Legal Murder

chapter:24

Reagan stomped his snow-embedded boot soles into the muddy welcome mat. Virginia pushed open the cold glass doors, and the bell over their heads signaled their entrance. The couple inhaled the warmth of the coffee shop's festive spirit, and gazed around at the paper snowflakes and Christmas decorations. Near the kitchen dangled a Star of David ornament, and beneath it was a brightly lit menorah. Reagan spotted Dixie wearing a dolorous expression, and immediately started for the back of the restaurant. Virginia followed close behind, pulling her gloves and scarf off as she went.

"Hey, Dixie." Virginia spoke up as the pair lingered by the crowded table. She nodded at everyone, "Hello Lauren, Steve- and..."

"This is my sister, Ginger." Lauren spoke up, and Ginger reached up to shake hands with the famous producer and his wife.

Lester, who wore a very bitter, sagging jaw, nodded up at the two, offered his name, but didn't invite a handshake. Steve murmured about Lester being his uncle, and the table fell somewhat silent again. Reagan grabbed two more chairs to slide next to Dixie, and both him and Virginia sat down, still wearing their coats.

"What a great coincidence to meet you all here." Reagan put in, his eyes like ping-pong balls bouncing from one person to the next. "I know who we're missing!" He looked over at Dixie, "Where's your dad? Ever since that interview with him, I've been meaning to ask where he got that neat Donald Duck tie."

Dixie held back the heavy emotion that threatened to plummet her heart into the ground. "He's not coming." 

Lauren, noticing the tension of the topic, glanced at Reagan. "So, I hear you're changing the movie again?"

"Yeah- sorry about that Lauren. It seems this movie is destined to be altered and picked at until it's perfect. I want something that will be so engaging that it not only blows the socks off the box office, but also blows the minds of the American people." He waved at a waiter rushing by and ordered a chocolate milk.

Virginia gave him a funny look, and ordered a coffee like everyone else.

Lester leaned forward, placed his elbows on the table, and squinted at Reagan. "You're making a movie?"

"I am."

"What's it about?"

"Abortion."

Everyone was aware of the way Lester's posture stiffened and his face contorted in a cloud of disagreement. He cleared his throat, but instead of commenting, he took a long sip of his coffee.

Steve blurted without warning, "My uncle's a doctor who performs abortions."

"Where do you work, Lester?" Virginia spoke up when the awkward air grew thick with silence.

"Are you planning to bomb the clinic?" Lester seemed to realize what he just said, and tried to reiterate it, "I saw that on the news once- pro-lifer's killing abortionists."

Virginia stared at him, not unkindly and not surprised. "That's true, and that's sickening. But there's a big difference between a pro-lifer and a psychopath, and a pro-lifer, by definition, wouldn't commit such horrible crimes in the name of saving lives. Therefore, those monsters who claimed they murdered doctors in order to save preborn babies were individuals who not only misunderstood the meaning of the pro-life movement, but also didn't understand the difference between right and wrong."

"So you don't support what they did?" He pressed, looking at her with skepticism. 

"Of course not. Anyone who stands up for murder is not only full of ignorance for what killing is, but couldn't care less about life."

Dixie nodded her agreement, and glanced at Lester, "A doctor who performs abortions is not worth any more or less than a fetus who hasn't seen the cruelty of the world yet."

"Are you insinuating that I'm contributing to the cruelty of society?" He demanded, seemingly appalled that such a young girl was putting up such a tough front.

She shrugged. "You suggested that, not me."

Steve leaned into the table and let out a sigh. "Come on guys, why does everything always have to be about abortion? Why can't we talk about Christmas or something?"

Lauren was almost glaring at him at that point, and all Ginger could do was shake her head. Reagan and Virginia's late arrival left them less involved in the tension. 

Dixie had her eyes pinned on Steve. "Once a person becomes engrossed in a horrific issue that is so current and so urgent, they feel an obligation to stopping it. Steve, if you saw a child lost in a store, would you go over and help that child find their mother?"

He applied a challenging expression to his face, and became too stubborn to answer.

"If the child started crying," She went on, "and you still hadn't gone over to help them, wouldn't it eat away at you? That a human being only a few feet away from you was so alone and so vulnerable- and you had the ability to help them. You had the power to change the situation, and make that child smile through his tears." Dixie widened her eyes at him, "I want to be that person that makes a difference- that person who helps a child find their way to their mother. And until I do, I will constantly think about it, frequently talk about it, and always have a drive to do something about it."

Steve ran a hand over his face tiredly. "But how is it your business what other people do with their bodies?"

"A fetus is a separate person from their mother." Dixie answered, watching him become detached and fed-up with the conversation. "Society makes pro-lifers sound like people who are nosy, but if you really put abortion into the context of its gruesome and inhumane nature, we wouldn't be considered nosy, we'd been considered heroes." 

"Heroes?" Steve practically snorted, and glanced up at her, "Heroes for what? Making it more difficult for a woman to get an abortion?"

"Preventing murder? Yeah, that's certainly a reason."

"It's not murder, for goodness sake!" He exclaimed, attempting to maintain a calm demeanor whilst simultaneously fighting his fit of rage. "A fetus is a mass of tissue, an abortionist pulls that tissue out, and viola- the abortion is over." Steve gazed over at Lauren and Ginger, and then towards Reagan and Virginia, "See? Now you all can go home."

The silence that fell over the crowded table was no longer a silence of uncomfortable breathing. The silence this time was a mixture of sorrow, grief, and ignorance. Twenty-six seconds passed, and Dixie began to think about what the life that had just been lost to abortion would have become once they grew up. She started to draw mental pictures of preborn babies, and then looked around the table and saw the human beings that sat around her as tiny, fragile fetuses. 

We all began somewhere, she thought, and we all began from nothing. Forming a smile in appreciating of the people around her, she realized that everything must start from nothing- but that's why, in life, there's always a start and a finish, a beginning and an end. For victims of abortion, that beginning and end were mere months apart.

The bell over the door rang for what felt to Lester like the hundredth time. Dixie craned her neck to see past Virginia's crestfallen form, and made eye contact with the coffee shop's latest customer. The girl's eyes were red from hours of tears, and her hair looked greasy enough to be unwashed for weeks. In her left hand she clutched a pair of her trademark sunglasses. Under the layers of coats and leggings, the girl was hiding a secret. A secret that was in grave danger. But by walking across the coffee shop towards Dixie, the girl knew that the secret wouldn't stay hidden for long.