January is the coldest month in Milwaukee. Twice in the city’s long history, it had seen record lows of minus twenty-six degrees without adjusting for wind chill. The average January high in the city was still below freezing at twenty-eight degrees, and the average low for the month was thirteen.
Outside the Milwaukee Women’s Health Center this afternoon, the sun had scaled the top of a crystal blue sky and by two p.m., it had started its slide down to meet the earth to the west. It was twenty-six degrees. With no wind to speak of, it felt comfortable to the three ladies bundled up on the sidewalk. Before Dr. Smith’s murder, there hadn’t been much commotion outside the Center. In fact, there hadn’t been any major demonstrations at the clinic in a decade, and on most days there weren’t any protestors at all. The three ladies who stood outside the clinic now showed up most Wednesdays, but it was more of a social thing for them these days rather than out of any fervent hope they could stop what went on inside the building. Annie, seventy-six, was a Catholic, and Betty, eighty-two, a Lutheran. Grace, seventy-nine, was non-denominational, but she believed in “a greater power” and thought She wouldn’t think kindly of abortion or those who performed them. The one sign they had between them was propped up on the snowbank in front of them. It read, “Jesus loves you and your baby, too!” They thought that said it all.
Today Grace brought coffee and Annie six of her homemade sticky buns. They had been at their post since the clinic opened at nine a.m., and had started noshing their afternoon bun rations when four vehicles pulled up and twenty college-aged kids piled out and set up on the sidewalk ten feet down from the ladies. They were laughing and talking excitedly, happy to be outside rather than in class. Their UW-Milwaukee sociology teacher had made this trip a class requirement and it was the only class all year at which she would take attendance. She had also offered extra credit to those who brought their own picket signs and had promised an “A” grade for the semester for the student whose sign she deemed best. The attributes she’d judge the signs on were how hard the messages hit and how clever she found them. The kids waved their picket signs aloft and then pushed the base of the signs into the snowbank so they faced the ladies and the street as well.
They read, “KEEP YOUR ROSARIES OUT OF MY OVARIES!!” “GET YOUR POLITICS OUT OF MY PUSSY!!” “THIS IS BEAVER COUNTRY. RESPECT THE BEAVER!” “NO MORE COAT HANGERS!!” “VIVA LA VULVA!” “MY VAGINA IS MAD AS HELL AND SHE IS NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!”
Annie, Betty, and Grace looked at each other nervously. They didn’t know what to make of their visitors. Then a TV van rolled up with the CBS logo emblazoned on the side. Almost before it stopped, a young reporter jumped out with a microphone and the driver hopped out, lugging a large camera. They walked toward the picketers. Annie pointed down the street and said, “Look!” Vans with the ABC, NBC, and Fox logos were now all nose to bumper at the curb. The sound of their doors opening and slamming carried over the crisp air.
A new red Honda Accord Hybrid drove ahead of the other cars, parking right next to a matching red fire hydrant. The sociology teacher got out and went around to the back of the vehicle. She wore a sleek Sorel parka with faux fur trim around the hood. Oversized cat-eye Ray-Bans hid most of her face, but to those students nearby, her smirk was evident.
She opened the trunk and yanked out a picket sign of her own. As she walked to where the students were congregated, they saw her sign and started hooting and clapping. She turned it around to face the three ladies and stabbed the base into the snowbank. The sign read, “IF I WANTED THE GOVERNMENT IN MY WOMB, I’D FUCK A SENATOR!”
Betty had a small wedge of sticky bun frozen halfway to her mouth, which was agape. All she could do was look at the signs, the defiant teacher, and her pack of kids and say, “Oh, my…”
Michele watched it all from her car. She put her notebook in her bag and drove away from the circus.