About week after his first day, Prascher had decided he would rather get a certain aspect of his stay over with. He proceeded to walk over to one of the many receptionist desks and made an appointment that day to see the doctor he had been assigned to, Dr. Aliele. It was around noon when Prascher was to see the doctor, and so he walked over to the long series of hallways that served as the offices of the many doctors worked in the facility. At the end of the last hallway, Prascher found the unnaturally clean and bright office, where a man in comfortable-looking and worn street clothes was busy reading by the light of the large and opened windows behind his large easy chair.
Prascher knocked his knuckle against the door frame and softly asked to come inside. Dr. Aliele turned around and beckoned to him, his book resting on his gesturing hand.
After settling into the large couch that sat facing the easy chair, Prascher waited as Aliele placed the book he was reading back into the shelf. The man began a benign conversation, relating to his love of material books, as opposed to ones in a digital reader. Prascher took to the talk easily, all the while wondering as to the nature of the talk to come, but he soon found that as Dr. Aliele rested back into his chair, talk turned to one of a professional nature.
“So, you've never come to a psychiatrist's?” Prascher partially shook his head, but was cut off by the doctor. “Never mind; I already know the answer. I'm sure you know as well as I that I am aware of your past. Everything of note is here, and we have other, more important things to get to. What are some of your concerns about this new level of your life?”
Prascher got the feeling, that, despite the air of safety that the administration had probably labored to keep, to this man he was suddenly no more than a bug speared to some cork with his species and genus labeled underneath him. He tried to shake the feeling, reminding himself that Aliele was likely only trying to get to unimportant niceties out of the way, and not try to lead them to believe that he knew everything about him.
Prascher cleared his throat and answered, “I honestly thought that I would be in jail instead of... in here. I don't think that gotten over the shock.”
Aliele laughed, an unexpected sound that made Prascher tense up. “Oh, don't worry, you'll be used to being here.”
I don't plan on staying here for long, herr doktor, Prascher thought angrily, mustering a smile for Aliele. “This facility is large; I'm sure it's nice to live here.”
Aliele said, sagely. “This place has been created as a place to clear the mind. I must say, the lucky wind that carried you here was... serendipitous.”
Cockiness crept into Prascher as his mind went to the news that he had heard about the after effects of his case. “I'm sure you guys'll have a lot more exposure because of me.”
“Certainly.” Aliele's demeanor, and his voice, turned cold as he turned his gaze from off of Prascher's. Prascher shifted uncomfortably in his seat, waiting for Aliele speak.
A few days passed between the first day Prascher spoke with Aliele, and the next day when he was told that it would be beneficial to see the doctor once more. Prascher had been reluctant to return to what he regarded as an interrogation, but as time passed, he asked himself why what that he felt uncomfortable around Aliele, and, because he could not come up with any reasonable evidence for why he felt disliked by the doctor, he grew to believe that the man was only doing his job. After all, Prascher was not fond of niceties, and it was possible that the man had gone down to brass tacks, thinking that Prascher looked as though he was uninterested in small talk. When finally Prascher arrived at Aliele's office, he forgot about any reasons for why he would feel unwanted in the doctor's space.
Aliele greeted Prascher, asking him if he was allergic to chocolate, or was perhaps lactose intolerant. Prascher said no to both, and was then ignored. When asked why the doctor wanted to know about any allergies he may have, the doctor responded by disappearing into his ever-mysterious back room, closing the door behind him, and then returning with a large ceramic pitcher and with two red mugs. Aliele said something about being sorry that the only cups he had were the two large, gaudy mugs that he had been given as a gift by from his daughter, and had neglected throughout the years; Prascher answered that it did not matter to him as Aliele filled the mugs two-third of the way with brown liquid, which Prascher assumed to be hot chocolate or coffee.
When he was done pouring, the doctor apologized once more, this time for not having any toppings for what he said was hot chocolate. Again, Prascher assured him that it did not matter.
Prascher managed to get a sip of the actually rather lukewarm chocolate before Aliele asked about his past experiences with medication.
“Um, I had a problem with my immune system when I was a kid... I needed medication for that, though I'm not on any, right now. Why do you ask?”
Dr. Aliele leaned forward in his seat and clasped his hands together in front of his chin, a thoughtful look coming into his eyes. “I want you to understand, that, despite the fact that you are required to stay in this facility, you do not have to accept any medication that the doctors recommend to you.”
“Are you saying that you're recommending that I take medication?”
Aliele slowly extended his hand out, the signal for “stop”. “We're not quite ready to begin talking about medications or future plans, unless, of course, you are, and as I was saying before, you have total control of what you with into your body, here. That being said, I will not lie – sometimes it can be to your advantage to comply with doctors orders, especially when it comes to meditation.”
“How could it come to my advantage?”
“Think about it this way, Jim; what do you think will look good when you decide that it's time to go up for an evaluation to leave the facility? Complying with recommendations can be a great way to show your faith in the healing process that we implement here. Faith... well, it supposes you have your head on straight. So to speak.”
Prascher digested the information gratefully, happy about the unexpected help he was receiving. After the initial moment of joy, Prascher began to wonder why the doctor was being so open about the ins of psychological evaluations. Looking over his mug of hot chocolate, Prascher said, bluntly, “Why are you helping me?”
Aliele smiled warmly. “It's like you said – you're a great help to this facility, and anyway, this place has more than its share of lifers, and what we want to do here is to allow the mentally troubled to be able to one day assimilate back into mainstream society. All we want to do here is help you, but really, we can't say you are willing to help yourself if you don't take the first step in the right direction.”
“What do you propose for now?”
Dr. Aliele reached over to his side table and pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. “I was thinking about starting you off on a simple tranquilizer.”
“Why do you think that I should be on a tranquilizer?” Prascher asked, slow panic creeping up his spine.
“Oh, for a variety of reasons, the most important being the fact that they're perfect for enhancing your inner thoughts and for taking away much outside interference in the healing process. This will help in diagnosing you, and may allow you to remain more in thought as you try to discover what it is that disrupted your life.”
Not knowing what, exactly, to say, Prascher nodded and murmured in agreement to what Aliele said. “That's good enough for me...” he said, trying to piece together an understanding of why tranquilizers would even be an option for him.
“And one more thing... What I believe you should also take is a certain drug that evaluation board always approves of in these sorts of cases. It has been known to cause a few sleeping problems and depression, but it is believed that when does is allow individuals to become acutely aware of their sense of sympathy. Now, it is not a certainty that you are, in fact, a sociopath, but if you show a strong reaction to the drug, it is believed that you may show a few traits that a sociopath usually possesses.
“Now, it's technically in the experimental phase, but because we are a premier facility, we are able to make use of various experimental drugs. I have studied this particular drug for over three years with several different patients. With four patients I can say that I have seen signs of vast improvement through the continued use of the drug, and they were all allowed to leave the facility, permanently, after facing the board.”
Somehow, Prascher knew that the answer to the question that he was going to ask was not likely to be a good one. It never was a good answer, for Prascher. “Why didn't everybody who started taking the medication not stop taking it, if it could lead to them being allowed to leave the facility?”
Aliele sucked his lips, and thoughtful expression came over his face before he smiled, softly, and said, “You've got to understand, Jim, there has got to be some give and take to be able to heal as quickly as the meditation allows for, and you'll not likely enjoy it, but in doing this, maybe it is best to think of it as penance. Are you a religious man, Jim?”
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