- Connie comes down off the drugs the institution gave her. She feels rotten.
- She remembers feeling rotten while being in the asylum before.
- Then she remembers feeling rotten after her husband Claude died, and how she hit Angelina for ruining her shoes, breaking her wrist.
- Luciente pops up again to give her a break from feeling all the rottenness.
- Luciente uses a wristwatch to ask questions. It's like Google, on a wrist (it looks futuristic back in 1976 because they didn't have Google then).
- Connie and Luciente miscommunicate for a bit, and then Luciente says he's depressed by the insane asylum, because it is depressing.
- He offers to take her back to the future with Michael J. Fox (we wish).
- On the way to the future, Connie has to hold Luciente tight and realizes that he's not a he, but a woman. Luciente was so self-confident, Connie got confused.
- They show up in the future, which is rural and without laser guns. Connie is a little disappointed.
- Luciente talks about how they recycle everything and don't waste in the very conscientious future.
- Luciente shows off her garden.
- Luciente gives Connie clothes, which are better than what she was wearing in the asylum.
- Brief encounter with a cute future cat. Fun fact: author Marge Piercy loves cats (she has like four).
- Connie wants to know whether Luciente has kids, but the conversation gets garbled because in the future they have different family structures (men or women can be mothers, there are no fathers… and no birth, as you'll see.)
- They eat, and Connie learns that names work differently (everyone has only one, but they change them when they feel like it).
- Eventually Connie gets tired and ends up back in the asylum.