by Rick Blechta
Playing along, she asked,“And your program works for everybody?”
He nodded. “If the person really wants to get better and beat the failure that’s been dogging their steps, we can help them do it. If they truly want to get better, they will get better. I have never seen it fail.”
Jackie could tell that Barry believed everything he said.
She really wanted to ask him why Sunnyvale had failed Olivia so miserably.
Since Jackie had been a good girl, Barry rewarded her with a new room by mid-afternoon – one with no camera. It was also in a building further towards the centre of the compound, which meant it was nearer the hill Shannon would probably be watching from.
As she put down the armful of clothes she’d carried over from the other building, Jackie immediately noticed the empty bookcase in the corner. She turned to Barry. “How come it’s empty? You don’t allow people to read here?”
“No, we encourage everyone to read. You have to earn the right to have books, just like everything else here.” He turned and walked to the door. “We have exercise period in twenty minutes. You might want to change into something lighter. Do a good job exercising, and we’ll see about a book. Same goes for the TV and things like that.” He looked her squarely in the eye. “But don’t forget that the pendulum can also swing in the opposite direction. You can lose things, too.”
As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, Jackie sprang into action. It took ten minutes to be as sure as she could be that she wasn’t being monitored.
Once that was done, she stripped off her outer clothes and removed all of Roy’s goodies.
Where to hide them was a problem, since she couldn’t be sure the room wouldn’t be searched. She decided on using the back of the padded reading chair next to the bookcase.
She sliced four inches along the bottom seam with Roy’s little knife, then stuffed each item in one at a time. It would be tricky to get them out in a hurry, but unless the chair was turned over, her hiding place would be hard to detect.
She just had time to get her T-shirt back on change into some shorts before Barry returned for her. It was hard to keep the smug grin off her face as she followed him to the quadrangle.
“This is the rest of my current Family,” he said as he indicated four other people. “I’ll leave you to introduce yourselves. I have a meeting with the director, but you’ll see me this evening.”
One of the group was a pop diva who’d lately had a string of cancelled concerts as well as TV talk show appearances where she’d been slurring words and forgetting the lyrics to her forgettable songs. There was a mom of three who had developed a painkiller dependency after the birth of her third child (now seven years old), a businessman who drank too much and a young punk with an attitude problem who’d been sent to Sunnyvale by a judge in exchange for a suspended sentence for stealing his father’s car and wrecking it.
Except for the punk, everyone seemed friendly enough and quite happy to talk about their problems. The punk brazenly stared at Jackie’s body to the point where she thought he could do with a little roughing up.
More people joined the growing crowd on the grass of the quadrangle. Eventually, a perky young blonde with a face just aching to have a fist slammed into it stood in the centre and did her thing, a combination of aerobics, dance movement, stretching and the usual predictable exercises done in gym classes around the world. Her chirpy, enthusiastic voice and music that was at least fifteen years out of date made Jackie want to scream.
It didn’t escape Jackie that one of the few contemporary songs was by her litter-mate, the pop diva, who basked in the glow of her meagre fame as she sang along with it. No wonder the girl had self-esteem issues. Kit could wipe the floor with her.
Everyone bought into the exercising with enthusiasm – with the exception of the punk, who did the very least he could. Using the fact that she was the new kid on the block, Jackie purposely screwed up so she would have a better chance to stop and look around. Eventually, she spotted Olivia in a far corner of the quadrangle, with a man and woman in brown near her. Seeing that gave her pause. Could Olivia’s nasty stepmother be on the lookout for something?
During a short pause, when everyone had a sip of water from bottles that were handed out, Jackie sidled over to the mom in her group. “Do we have to stay with our Family?”
“No, but why would you want to move?”
“The punk keeps staring at my butt.”
“Randy’s harmless. He just needs his attitude rearranged. That’s really why he’s here.”
“I still don’t like it.”
“They encourage us to be together. Since you’re new, I can’t be sure how Barry will feel about it.”
With this exchange as a possible excuse, Jackie moved farther back in the crowd so she could use the remaining time to observe Olivia better.
Her face looked more gaunt than it had in the promo shot Jackie had been shown. But it was the faraway look in her eyes that made Jackie feel most uneasy. Did they have her on drugs?
A few other people near Olivia seemed a bit strange, too, and all of them seemed to be kept apart from the others. If this continued to be the case, Jackie’s job would be a lot harder.
She sighed as she did yet another stupid exercise. What she really wanted to be doing was running hard and lifting weights. Bullshit group aerobics were not her thing.
***
Up on the hillside, Shannon was watching. She too had located Olivia, and once she’d made sure Jackie was on the quadrangle, she spent most of her time watching the girl. Even through binoculars, it was easy to see that she moved awkwardly, as if they had her on some kind of drug. Could they be on to Jackie, or did they just want to make sure Olivia wouldn’t escape again?
There had been no word from Jackie yet, but at least she was out exercising and seemed to be okay. She’d moved towards Olivia, but not too near, Shannon noticed with satisfaction.
When exercise period was over, Olivia was led off with five other people, so Shannon kept tabs on Jackie, who went back to talk to the group she’d been with at the beginning of the exercise session. Then she walked slowly off to a building in the middle of the compound and went inside. This must be where she was being housed. Shannon scanned the rest of the compound, but Olivia had already disappeared.
An LED on the side of Roy’s receiver/transmitter began flashing, so Shannon plugged in the small headset he’d also supplied.
Reception was not great, but Shannon was relieved that everything seemed to be working. Jackie was in mid-sentence.
“...so that’s what I saw. I’m going to—”
“Jackie, it’s Shannon. I’m here.”
“I was hoping you would be. You on the hill?”
“Yes. That’s where I thought reception would be best. I saw you going into a building after exercise period. Is your room in there?”
“Yes.”
“So what’s up? You’ll have to speak louder. There’s a lot of noise on your transmission.”
“That’s because I’m in the bathroom with the shower on. I checked the room for bugs, but you never know.”
“What side of the building are you on?”
“Your side. Just a minute. I’ll go open the curtain so you know which room it is.”
Moments later, a curtain pulled aside, and Jackie appeared in the window for a few seconds.
“Got it?” she asked.
“Yes. I don’t think we should be on too long. Do you have anything for me?”
“Did you spot Olivia?”
“Yes.”
“How did she seem to you?”
“Spaced out.”
“Me, too. I’m still feeling my way around, but I’m going to try to get closer to her, maybe talk. We all eat in that large building at the eastern end of the compound.”
“Just don’t take any chances. We only want to find out what her situation is. Once you accomplish that, we’ll have to reevaluate where we’re going wi
th this.”
“Is Roy around?”
“No, he’s gone back to Oakland.”
“Tell him he did a good job.”
“I’m sure he knows that.”
“I’m going to sign off. We have something called a ‘responsibility session’ before dinner, and I still need to figure out the most effective way to play this: cooperative or uncooperative. The bullshit in this place is enough to make me puke.”
“Leave me a message before you go to bed. I’ll pick it up in the morning at the latest.”
“Gotcha. Over and out.”
***
Jackie glared at everyone in the circle around her. Group therapy had never been a thrilling concept for her, and being the new kid on the block, everyone had been having a go at her. The fact that they were the ones who were actually screwed up, and she was only play-acting didn’t make it any easier. Barry just sat back after telling everyone her background and let them have at her.
As she put up with the amateur-hour psychologists, Jackie was busy trying to figure out how to get closer to Olivia without arousing any suspicion. The punk hadn’t taken part in much of the dissection of her fake problems, even though Barry had tried to draw him into the conversation.
She tried not to get angry – difficult under the circumstances.“How long have all of you been here, and do you think you’re better off now than when you arrived?”
Mary, the mom, gushed,“I am a lot better. I can’t believe the progress I’ve made in a month. I see things really clearly now.”
David, the businessman, said, “I know I’m always going to have trouble with booze, and I’ll have to be around it a lot, too, because of my job, but I think I’ll be able to handle it now. That’s not bad for six weeks.”
The pop star, Alycia, declared she was beginning to understand how all the bad things had happened to her. “There are people who will hang on you for the good times. They’re facilitators, and I have to be on my guard against them. I don’t think I’ll be ready to leave for at least a month.”
At this, Randy the punk spoke up scornfully. “That’s about the amount of time it will take your manager to get you a new record deal, I seem to remember you saying a few nights ago.”
Alycia glared at him.
He continued. “You’re all completely full of shit. This whole place is full of shit. And I am so tired of listening to the three of you whine.”
Getting up, he stomped out of the room and slammed the door. Barry sighed loudly and scribbled on his note pad.
“He’s an angry young man,” David said, shaking his head.
Mary added, “He won’t make any progress until he opens up. I still say you should put him in another group, Barry. He needs to be with kids his own age.”
“We’ll be the judge of that, Mary,” Barry said surprisingly firmly. “We’ve had this discussion before.”
Jackie saw an opportunity and grabbed it. “Well, I think Randy has the right idea. It’s bullshit to sit with a bunch of people who have more problems than I do and have to listen to them tell me what I’m doing wrong. Who made you the experts?”
“We’re coming from the same place you are,” Mary said, with what she probably hoped was a reassuring smile.
“It’s all bullshit. I’m outta here!”
She stormed out of the room in much the same way Randy had – except she slammed the door so hard the glass in its window cracked.
It was hard not to smile.
Randy was by himself under a tree at the far end of the compound. Jackie went over and sat down next to him. It was several minutes before he spoke. “So did they send you out here to get me?”
Jackie laughed. 7“Hell no! I basically told them the same thing you did.”
They were silent for awhile before he asked, “Is it true you know Kit Mason?”
This was from left field. “Yeah, and I wish she’d kept her nose out of my business.”
“What’s she like?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“No reason,” he said, shrugging. “I just like her music.”
“You got any of her CDs?”
“Yeah. She says it like it is. She’s also a bitchin’ guitarist,” he added, sounding more like a teenager.
Jackie smiled. “So you’re a fan.”
He shrugged again. “Yeah, I guess I am.”
She pretended to consider for a moment. “How about you show me the ropes around here, and when we blow this place, I’ll introduce you to Kit?”
After pretending to consider that, Randy said, “Okay. First thing you should know is that they’re going to take something away from you for what you did. That’s what they call ‘the System’. I’ve been sleeping on the floor for the past week.”
He said it as if it was a badge of honour.
“Why don’t you just play the game and get yourself out of here?”
“Tried that. They seem to know when you’re bullshitting them. It’s kind of spooky.”
“Tell me about those people who were way off by themselves during the exercise thing. I thought this was supposed to be one happy family.”
“The space cadets? They’re all nuts. A couple of them have been here for years. Good for a laugh sometimes, though.”
The dining hall was large and noisy. Barry was waiting for Jackie at the door, along with Dr. Smith. Both eyed her ominously.
“I’m told you had a bad session this afternoon,” Dr. Smith said.
She shrugged. “Depends what you call bad.”
“I’ve told you, Jackie, good behaviour is rewarded and bad behaviour is punished. You know what that means.”
“No, I don’t, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
“There will only be juice and crackers for your dinner tonight, and we’ve removed the pillow and bedding from your room. Since you’re new, it will only be for tonight. Jackie, you have to understand we can only help you if you’re willing to help yourself.”
Randy had informed her she was supposed to sit with people she didn’t know at meals. That was supposed to bring Seekers “out of themselves,” or some such ridiculous thing.
“You mean I can sit with the pop stars and other show biz people?”
Randy had rolled his eyes. “They never sit out with us. Their claim is that the rest of us hassle them. They have a special dining room. That’s where Smith and the upper guys eat, too. Sort of shows their program’s built on lies, doesn’t it?”
At first Jackie sat down at a table looking angry. Eventually, she wandered off to the food line, where she was handed a glass of some venomous smelling green-coloured liquid and a cellophane bag containing four whole wheat crackers.
Being one of the last to get her meal, she came out and stood looking over the crowded room. At the far end was the table where the six “space cadets” sat with their handlers. One seat at the round table remained empty, and it was right next to Olivia.
Nobody said anything as she sat down.
Some of them ate normally. One had only a spoon, and the weirdest of the lot ate sloppily with just her fingers. Jackie stared straight ahead, her face blank.
After about five minutes, she picked up the crackers, looked down at them for a moment, then slowly closed her hand, crushing them to crumbs. All eyes were on her, but still no one spoke.
Olivia, with a bowl of tomato soup in front of her, leaned against Jackie and asked in an exaggerated whisper, “Since you don’t seem to want them, can I have your crackers? They never give you enough here.” Jackie turned and looked at her, then grunted, “Sure.”
She managed to gag down the green glop so her stomach wouldn’t be screaming at her all night, but that was about it. The red shirts talked quietly among themselves, but the space cadets remained silent throughout the meal, other than Olivia, who hummed constantly.
In those few brief seconds she’d looked into Olivia’s eyes, Jackie had been shocked. They were dull and didn’t seem to be tracking properly.
Smith definitely had her on something.
***
Ronald, Dom and I looked at Harry blankly.
“It’s a business decision, pure and simple. When you had Olivia, things were really looking up. Now they aren’t again, and I need to get this place at least half-full just to break even. Weekends haven’t been too good lately, either. Something had to give, and I’m afraid it’s you guys. I feel bad about it, but that’s the way it is. If business still doesn’t pick up, I’m going to be forced to close. Live jazz is going down the toilet in this city.”
Ronald was incensed. “So you’re firing us, just like that?”
Harry shrugged. “Like I said: business is poor.”
For a moment I thought our pianist was going to go ballistic, but suddenly he just sagged back in his seat.
“Thanks for being honest, Harry,” I said, then added, glancing pointedly at Ronald, “We appreciate the week’s notice. It will give us a chance to look for another gig.”
Harry excused himself, and we sat silently for several moments, each lost in our own thoughts.
It hadn’t been a good night all around. If we’d had twenty people at any one time that evening, I would have been surprised. With such an empty house, we’d hardly been able to get it up ourselves and had produced three pretty mediocre sets.
I looked at my companions. “Any hot ideas?”
Dom looked at me blankly, but Ronald’s face was scarlet. Was it anger – or something else?
“What’s eating you?” Dom asked.
“Nothing!” Ronald answered.
“Harry’s just being honest with us. We’ve had a good run and—”
“We’ve got to get that damn girl back! She’s the one who queered the whole deal. I shouldn’t have...”
He stopped short, and his face got even redder, if that was possible.