RICHIE - CHAPTER TEN (Twitter Novel / Keitai Shosetsu)

on the way back to fairview i
dont talk much mostly cuz
im pissed that he was being
such a dick again

and idk if hes got something
on his mind or what but
richie doesnt talk at all and
the only time either of us says
anything

is when i make the point that
regret isnt like msg at all
because msg doesnt magnify
flavors by contrast but by a
chemical reaction

and he replies -dee dee yr
just smart enough to be
hopelessly annoying and no
smarter- and im just
–whatever man

-you know im right- and
silence again and it doesnt lift
until we get back to fairview
and we coordinate how to get
the truck back

to the physical plant without
attracting any attention and
then after we drop it off we
just walk back to the dorm
and

go in separately to avoid
suspicion theres not a lot
after that and the week goes
by pretty uneventfully again
except for isaacs class

where were reading this book
called –lord of the flies- and
theres this part where the kid
simon dies because they think
hes the beast

and isaacs is talking about
how the light and the
movement of the body by the
water is indicative of the
reincarnation theme

and i can see richie getting
increasingly bunged up as
isaacs keeps talking about
reincarnation and eventually
richie goes into this thing

about how the word
reincarnation shouldnt be
used because it doesnt
indicate theres any choice in
the process

and isaacs immediately
stiffens and says –okay
richie maybe resurrection
might be a better term to use
due to the christ imagery-

but richie keeps going -but in
the elsa barker book- and
isaacs cuts him off -we are
not talking about elsa barker
in this class-

and he raises his eyebrows
like a signal almost but richie
starts again and isaacs beats
him to the punch -we are not
talking about

-elsa barker in this class we
are talking about william
golding- and richie stops
sighs and slumps back in his
chair

and doesnt say anything for
like the whole rest of class i
write down -elsa barker- in
my notebook so i can look
her up later

but basically forget to so
anyway i keep my eyes open
for when crisis staff intervene
and im getting better at
figuring out

what theyre doing while
theyre doing it and its weird
but it does seem like theres
patterns there if you listen
hard enough

and this thing starts
happening for awhile where i
start listening to everything
almost like it was what crisis
staff were saying

like movies and tv shows and
commercials especially and it
starts weirding me out like on
this one night when i got a
couple of

bong hits off those other guys
in the common room
watching tv and it brought
me to the point where i was
almost freaking out

so i left and went to talk to
richie but after a couple
minutes he asked me if i was
high and i said yeah and he
said

-im not gonna talk to you
when yr high because im
gonna have to repeat myself
every two minutes cuz yr not
gonna be able

-to keep up- and im like
–whatever- and i go to look
up stuff on nlp on the internet
but pretty soon i forget what i
was doing

and just start trolling for porn
instead but the next day i
think about it a little bit and
notice that ive never seen
richie

drink or smoke weed or
anything and i think its funny
that i didnt notice before cuz
he seems like the coolest guy
i know

but it seems pretty geeklike
to me that he doesnt party at
all but he could be straight
edge although those dudes
can get on yr nerves

pretty fucking quick i had
this friend back home for
awhile who was straight and
he was pretty intense
especially

if we were at a party or
something so anyway i talk
to richie the next day at lunch
and hes all like -i dont give a
shit

-if you drink or smoke weed
or whatever but it gets really
boring for me really quick
because i dont and its hard
enough for me

-to keep you on my
wavelength when yr straight-
and i notice yet again that
even when hes being friendly
to me hes still kind of dickish

-anyway adolescence -is-
drugs sunshine its the
biggest bestest high that there
is dont forget that- and he
gives me this silly grin

but anyway we get into it
about the soft controls and
richies all like -okay lets
start from the beginning why
did they create

-fairview- and im like - idk
cuz theres all these fucked up
kids and they need a place to
put them- and hes like

-yeah sure but why wouldnt
they just put them in
lockdown with like tons of
rules and shock training and
shit like that-

i go -idk too expensive-
and richie says -naw fairviews
way more expensive to keep
going those places are all
like bare walls

-and barracks and shit- and i
dont wanna keep guessing so
i go - idk richie why dont
you tell me- and he shifts
into

monologue mode -fairview
was created cuz the old
lockdown system didnt take
into account the
unquenchable appetite for
teenage rebellion-

he raises a finger -hence
salinas- i flash back to the
walls of his dorm room -if
you press on kids long
enough and hard enough

-theyre gonna flip out and get
some guns or whatever and
rip shit up- and i ask him
-so wait the salinas shooting
was why they started
fairview-

richie nods -basically im not
sure that fairview was the
first to use the krol
methodology but its
definitely the most

-successful- and im all
-whoa okay who the fuck is
krol now- and richie smiles
-stanislaw krol was this guy
from back in the 60s/early
70s

-who did all this theorizing
about cults and manson and
shit and he coined the phrase
soft controls and basically
explained the framework

-by which you can control
whole groups of people to do
what you want them to by
making them think theyre as
free

-or freer than everybody else-
hes starting to get really
pumped up like on fire how
he was in the cafeteria or in
isaacs room that one day

-he basically identified how
rebellion could be built into
the package- richie grins
shakes his head in admiration
-the guy was a genius really-
pauses

-but the fairview model was
pretty much created by krol-
and im confused cuz richie
seems so into this guy -so
krol wanted a bunch of
fairviews

-to spring up- and hes like
-no no not at all krol would
be horrified if he knew what
they were doing with his
work-

and now im reeling even
worse than before -i dont get
it then why doesnt he stop
them from using his work-
and richie giggles

-krol died penniless and
disgraced in 1982 he could
only stop them if he came
back from the dead- and he
gets this weird

faraway look for a second
-but anyway krol was
defining what he thought was
the disease not the cure- and
then the weird buzz

comes out of the mounted
speakers that signals the end
of lunch and doesnt let up
until everybody leaves so
richie gets up and goes

-dont bother looking krol up
on the interwebs dee dee if
you can even find his
writings they edited the living
shit out of them- but

im like -so where can i find
the original texts- and he
stops in his tracks and turns
back to me -why dee dee i
think i might be

-falling in love with you- and
i get super creeped-out for a
second and it shows and he
just laughs and laughs and
turns away

-you wont be able to find the
original texts dee dee they
took what they wanted from
krol then erased him from the
world-