The Treatment Program of Absurdity: 1

Adam Palace

Adam Palace was a 20-year-old teenager from Denver, who arrived at Great Ascendency on August 10th, 2010, and was placed in the substance abuse program. Adam was a Caucasian who had a long brown Afro, and looked like a tall 16-year-old; he was hardcore skater, whose life had recently gone downhill, but was at Great Ascendency to get it all back on track. Adam was different than anyone else in the program, but that wasn’t a bad thing. The first thing that shocked Adam was that his roommate was wearing a suit, and was a student in a treatment program.
I first met Peter when I walked up to our room, in which I was wearing my suit, for some reason I can’t remember. He seemed like a cool guy, which made me anxious about having him as a roommate, since I had self-esteem issues at the time. The two of us went out to the backyard to throw a Frisbee, in which I got anxious over missing a couple of the catches; and Adam looked at me like I had issues. Upon reentering the house, we noticed the power was out; and not long after our return, we heard shouting from the basement.
“PETER, TURN THE ELCTRICITY BACK ON.”
“No, it is my electricity.”
“Peter, this is not your house, so turn it back on.”
“Joe keeps leaving his computer on when he sleeps, and that is wasting electricity; this is the price people have to pay for leaving the lights on.”
“Peter, it isn’t you job, NOW TURN THE ELECTRICITY BACK ON.”
Elizabeth forced the switch back on, slightly pushing Peter’s hand, and Peter ran upstairs crying.
“Peter, do you want everyone to hate you?”
“If it will get me thrown out of here.
Later that day, Adam walked upstairs to the bedroom, blasting “Love Lockdown” by Kanye West. Adam seized doing so when he arrived in the bedroom, and realized that I was blasting “My Funny Valentine” by Frank Sinatra. We put on our headphones, and proceeded to quietly listen to our music.
Before we went to bed, I Skyped with a friend from private school, Jonathan Goodrue. I asked Adam to come over to meet my friend, and I told John that Adam was my roommate. John gave Adam a look of dread, and exclaimed, “You are his roommate? I wish you luck, man. You will definitely need it.” As we fell asleep, I told Adam a joke, “How do you know when your sister is having her period? When your dad’s dick tastes like blood;” Adam later told me that the joke I made to him would traumatize him.
Adam had issues with everyone else in the house, so it wasn’t just me; he claimed he wanted no one as a roommate in that house, but could deal with me more than anyone else; he would have taken Joe as a roommate instead, but he smelled too bad. During Adam’s first weekend, I got too anxious on the bowling trip and asked for my own lane, so I wouldn’t worry what other people think of my skills; which made Adam feel like, “What is wrong with this kid?” Adam did gain respect for me when the two of us went skateboarding, where Adam could do an Ollie well, and I could barely do an Ollie. Despite how much I suck at skateboarding, I noticed Adam didn’t give a f***; Adam also realized that I reminded of the things he used to enjoy in life; before things went downhill, as he would tell me after we both left Great Ascendency.
The next evening, there was an incident where Peter started whining and opened the door, which led to the attic, where he sat on the stairs, and continued whining. Adam and I agreed to tackle Peter if he dared come upstairs to their bedroom. Peter finally left, and was supposed to go help make dinner, which was due to be burgers for the evening, in which he refused to do so. I did not want to be there and neither did Adam, so we went out to dinner at a Luigi’s. When we got back, John Butler, as the on-call therapist, and Tory Jennings were hosting a house group because of a recent conflict, in which Adam and I were forced to adhere to.
“So Peter, why did you hit Joe?”
“Tori, no I didn’t.”
“PETER, IT IS ALL ON CAMERAS.”
“Dr. Butler, he was being mean to me.”
“DO YOU WANT TO GET THROWN OUT OF HERE?” “WWWWWAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH.”
“May I ask what exactly happened?”
“Peter got all up in Joe’s face, so Joe pushed him aside, and then Peter stroke him across the face.”
“As I recall, Harry was concerned that you were going to go up to his and Adam’s bedroom, and Harry was asking Adam to help tackle you.”
“Harry, as much as I hate you, good job on handling the situation. “
“John, may I sleep on a couch tonight, since I don’t want to sleep away from cameras in the same house as Peter. I am not worried about him hurting me now, as much as what he will do to me in my sleep.”
That night, Adam and I were relaxing upstairs in their room; I was reading the Wall Street Journal, and Adam was reading Vanity Fair. Peter had continued to berate Joe, who would finally lash out at Peter, and that caused Peter to start crying. The two of them reconciled shortly after, and went into Joe’s room, where screaming was created by the two of them, which would keep myself, Clovis, Harry, and George, up until 5:00 A.M. with dreadful thoughts.
“I don’t like being yelled at.”
“Well, maybe I can show you something that you make you feel better.”
“EWW, YOU HAVE A LOT OF HAIR.”
“YOU LIKE HAIR, DON’T YOU, PETER?”
“YOU NEED TO SHAVE, SAY WHY ARE YOU PUTTING THAT IN MY MOUTH?”
“YOU LIKE THINGS IN YOUR MOUTH.”
“YES, I DO LIKE THINGS IN MY MOUTH, BUT I AM STARTING TO FEEL SICK.”
“WANT ME TO TAKE YOUR TEMPERATURE?”
“OOOOHHH, AAAAAWWWW, WEEEEEEEE, YAY, UM, WOW, OH MAN.”
“DON’T WORRY, I AM ALMOST DONE.”
“YOUR FINGER IS ALL WET.”
“PETER, THAT ISN’T MY FINGER.”
Thanks to everyone in the house, Adam could no longer take being there, and decided to spend as little time there as possible; his nine ‘o’clock curfew, which was mandatory for all SA students during the first 30 days, is what drove him crazy. Adam had become close friends with Jared though, but he lived in transition housing. Adam had gone to SA meetings in the community, where he would meet new people that would help him by giving him new friends.
There was one student who did not drive him crazy, Mary Singer. One day, during community process, I made a remark about his sexy body, where Adam responded by asking for permission to use the restroom. I asked if my sexy body is what Adam was thinking about while going to the bathroom. Everyone laughed in shock, while Adam exclaimed, “GOD DAMMIT HARRY!” I got his first strike; then my second one when I kept laughing.; and the third strike was when my grandpa called, and I went into the hallway, picked up my cell phone, and asked, “Hey Grandpa, how are your mistresses doing?” John Butler went and locked the door, so I couldn’t get back in.
Adam was in distress about going back to the house, which I hate to think I contributed to, but Mary comforted him, and talked with him. The two of them went out to eat together at a Subway, in which they went to the park together and took a long walk. After going for a walk every night for two weeks, I finally saw them kissing outside of the house.
Mary also had a hard time standing most of the girls in her house. Lily Kilo, who had now been sent to transition house after being there for 1.5 years, had ceased to do anything once she gained the status. Girls’ transition house was life in the abyss, as I can imagine from having to live with Lily, and Marry wanted nothing to do with that place.
When I was being annoying, Peter was crying, the house smelled because of Joe, or when Lily was a pig, Mary and Adam always confided in each other for emotional support. They would go as far away from GA as possible until it was curfew time. Adam now had a goal of getting into full transition, so he could spend as much time with Mary, and as little time as possible in the guys’ core house.
One day, Mary wasn’t available, so Adam decided to have lunch with Clovis. Clovis had gone out to lunch with me, so Adam’s thought was that, “If someone can stand Harry, but doesn’t make the same offensive statements as he does, the person has to be chill.” Adam learned that both him and Clovis were into baseball, so the two of them decided to go to Brigham Young National Park to throw a ball. The reason I know about this is because within an hour of playing the game, I bumped into them as I leaving the tennis courts, and Adam told me his motivation for chilling with Clovis. I decided to join them in baseball, and though I was sophisticated at catching the ball, though I couldn’t catch it form a couple hundred yards away; but I remembered that since I was just being myself, Adam didn’t give a f***.
Adam, too did, not see eye to eye with most of the staff, though he got along well with Priscilla. Tommy had brought Priscilla into his office to complain to her about how all of the students preferred to talk to her over him, since he felt that because he had a PhD. and she only had a BA., he should be the one everyone wants to talk to, as opposed to her. That remark made Priscilla decide that she could no longer stand working in this place, and she decided to leave the program. Chloe, like Priscilla, had similar tensions with Dr. Gore; and when Priscilla got a job at a different program, Chloe decided to join her. After the duo departed, two new unattractive blonde female staff members, Molly Keen and Susan Collins, arrived at Great Ascendency, and became house managers in the girls’ transition house. How I knew this: Priscilla told me about this at a dinner we had shortly after I left Great Ascendency.
On September 16th 2010, I was blasting “With A Little Help from My Friends” by The Beatles, and Adam was listening to “What’s My Name?” by Snoop Dogg, when the blast of The Beatles interfered with the sound of his music. Adam turned off his iPod, went into the bedroom, and began singing,” I get by with a little help from my friend, I get high with a little help from my friends, going to try with a little help from my friends,” which is when I asked him, “Will you get me high?”
The best news came on September 17th, 2010, which was that Adam, Clovis, and George all got accepted into pre-transition, so Adam would get to go live with Jared and Kellen. This was bad news though for me, since I would be stuck alone with Joe and Peter, in which I knew conflict would happen. I didn’t receive the news at the time, since he was back in Fairfield County, Connecticut, where I went to do some high-end shopping, which was hard to do in Kingsville, not just because of the location, but also since students were not allowed to have outside income. When I returned to Utah, I was f***ing pissed over the arduous situation.