The Treatment Program of Absurdity: 2

The Prank Phone Call

On the evening of September 5th, 2011, I was sitting outside Polly House, watching FOX news via the app on my phone. It was stopped by a blocked phone call, which was presumably from a staff member. It was, however, a sick and disturbing phone call of someone pretending to be my parents, who would then exclaim, “Just kidding, I am dead,” and go on to mock me. I went into Polly House, and told staff what happened, the only two staff present were Kelly and Randy. Kelly comforted me, while Randy went and played Xbox. I then called Frank Gore to tell him about the incident, so Dr. Gore could bring it to staff’s attention. I then called Elizabeth for emotional support.
When I left Polly House, I called Adam to find out if Adam knew anything about it, but Adam was appalled, along with Mary who was listening; the two of them tried to figure out who made the call to me. I then called up Jenny, who had already found out about it, and told me that, “There are times where I want to punch you in the face, but I would never imagine doing anything like this.” I could not get to bed that night, and stayed up until 3:00, playing GTA San Andreas on my computer. The next morning, there was a seminar in the group room of the OPO, to discuss what had happened; Cindy, Kyle, and all of the clinicians facilitated the seminar; the entire student body was present.
“Harry, would you like to tell everyone what had happened?”
“Jenny, would you tell everyone?”
“Someone called Harry, pretending to be his parents, who died when Harry was a little kid.”
Everyone gasped in disgust.
“I would like us to start by going around the room, and discussing everyone’s feelings on the matter.”
“It is disgusting!”
“I think it is cowardice that someone would do this instead of confronting Harry. I know Harry has done a lot of s***, but this is just uncalled for.”
“I think it is really messed up.”
“It is disgusting.”
“I think it is the cheapest shot I’ve ever seen taken.”
“I am shocked by how wrong this is.”
“For the first time in my life, I actually feel bad for Harry.”
“I really hope whomever whom did this despicable act will fess up.”
“I think it is incredibly wrong, and I feel bad for Harry, since he does not deserve this.”
“I can’t think of the words.”
“It doesn’t sound very nice.”
“I am so sad about what happened.”
“I think this is just so wrong.”
“It is really mean.”
“Yes, I think it is wrong also.“
“Han, what do you think?”
“Doesn’t sound very nice to me.”
“Harry, do you wish to describe how you feel?”
“I’m just so pissed. I understand that I’ve done things to have pissed off people in this community, but I don’t see what I’ve done to warrant this.”
“I think that is a fair statement. I personally have been infuriated by some of the stunts you’ve pulled, Harry, but I don’t think that this is warranted in any situation.”
“I agree!”
“So do I!”
“This is so wrong.”
“This is definitely the cruelest thing I have seen in my time working here. Does anyone know who did this?”
“I think it was Samantha who did it.”
“No, I did not!”
“I also think it was Samantha, since Alexandria told me to sit in between Samantha and Harry.”
“Alexandria, is that true, and why?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“I think you do. what about the things you told me that you heard last night, while you were at the guy’s transition house?”
“Samantha, did you say anything that could be interpreted in that manner?”
“I didn’t say anything to Harry.”
“What about the conversation that allegedly happened at the core house?”
“About the things I said, I talk aloud when I read.”
Everyone laughs!
“There, he said so himself.”
“I saw you and Barron talking about Samantha, right outside the OPO.”
“That is because we may have kind of misheard things he said.”
“Samantha, did you say anything that could be misinterpreted?”
“I don’t remember.”
Everyone laughs!
“We just heard him say things.”
“What kind of things?”
“We don’t know what you are talking about.”
“OK, I HAVE HAD ENOUGH.”
“Samantha, may I see your phone please.”
Samantha gave Dr. Steed his phone; Dr. Steed checked the phone, and gave it back to Samantha.
‘This is taking way too long; I just want some information, so we can solve this matter.”
“I just wish that whomever the f*** who did this would fess up, which I do strongly believe was Samantha.”
“I did not do it.”
“Why have all of your recent contacts been deleted?”
“It happened by magic.”
Everyone laughed, except for me, who was about to punch Samantha, but calmed himself down by giving myself doubt.
“MAY I PLEASE SAY WHAT I KNOW?”
“No, Samantha, Alexandria, and Barron all need to learn to be accountable for their actions.”
This whole ordeal went on for three hours. Baron finally admitted that he and Alexandria had heard Samantha talk about making this phone call, and that they laughed about the idea, but had no idea that he was going to go along with it; once Samantha made the prank phone call, they were later afraid they would be in trouble for not intervening. Samantha responded by stating, “Even though I talked about it, I never actually did it,” which is where I stormed out of the room, to avoid punching him, with everyone else exhausted beyond belief. Morgan followed me to comfort me.
Thirty minutes later, while lying on my bed, I received a phone call from Morgan, telling me that Dr. Linkins needed me to come back. The staff had admired Samantha for finally “taking accountability”. They asked him to apologize for what he did to me, which he refused to do so. Tom asked me to apologize for all of the bad things I had done, and when I refused, Tom castigated me in front of everyone:
WHAT SAMANTHA DID TO YOU IS NOTHING COMPARED TO THE s*** YOU HAVE PULLED. YOU ARE LUCKY YOU ARE, EVEN STILL, ALIVE, AND YOU HAD THIS ALL COMING TO YOU. IF YOU ARE ACTUALLY BOTHERED BY YOUR PARENTS’ DEATH, WHY DIDN’T YOU EVER TALK ABOUT IT UNTIL NOW? IS THIS JUST AN EXCUSE TO HURT SAMANTHA DUE TO YOUR HOMOPHOBIA? I, PERSONALLY, HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO PITTY FOR YOU.
Harry Fare decided to stand up to Tom, but then Tom suppressed him. It was true that I had done a lot of crazy things as depicted, but this was not the right time to confront him. Tom tried to make me cry and talk about my feelings in front of all of the socially awkward people incapable of providing sympathy, which I refused, and Tom accused me of not caring about the issue that was triggered by the prank phone call. Even though losing my parents never really bothered me, I still had the right to be pissed off and upset over the prank phone call. At the end of the seminar, Samantha had announced plans to host a transgender appreciation day, only to have everyone storm out of the room. Jenny later told me that if Tom had picked any other time to ostracize at me, everyone would have enjoyed it, since they thought I was a whiny bitch; but Tom had made the mistake of yelling at me when people actually felt sorry for me.
The next day, I had a lovely talk with Tory about life and the plus and minuses. Over the weekend I had another wonderful talk with Elizabeth, where I learned to discuss my feelings.
On Monday, in his office in the OPO, I decided to confront Tom about his behavior, but Tom, instead, tried to force me to talk to him about his feelings. I admitted that he felt more comfortable talking to women, which is true, and Tom accused me of being homophobic and told me that I needed to talk to him, so he could prove to me that straight men could be as sensitive as women could be. I said that I had a male doctor, but that I felt that there were certain things that were right for men and not for women. Tom exclaimed, “So you will let a man feel your balls, but you won’t talk to him about your feelings. Does talking about your feelings provide a certain desire for you that feeling your balls doesn’t provide?” I left the room after that statement, despite Tom’s orders to stay there.
Things had gotten worse in terms of Samantha’s behavior. Samantha had an incident of stealing food at the guy’s transition house. Samantha had done nothing for Progress Review Week, in which he had been threatened with wilderness if he did not attend any of the events.
On Tuesday - within proximity of Samantha - Luke, Mark and Adam were talking about starting to refer to Samantha as Gary, and Gary told Tori, whom merely made the group be quiet, in which she slightly smirked while walking back to her office. On Thursday, Mark, Matt, Luke, John, myself and Harry Fare were talking about how if Samantha gets thrown out of the program, since the decision of his punishment was in the works, he might end up killing himself out of despair, and we thought it would be hilarious; which caused Samantha to summon Rick, but we all denied the claims of imploring Samantha to commit suicide, and Rick left. That Friday, Samantha made an announcement at community meeting:
“I would like to apologize for my behavior last week.”
“So, you are sorry for what you did to Harry.”
“Well, the whole thing towards Harry was a completely different matter.”
“Will, may I leave?”
“Be respectful and give him a chance.”
“So, you are not sorry about the prank phone call you made?”
“Not Exactly!”
“Harry Johnson, come back; you are being very disrespectful and are exhibiting bad social skills.”
“You see, everyone, in the process of dealing with my personal conflicts with Harry, I made not have expressed myself clearly, and may have dragged you all into it, since I wasn’t clear enough about my feelings, in which I kept you all there for a little longer than you should have, but I have learned to express myself better.”
I was outside of the OPO, waiting to have a meeting with Cindy about returning to full transition status, though I had no desire at all to go back to transition house. I saw John walking out of the OPO, and I asked John how the meeting was going, and John exclaimed, “I can not go through this whole thing again, I just can’t.” The two of us went for a walk and smoked cigarettes, in order to deal with the stress in which Great Ascendency had created. While returning to the OPO, I saw Luke, and asked Luke what he thought of Samantha, in which he responded in a composed and mature manner: “He is a piece of s***.”
It was decided that the appropriate punishment for Samantha was no to throw him out, but to send him back to core. I had regained transition status, so the plan was to switch the two of us. Samantha had also stolen food from his housemates and had abysmal house scores, but all three of them together were bad enough to be non-transition behavior.
I broke the news to the guys at core, who were infuriated since they didn’t want Samantha back in the house. There was a group meeting at the transition house, so the matter could be discussed. Luke spoke calmly and clearly when he exclaimed, “I would rather have Harry in the house than Samantha” in which all of the guys concurred; most of them didn’t even want me in the house, but they would rather have me in the house than Samantha.
Over the weekend, myself, Mark, and Han decided that Han would be the one to take Samantha as a roommate. When Samantha was living in the core house, Han would refuse to hang out with him, so Samantha told staff about how much Han was suing his computer, which contributed to him getting it taken away. I had planed on masturbating onto Samantha’s bed, but Luke and Mark both told me to postpone it, just incase the switch was cancelled.
It was decided on Monday that the switch would not happen, and Samantha had received no punishment for her actions. A day after Samantha was no longer to be demoted, he was speaking to Rick about how to get into full transition, since he was only in pre-transition.
In retrospect, I find it less appalling that Samantha did what he did, and I find it more appalling that Dr. Linkins handled the situation the way he did. Why should’ve the incident become a community issue when it was between Samantha and I? If I think there is something creepy about men being emotional with each other, don’t I have the right to feel that way. And what I loved the most is that Dr. Linkins could’ve picked any other time in the world to have yelled at me, and everyone would have just laughed, but he picked the absolute worst time imaginable.