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

“But won’t that lead to them just coming up to us and saying positive things so you will write that they said something positive in the log?”

Imad looked at me angrily and said, “No.”

“Okay.”

Imad called to the lower floor to get the fifteen residents to come up.

Fifteen residents came up.

It was my first real interaction with the residents.

They stood in a polite line not talking. There was some whispering but it was barely audible.

Each resident came up one at a time.

Imad checked a sheet, then signed another sheet and then filled out a large document concerning who took the Tums, how many they took, when they took them, and then he signed that one.

One came up. Imad filled out all the forms which took a minute, then put the Tums in a small plastic cup, then dumped the Tums into the resident’s left hand. The resident put the Tums in his mouth, held up his left hand so Imad could see. Imad stared at the resident’s left hand. Then the resident was required to chew the Tums loudly standing in front of him. When the resident was done chewing the Tums he had to open his mouth to show that he had chewed them to a point that he could not make a weapon or key out of the Tums. Then Imad would say, “You can go.”

After it was over, Imad collected all the documents and put them into a special place. Then he went on the computer and filled out a log of everyone who took Tums and how many they took. The whole process lasted one hour.

Rachel Heidelberg led me to a small room. The room had no windows. There were no pictures on the walls. It occurred to me that nowhere in the building were there pictures. Everything was white, grey and blue. There were no other colors. The building was efficient. Everything was where it was supposed to be. There was no artistry, nothing inspiring about it. Rachel Heidelberg motioned for me to sit down. She looked at me and handed me a book called Reality Conversion . She said, “This book is our bible here. We believe in this book. This book notifies us of how we should think and behave and how the residents should think and behave. Everyone who works here believes in this book. Reality Conversion supplies us with a form for our program. It is important to become acquainted with it. Personally I do not like to read and find it boring, but I force myself to read this book once a year. The book was written by Dr. Charles Nevitsky. I personally don’t know anything about the man, but I do believe his book. Now sit in this room and read for several hours. When it is time for you leave the room, I will come and get you. There is a camera in the room if you did not know.”

She handed the book to me. I held it in my hands, looking at it.

Rachel Heidelberg walked out of the room.

I sat in the small room alone. I looked at the camera, then I looked back at the book and began reading excerpts from Dr. Nevitsky’s Reality Conversion :

The Human Body and Its Mind

The human mind is nothing. The human being is a body. A body that must be fed, clothed and sheltered. The body knows that it must be fed, clothed and sheltered. In reality this is all the human body needs. The human body lives in a society. A society is a collection of human bodies, each body requiring food, clothes and shelter. Most humans in modern society decide to be normal and do work, which is finding a place in the society that contributes to the continuance of that society. The social contract of any society begins with the body; each body contracts with other bodies to fulfill their basic needs. We must recognize that man is a body and through the body there are behaviors. Behaviors are choices the body makes. Concerning deviants we must teach them how to make their bodies move into certain patterns. The deviant has a mind that creates thoughts, but those thoughts are not good thoughts. A human is a mass collection of thoughts. Statistically the criminal thinks bad thoughts more than the mind that is not criminal, and an overwhelming number of bad thoughts leads to crime. We must reduce bad thoughts. The criminal will always think bad thoughts, as all people do. But people who are well-adjusted and do not get sent to correctional institutions do not have a surplus of bad thoughts. We need to take the deviant and replace their deviant thoughts with good thoughts, responsible thoughts that lead to efficiency. The deviant is a person who does not value the five pillars of modern society.

The Five Pillars of Modern Society

1. Go to work and do your job.

2. Care for your children.

3. Pay your bills

4. Obey the law.

5. Buy products.

If a person does these five things every day of their life they will be responsible and achieve a high level of efficiency. These are the cornerstones of modern society. If everyone in a modern society does these five things, then modern society will run smoothly.

The Five Pillars of Modern Society are not to be discussed with the deviants. They are only to be known by the employees of the institution in charge of taking care of the deviants.

Imad looked at me and said, “Now we are going to do a urine test. Urine tests are very important because we need to know if the residents have been doing drugs. If we find out that they are doing drugs, that is bad.”

“Okay,” I said.

“We test for many drugs. We test for MDMA, marijuana, meth, Xanax, painkillers. You name it, we test for it.”

“Okay.”

Imad continued, “We got a memo today. Today we are giving urine tests to Dave Morgan and Sherwood Burke. We have to call them up here and then they are not allowed to leave until they urinate. They have to sit at that table.” He pointed at the table. It was a small round table with plastic, uncomfortable seats.

Imad said, “They sit at that table and when they have to pee they tell us. When they pee I will show you what to do then.”

Imad called down to the lower floor. A few minutes later, Dave Morgan and Sherwood Burke came up.

Dave Morgan was a feeble-looking man. His head was shaved. He was in his mid-twenties but still had pimples. He had badly-done tattoos on his arms and legs. He was wearing what looked like a gym outfit. He couldn’t focus his eyes. His eyes darted around and never settled on a specified location. He said to Imad, “Why am I up here?”

Imad said, “Urine test.”

“I’m not on drugs. I’ve been in here for four months. How am I supposed to do drugs while I’m locked up in here?”

“Sit down at that table,” Imad said.

“I didn’t bring up anything to read or do. Can I go down and get something?”

“No, sit down at the table and tell me when you have to urinate.”

“I just went, it could take hours.”

Imad handed him a Styrofoam cup and said, “Drink water.”

Dave Morgan held the cup and said, “Drink water?”

“Yes, sit down and stop arguing, or I’ll write you up.”

“What?”

“Sit down,” Imad said.

Sherwood Burke came up to Imad and said, “Yes.” Sherwood Burke stood there looking at Imad, his eyes were focused on Imad’s face. You could tell that he was thinking about ripping Imad’s face off. If Burke wanted to he could. He was six foot two and had a thick Scottish frame. I felt afraid of him.

Sherwood Burke sat down without question. He knew the procedure.

Imad said to me after they sat down and were out of hearing distance, “Stand here and watch them but don’t talk to them. If they have a question, tell them to ask me. If they try to engage you in conversation, don’t speak. If you allow them to speak to you they will try to manipulate you. Think of these assholes as manipulation machines. They aren’t like us. These assholes are the scum of the earth. If you don’t believe me, then read their Resident Profiles on the computer. I’m gonna go smoke and sign some documents.”