Vineland

Before Prairie leaves with Isaiah and the band, Zoyd hands her “a strange Japanese business card” for Takeshi Funimota Adjustments (56). Frenesi comes from a wealthy family that never approved of her marriage to Zoyd. Her mother, Sasha, was particularly strident in her dislike of Zoyd but now she and Zoyd are both “on the same side of the law” regarding Prairie (57). They tolerate one another because she is a communist and he is a marijuana user; any judge who investigated Prairie’s living arrangements would have her taken away.

In the past, Sasha helps Zoyd track down his missing wife. Zoyd wants Frenesi back, though he suspects that she has run away to Hawaii with Brock Vond. He finds Frenesi at the Dark Ocean Hotel in Hawaii and urges her to return with him to California. Frenesi refuses but, that evening, she returns to Los Angeles and leaves Zoyd in his hotel room in Hawaii, fantasizing about her while watching television.

Still in Hawaii, Zoyd wakes up alone and stuck in Hawaii. He goes from bar to bar and learns that Kahuna Airlines is looking for entertainers for a “gig of death” (61). Zoyd is hired by the airline to play “lounge synthesizer,” which is notable for its Hawaiian theme, replete with fire dancing, live music, and a bar. During the flight, a UFO passes beside the plane. Zoyd is told by a server named Gretchen that this happens frequently, but only to Kahuna flights. Kahuna Airlines is the only airline that does not have insurance against these UFOs. A band of “grim shielded troopers” boards the flight (65).

The passengers are interrogated while the captain uses the PA system to reassure the people onboard the flight. The band plays on. The captain encourages the passengers to cooperate and to not believe everything that they hear. From below, someone calls to Zoyd. The man introduces himself as Takeshi, a Karmic Adjuster who is dressed as a hippie to hide from his pursuers. Takeshi wants to hide with the band, so Zoyd hands him a ukulele. When the troops disembark the plane, Takeshi offers his card to Zoyd as well as his thanks. Takeshi tells Zoyd to call him if he is “ever in a jam” (67). In 1984, Zoyd realizes that he was always supposed to give this card to Prairie.

Though she is daydreaming about Prairie, Frenesi is with her boyfriend, Flash Fletcher. They met through the witness protection program and a “reeducation camp” run by Brock Vond. Frenesi and Flash have a son named Justin, though they both have difficulty remaining faithful in relationships. They receive support from the witness protection program, though very little, which causes Frenesi to doubt the viability of the program. She feels haunted by her past.

Frenesi dated Vond but, when she tried to break up with him, he reacted very badly. Brock has a reputation as someone who is too uptight and needs a vacation. During the Nixon era, he worked in Washington DC, but his file has since been deleted. This era was something of a golden period for members of the “snitch community” like Frenesi and Flash, though Watergate brought that time to a close.

Frenesi’s parents both worked in the film industry, though they were forced to stop when they were banned. Her mother, Sasha, worked as a script reader while her father, Hub, was a gaffer. Since they were banned, Frenesi grew up in an atmosphere of paranoia and darkness. Sasha faced similar struggles. Her father—Frenesi’s grandfather—was Jess Traverse. Jess attempted to organize the loggers at his workplace, but he was sabotaged and injured by Crocker “Bud” Scantling on behalf of the Employers’ Association. Sasha’s mother Eula sympathized with Jess’s vision for society as a massive union, adopting his socialist/anarchist ambitions. She claimed that he “introduced [her] to [her] conscience” (76). They enjoyed an energetic but dark romance across a series of mill towns, including an incident when they were under fire from Pinkerton agents, even though she was the daughter of a Pinkerton man.

Watching CHiPs on the television, Frenesi thinks about how she inherited her mother’s attraction to men in uniform. Her stipend check is delivered by a US Marshall from the Witness Protection Program. Frenesi flirts with him for a while. Calling the house, Flash urges her to cash the check as soon as possible. He has learned that many people “ain’t on the computer anymore” (85). They are now gone. Justin arrives home. He is dropped off by Barbie, the mother of his friend Wallace. Frenesi talks to Barbie, asking to borrow money. Barbie complains that her credit card no longer works, so she cannot help. She says that she has not been given her vouchers, as they were allegedly lost by the computer.

Returning home, Flash becomes paranoid. He worries that he and Frenesi have been removed from the computer and the Witness Protection Program due to budget cuts. Justin suggests that the budget cuts are caused by Ronald Reagan. Frenesi tries to cash her check at a store, only to find many people attempting to do the same thing, so she is turned away. At a different liquor store, the same thing happens again.

Frenesi visits a string of stores until a manager tells her that payments have been stopped. Frenesi is confused, but the manager explains that the banks may be closed but the computer “never has to sleep” (91).