Overview
MindTree is a private educational institution in “From the Branch.” It is the childhood institution attended by Jocy Elden and Martin Hartford, and it is the source of the trauma that shapes their adult meeting.
Program
In 2003, Jocy and Martin are both toddlers in a MindTree carbogen gas exposure program. Program directors tell the Eldens and the Hartfords that the children need the exposure to remove psychic disturbances caused by the invasion of Iraq. The treatment gives the children the false physical feeling of suffocation.
The story associates MindTree with specialized internal terms and practices, including ascention, inducted emerald status, acuity renders, cohorts, and stabilization. Jocy attends from preschool to junior year and later says she escaped through court emancipation. Martin attends from pre-k through eighth grade.
Role in the Story
Jocy tells Martin that Dr. Khurana is still running MindTree and that a new group of pre-k children has entered. She says she checks the institution’s website every month or two. Martin and Jocy both identify Khurana as someone who abused them during their time there.
MindTree becomes the target of the revenge plan Jocy and Martin consider outside The Comrade. Martin first proposes killing Khurana. Jocy expands the idea into bombing the twentieth floor in the morning, when Khurana and the MindTree team are present and before the children’s stabilization.
The story presents branches in which the attack is prevented or succeeds. In the chosen branch, Jocy and Martin do not stop MindTree and do not help the current cohort. MindTree continues for many years until a documentary crew looking for a sensational story exposes it.