the meds locker and the can-opener
Residents on meds respond to the sound of the meds locker the way a cat will respond to the sound of a can-opener. They just like materialize. Gately has to dispense oral insulin and Virus-meds and pimple medicine and antidepressants and lithium to the residents who materialize for meds
Context
The institution's pharmacy hour caught in one image: the residents conditioned to the meds-locker's sound the way a cat is to the can-opener, materializing for their insulin and antidepressants and lithium and Virus-meds. The recovery house is not drug-free but drug-managed — the whole population medicated for the wreckage using left behind, the appetite for a substance-on-schedule preserved intact and merely redirected to the lockbox Staff controls.