“I don’t know. Everyone just calls it ‘below.’ I’ve heard that if you keep failing, you get taken below,” she said. “And what happens to the people who get sent below?” “No one talks about it,” she said. “One day they’re asked to report to the south wing, bringing only their cassette player. When they come back, they’re not really back.” “How do you mean?” “They’re normal, but not. They’re happy, but they don’t say much, and they definitely don’t talk about what happened below. And usually they’re discharged—or, I don’t know, sent someplace else—a day or two after that.”
