technician, is hired by Bennie to find 50 'parrots' – essentially people paid to feign fandom – for Scotty's debut show. Set about 15 years in the future, told from Alex's point of view in the third person. Characters Sasha: Runs away to Asia and then Naples as a teenager, then studies at NYU and later becomes Bennie's assistant (for 12 years). Is a kleptomaniac. Marries late and moves to the desert to raise her two kids. Bennie: Interested in the music business. Once a member of the "Flaming Dildos" band, with Scotty, Alice, Rhea, and Jocelyn. Later creates his own record label. Lou: A music producer, and Bennie's mentor. Has many different affairs, marriages and children. Scotty: Member of the Flaming Dildos as a teenager, continues on the margins of society in later life. Achieves a level of musical success as an older man. Stephanie: Bennie's first wife. A member of a country club she resents, but where she enjoys playing tennis. Dolly: Publicist in pursuit of fame who loses her business in disgrace. Eventually opens a cheese shop upstate. Lulu: Dolly's daughter; unsure of father. Replaces Sasha as Bennie's assistant in the final story, set in the near-future. Kitty: A hugely successful teen star who becomes jaded and harsh after Jules assaults her. Later does a publicity job for Dolly. Jules: Stephanie's older brother. A bi-polar celebrity journalist who goes to prison after assaulting Kitty. Rob: Sasha's bisexual best friend in college. Survives a suicide attempt but drowns while swimming with Sasha's boyfriend months later. Bosco: Guitarist. Once a rockstar in The Conduits, later an overweight cancer survivor with health problems. Alex: Went on a date and slept with Sasha in his twenties, later marries Rebecca and has a daughter Cara-Ann. Does a job for Bennie, secretly advertising Scotty's show. Rhea: Friend of Jocelyn, Scotty, and Bennie in her youth, harrowingly insecure and a member of the punk scene in San Francisco. Jocelyn: Dated (middle-aged) Lou when she was teenager. Later visits Lou as he is dying. Drew: Sasha's boyfriend in college. Present when Rob drowns. He and Sasha re-connect years later, get married and have two children, and move to the desert. He is a doctor. Ted: Sasha's uncle, an art history professor, who goes looking for her while she is in Naples. Alison: Drew and Sasha's daughter. Linc: Drew and Sasha's son who has autism. Alice: