who makes sure it never happens again. Don't you understand that?' She stopped crying. A drunken voice reverberated at the back of her mind.
'Or is your boyfriend running for office?'
'You'd be famous,' she said softly.
'Remember,' he whispered, 'what my dad always used to say about doing well by doing right? It's right to fight for your baby, and we'll be rewarded for it by a jury of good people.' Without a word, Valerie rolled over to stare silently at the wall.
XI
'This will be the easiest case I've ever had.' Terence Johnson's voice sounded bright and cheerful in Evelyn's ear. She had only just a few minutes before hung up from her conversation with Valerie.
'I've been thinking about it over dinner,' he continued, 'and I know that after a few days, when all the facts come out on this, there'll be a broad base of support for you.'
Fletcher stretched out on her bed, pulled the covers over her, and curled up with the phone. Exhausted, not looking forward to the marrow job tomorrow, she shared little of the young lawyer's enthusiasm.
'If I had seen any such support among my colleagues,' she said, 'I wouldn't have worked in secret.' Johnson's voice tutted dismissively. 'Doctor's are a stodgy bunch. Don't you see how transoption cuts across the tradi-tional divisions? The antiabortionists will cheer you because you've finally found a way to save the lives of all those unborn babies. And the pro-choice feminists will applaud you because you're giving women the freedom to terminate a pregnancy without the stigma of death that has always surrounded abor-tion. Free choice without guilt. Babies saved without oppres-sion of women. You've brought the world to a new pinnacle of civilization. Single-handedly, you-'
'Since I seem to have taken you on as my lawyer in all this,' she said levelly, 'what exactly am I paying you?'
His tone returned to earth from its stratospheric courtroom excesses. 'Oh, just expenses. The other guy is doing this for the publicity, so can I. In fact, I probably have lower overhead.'
'Why?'
'I'm unemployed.'
'Unemp-' She cut the word off. 'Just what legal experi-ence do you have?'
'Well, I passed the bar last year.'
'Yes.'
'And before that I worked as a paralegal while at law school.'
'And after your bar?'
'There are a lot of amoral and immoral law firms out there, Dr. Fletcher.' His voice took on a curiously cautious tone. 'I have yet to find anyone who views the law the way I do. It was hard enough to get through law school. I had to keep my opin-ions to myself and just parrot back what the profs told us. Study section was the place where conformity of opinion really got bullied into... Why am I telling you this? You've been through med school.'
Fletcher smiled at the memories of her own run-ins with professors and facilitators at every stage of the hierarchy in her teaching hospital. She rolled over on her side, switching the phone to her other ear.
'So you've never really practiced law, have you?'
'I've practiced a lot. Now I want to do it.'
'And your plans for this trial?'
'Character witnesses. Expert witnesses. Convince the jury that transoption is literally a giant step forward in human rights and that all who understand it agree.'
Fletcher said nothing for a moment, then, 'You know where to reach me.' After she switched off the phone, she stared at the darkness, where the ceiling hung, until sleep enveloped her.
'
