Someone from Shipping and Receiv- 
ing told me that a guy from the next   
state would come pick them up, but     
that’s all he knew.                    
     No one else knew anything either, 
except Sherrie. She told me they were  
driven all the way up to an Experiment-
al Research Facility up in Alaska.     
     “Now a days, recycling research is
big business,” she explained, “and some
of the work is really promising, like  
the future of electricity, housing,    
transportation, food and even space    
travel.”                               
     That did sound promising, but     
after a couple months, I started get-  
ting tired of people asking if I’d seen
anything yet and started making stuff  
up.                                    
     I know it’s sick and mean, but my 
* stories and jokes also helped to chan-   
nel my fantasies away from actually    
doing them. Like I was pretending to   
brainstorm a comic book idea out loud, 
instead of just in my head.            
     When people laughed or were scared
by them, it helped me deal with this   
overwhelming need to do it again, and  
like my pretend comic book idea, it    
also helped not make it so overwhelm-  
ing, and also might upset the right    
people.                                
     Unfortunately, it upset the wrong 
person.                                
     This morning, while on my way to  
clean that room, Alicia caught up with 
me, grabbed my sleeve, and almost      
literally dragged me down the hall.    
     She wanted to talk to me, in      
private, and in the Oh Oh Room. I      
almost had to run to keep up with her, 
but once we got close, she slowed down 
a little.                              



CHAPTER 3: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22nd
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