- Connie is chatting with Skip, trying to figure out what they're all being tested and poked and prodded for.
- Dr. Redding got his picture in Time. That actually sounds kind of ominous.
- Skip says he had electrodes strapped to his penis before and they zapped him whenever he got aroused by pictures of men in an effort to cure him of homosexuality. He figures anything has to be better than that. Unfortunately…
- Skip gives her money to call Dolly, who Connie hopes will get her out.
- You have to get in line for the phone call… and ask the Nurse for permission. It's all humiliating and sordid and awful. The future is better.
- Connie leaves a message on Dolly's machine; then she gets a letter from Dolly saying she'll come.
- She waits around the night before Dolly is supposed to show up and is anxious and bored, so she calls for Luciente.
- Luciente is partying and has been drinking and smoking marijuana. In the future, you're allowed to smoke weed.
- Luciente is wearing a dress; they wear dresses ("flimsies") for special occasions.
- She gives one to Connie, too; Connie worried it's too transparent. (In the future, you can smoke weed and be nude.)
- We learn, by the way, that Innocente made it through her initiation and is now called Hawk.
- Jackrabbit and Bolivar are performing together and kiss; Luciente feels jealous. Despite the marijuana and the nudity, people still get jealous in the future.
- Luciente asks why it took people in Connie's day so long to revolt against injustice.
- She also explains that this happy future (with the pot and the nudity and some jealousy) is only one possible future. Things could be worse (less pot, less nudity, more jealousy).
- They see Luciente's child, Dawn, playing; she reminds Connie strongly of her own daughter Angelina.
- They watch a video that Bolivar and Jackrabbit made. Then Connie asks to kiss Dawn, who lets her.
- This is a big deal for Connie, who has lost her own daughter. Dawn mostly wants to pretend to be a squirrel though.
- Connie remembers feeding her daughter Angie dog food, because they were too poor for anything else.
- She starts to fade out but Luciente grabs her, and they go to the dance floor.
- Luciente's old lover Diana appears and they go off, probably to do something futuristic and lurid.
- Bee stays behind with Connie; they dance together, and then they go off to have sex too.
- It makes Connie happy.
- But then she wakes up back in the ward. And she waits all day for Dolly to come.
- And she doesn't.
- Happiness doesn't last long in this book.