who make themselves available for the community are men. They’ll feel much more comfortable talking to you about their issues. Second, you’re not part of their community. You don’t know their parents and you didn’t watch them grow up. You won’t judge them or tell them how their behavior will bring shame to their parents. Third, when it comes to women’s issues, the home remedy mentality sucks. Finally, since you’re not a licensed doctor, you won’t be required to tell their parents anything.”

“I’m ok with the first three reasons you listed. The last isn’t correct. Any abuse that I find out about will get reported to the police. Any behaviors that endanger someone’s life, will get reported. Also, I will not be running an abortion clinic here.”

“Well, that’ll put a bit of a damper on the excitement, but you’ll still be well received.”

“I forgot to ask your father if he has a source for medication and prescriptions. Off-grid ways are still new to me.”

“He probably does. I’ll ask him and let you know. Before you leave, don’t forget to grab those boxes over there. Gerry sent you more books and there are two boxes of whiskey from your distillery as well. Dale says to save one as a collector’s item and have fun with the other one.

“I’m not old enough to legally drink alcohol yet. I do know a few old timers that are, though. I’ll get them to try it out and see how they like it.” I was picturing Jake, Harry and Thomas sitting around a fireplace, talking about old times and how rough they had it growing up poor.