The Treatment Program of Absurdity: 1

The Chat

On March 31st, 2011, I was invited over to Adam’s apartment to play Call of Duty: Black Ops, along with Frank, Molly, and Bob. In the process of playing video games, a conversation would ensue among all of us.
“So Harry, what is it that you need to work on?”
“Bob, it is beating you four in this game of Call of Duty. Damn, they never should have set this game in Vietnam. Vietnam is not an ideal place for a Call of Duty game. Maybe they should have made a My Lai mission, which would have made the game more enjoyable.”
“What is My Lai?”
“Never mind, Adam!”
“I mean, what brings you hear to Kingsville?”
“I need to get better.”
“On what?”
“My anger!”
“Why are you so angry?”
“Because some people have it better than I do?”
“You are joking?”
“God dammit Harry!”
“I should hit you!”
“Do you have emotions from anything that happened that you feel you need to talk about?”
“Yah, I didn’t have Armani clothes as a child.”
“Harry, why not discuss actual emotions?”
“That is about as ridiculous as a billionaire who bitches about a stupid sled from his childhood, when he has billions of dollars that would enable him to buy billions of sleds. Anyway, emotions are for women and children.”
“If you are allowed to talk about your emotions as a child. I was never allowed to talk about my emotions as a child because all I would get were broken bones from my parents. When I went to foster care, none of my foster parents, none of them, would listen. When they finally all gave up on me and I ended up in a state-run treatment program, the staff would “medicate” me every time I cried.
“How did you end up in a state-run treatment center?”
“One night, after my stepfather told me that his “friends” were coming over, and I was to please them as always, I decided I wasn’t going to do it anymore. When they came over, he came to my room to grab me, in which I stabbed him with a knife that I found. He survived, and he ended up calling the police, as I ran out of the house. He went to jail, and I was sent to a treatment facility, 30-miles outside of Provo. I was 13 when I was sent there, and I spent 5 years of my life there. It was the first time in my life that I wasn’t sexually abused, and it was the first time in my life that I wasn’t severely physically abused. I had nothing to do there. I just sat in lockdown all day, completing worksheets in order to garner my G.E.D. I had noo TV, no athletics, and no fun of any kind. All I had was Frank.”
“You two met in a treatment program?”
“Yes!”
“How did you get sent there? Sorry, that is personal.”
“No, it is fine. I had a similar story to hers. When I was six, I came home from school with a bad mark. My mom grabbed a crow bar and hit me with it. I still have the scar to this day. That night, in frustration, I hit a portrait and it smashed. I was afraid that my mom was going to literally murder me, so I took a gun and shot her. I was sent to a group home, where by the time I was 13, I was uncontrollable, so I was sent to the treatment center.”
Molly and Frank had to leave, since both of them had to get up early in the morning. As they left, Bob proceeded to tell me about how I should take advantage of the opportunities that I have, since I am young and still have the opportunity to change. Bob told me that he didn’t get treatment until he was 45. I asked Bob why he went to a treatment center at age 45, and Bob exclaimed that “I was lucky.” After Bob left, Adam and I went out onto the front porch of Adam’s apartment building, where the two of us would continue the conversation.
“How are you doing, Harry?”
“I am doing well, and yourself?”
“Doing fine!”
“I feel like a little guilty; it amazes me that all three of them have gone through such trauma that I would have killed myself if I had endured, and they are all still such optimists.”
“Harry, life sucks; life sucks for everyone. The goal in life is to take the few aspects that don’t suck and get the most out of them.”
“So, even though my life may suck, it sucks a lot less than a lot of other people.”
“Harry, you and I have two of the least horrible lives out there.”
“I often wonder if that is why you and I are often able to laugh at such screwed up things.”
“Indeed! Harry, I like you, and I love having you as a friend. One of the things that I like about you is that you are not wearing a mask. Most people I know are punks; they are people who have had miserable lives, so they make up stories in order to escape their detestable realities. You don’t try to be cooler than you are; you are real, and you are the only real person I can talk to. You may not be as cool as the masks that people put on, but masks are not cool.”
“It is like when we play pool, you accept the fact that you can’t defeat Minnesota Fats.”
“Good movie, but that is no image, since I can kick your ass. I can beat anyone at Great Ascendency.”
“What about Han?”
“Han is so entitled, which is why I cannot stand being around him.”
“Hey, I am also very entitled.”
“Yah, but you are funny! Anyway Harry, you are a really close friend, I love you, and I want you to change.”
“Thank you, Adam. In a non-homosexual way, I also love you, Adam.”
“One thing! You need to quit talking about money. Mary is now only able to take one course, due to the fact that she has to work through school, and I don’t think that she appreciated hearing you talk about how you are going to London this summer. I personally didn’t have a lot of money growing up; the only reason I was able to come here is because my parents came into some money after my grandpa died.”
“Wait a minute, didn’t you go to a parochial school while you were a teenager in Denver?”
“Yah!”
“If your family was middle-class, how did they afford it?”
“It was $3,000 to attend the school; my parents came up with half the money by forgoing having cable and a cell phone. I got a $1,500 scholarship by managing to acquire a 4.1.”
“That must have been very stressful.”
“Why else do you think that I got into drugs?’
“HAHA! Are you serious?”
“Yes!”
“Sorry to hear that. Was it your parents who put the stress on you?”
“Not really! I appreciated the sacrifices they were making for me, so I worked my ass off to please them.”
“That’s sweet! What was the braking point for you?”
“The SATs.”