In the evening, an ambulance sirens past the house and pulls next door. Its revolving lights rotate through the darkened living room. Hearing the sound, Jake comes out of his room and goes to the window. Pushing the curtain aside, he looks to see two paramedics wheeling a stretcher down the neighbor's driveway. Francine comes downstairs and says, "What's going on?"
"I don't know. There's an ambulance at the neighbor's."
Masani comes in the room, "I know he's been sick."
"I don't think I've ever seen that neighbor," Jake says.
"He's not out much. He's pretty old. He's a World War II vet. This is probably not how he wanted to celebrate Veterans Day," Masani says, looking out the window.
"I hope Mr. Noga's all right," Francine says, joining them at the window.
"I hope those guys in the ambulance are all right," Masani says, turning on a light.
"What do you mean?" Francine says, moving to the couch.
"Umm, umm. When my uncle was sick last year, my aunt had to call for the ambulance once. She said the paramedics were pillheads. They were more concerned with scooping up my uncle's medications than with seeing if he was all right and getting him to the hospital. She said they were looking all around the house and they kept asking her if he had any pain pills. She thought they were up to no good. She'd read in the newspaper about pillpopping paramedics who pocket pills from patients."
"What do they do with them?" Jake asks, turning away from the window since there hasn't been any action since the paramedics enter the house.
"Sugar, I don't know, but I can guess."
"Snort 'em," Francine says.
"Or sell 'em. Who knows? Anyway, they kept bugging her about wanting to take his medications with him in the ambulance, but she told them she'd take the medications with her, and finally to get them off her back she told them he didn't have any pain pills, even though he did. My aunt doesn't like lying, but she always says the devil gets what the devil deserves. They must have believed her, because finally, they actually got down to business and loaded my uncle into the ambulance."
"Is that Leroy?" Francine asks.
"Yep. Uncle Leroy. Well, once they got him in the ambulance they asked him if he had any pain pills, but he was out of it and didn't know my aunt was suspicious of the paramedics, so he told them he did. When they heard he had oxycodone or whatever, they were back out of the ambulance in a shot and began bugging my aunt for the medications again. She finally had to yell at them to get them on their way to the hospital. She made sure to dump out the pain pills in the trash before she left. And when they all got to the hospital, one of the paramedics asked again about the pills, and in front of the nurse or whatever, my aunt just finally gave in and gave him the medications. She figured it was either legit or the nurse was in on the racket too so it was a no win situation. But the pain pills were gone, so they probably weren't too happy when they found that. Anyway, my uncle did get the rest of his medications eventually."
"What did she think they were going to do with someone else's prescriptions?" Jake says, scratching his head.
"Oh, my innocent child. What do you think? They were going to take the pills. They might just steal them outright, or swap them for sugar pills or something so the patient doesn't know they're gone."
"That's pretty shitty," Jake says, "What if the patient needs the medication?"
"Honey, the greedy don't care about anything but their greed, and the addict doesn't care about anything except getting high."
"That's pretty sad when the people you call for help try to rip you off," Francine says.
"Yes," Masani says, "And there's no prescription that can fix that."
Blog Love Omega Glee is a novel by Wred Fright about two bloggers who fall in love while the world falls apart, which is being serialized on his blog. To start reading from the beginning or read another installment, please visit Blog Love Omega Glee Central on WredFright.Com. If you like what you've read, or you've read all of Blog Love Omega Glee and want more Fright, then please read his first novel.
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