Noah Cicero - Go to work and do your job. Care for your children. Pay your bills. Obey the law. Buy products.

after an hour the plane landed

soldiers uncuffed me from the seat

took me off the plane

looked around

it was the desert

but what desert

it could be any desert

could be sahara or gobi

asked soldiers where am i

soldier with child learning to walk in a desert

he laughed

he didnt care about me

it was hard to be around humans that cared so little about me

they cared nothing about giving me attention or anything i wanted

they had no desire to fulfill any of my needs

they led me to a large compound

was terrified

wanted to fall on the ground

cry

knew that wasnt an option

it would have made things worse

saw machine gunners posted on towers

saw people that werent dressed in military fatigues

realized this is where people went when they disappeared

led me in compound

compound here is new very clean

led me into a room

had me sit on a plastic chair at round table

soldiers left

locked the door behind them

sat there staring into space

left me nothing to read

not even a magazine

put my head on arms

went to sleep

hours passed

no one came to speak to me

tried lying on floor

soldier came in room

told me to get back in chair

got back chair

more hours passed

must have been in chair 20 hrs

woman came in wearing nice military clothes

not fatigues

class As

think they are called

was a white woman in her 30s

slightly overweight

she said my name is mrs techak i am your case worker how are you doing today michael

want to know why im here

im not the person to speak to for that techak very polite voice

who is

im not the person to speak to for that she took out few pieces of paper put them in front of me said could you please answer these questions

i dont understand am i under arrest

this is a treatment center michael

didnt check myself into a treatment center this doesn’t look like a treatment center

why are you being nasty we are trying to help you said techak

looks like i am under arrest and detained

could you please fill out the papers

she left the room

looked at paper

it was a questionnaire

questions were stupid

they asked me

are you being treated well at the camp

was my plane ride comfortable

were the soldiers nice to me

did the sleeping agent they gave me work properly

were there any side effects such as diarrhea incontinence impotence

was the plastic chair i was sitting on comfortable

had to answer from 1 to 5 strongly disagree to strongly agree

it was insane

answered questions out of boredom

least i could read something

sat there for 3 more hours

no sound in the room except a heater that would pump in dry stale air

no music

no sounds of outside world

nothing

couldnt even hear people walking in hall

dismal

could feel my mind lose itself from lack of sleep

and lack of sound

techak came back

she sat down

picked up questionnaire

put it in her bag

said are you going to tell me why ive been arrested now

she stared at me said first off welcome to lupejanko treatment center

pronounced lupejanko with spanish accent loo pay yanko

please just tell me why ive been arrested

you haven’t been arrested you have been scheduled to enter this treatment center because of your behavior

what am i guilty of

what do you think you are guilty of

dont think im guilty of anything ive always considered myself boring

she looked at me said that is what they all say everyone says they are innocent therefore if everyone says they are innocent everyone must be guilty

that doesnt make any sense

we have your behaviors here we know your behaviors

are you an interrogator you look like an interrogator

im a case manager not an interrogator

am i guilty of being a witch

she gave me a look of disapproval

okay you got me im a witch i practice black magic

shut up

okay

you need to take this serious

sat there feeling shitty

there didn’t seem any hope that anything i said mattered

terrible feeling of oppression struck me

started to hyperventilate but sucked it back

i was going to vomit

realized that i was not the kind of person that could perform well during interrogation

just didn’t know what to do

had no experience in the art of being interrogated

there was no hope

was trapped

like the residents of NEOTAP

techak said in a tone that was like an iron heel grinding my skull deep into the dirt of the earth you have done several things that are not responsible we have a list here first thing you did was not perform your job at NEOTAP with success you always told the residents why you were doing things you were told never to give the residents of NEOTAP reasons for your behavior or for the rules of NEOTAP but you did anyway you often let people get away with things because you viewed some of the rules as stupid in our opinion were not stupid

you are saying that i was too nice i allowed the residents to have their humanity

she said i do not approve of that reply

okay what else did i do

you subverted capitalism this year 3 times first you raked the leaves of a neighbors yard for free this neighbor was named mr brown then you shoveled the snow off mrs mays driveway twice for free even though she offered you money

mrs mays husband is a truck driver he wasnt going to be home til late at night she needed to get somewhere i shoveled her driveway i raked those leaves to take the leaves and use them as compost for my garden

yes we know you have a garden and the garden is organic

so

what is wrong with tomatoes and peppers from the grocery store said techak.

they are full of fertilizers food at grocery stores is half natural gas they arent even food

why didnt you take money for shoveling that snow mr scipio

it seemed like the right thing to do

she looked with anger said what if everyone in our culture started doing the right thing

i don’t know

our culture is based off self interest not self sacrifice the capitalist system requires self interested people to do things for money if everyone went around doing things for free the whole system would fall apart are you trying to destroy the economic system of america

dont think so

she said your crime is more heinous than stealing from a store or even selling drugs because if you steal from a store then you are still stating that you believe in capitalism you just cant afford to buy certain products if you sell drugs you are still selling them for money which is capitalism but your behavior doing things for free growing your own food these are terrible behaviors that subvert and slowly destroy the very foundation of our culture and country

i need a lawyer i need my rights to be protected

you arent under arrest mr scipio this is a treatment center

but you are detaining me there are people with machine guns here guarding me

you are in a treatment center you are being helped we will help you

you cant do this

i personally dont know what you are talking about

who can i talk to there must be somebody here that isnt insane this seems like a mistake how can someone be detained for shoveling somebodys driveway for free

she stood up left

sat in plastic chair for more hours

tired

feeling terrible

2 soldiers i never met before came in room

walked me to the open area where the prisoners were kept

they led me to a bed

threw down toothpaste toothbrush walked away