Her father shook his head.
“Jem will move on,” she said.She knew she would miss him as a friend, but that was all.“There are plenty of girls like Ellie who want that traditional sort of life.But you and I both know I don’t want what Ellie has.I want a career.Thiscareer.”
Her father watched her, still looking skeptical, and now also a little sad.
“And maybe someday I’ll find a man who…” She faltered.She loathed the wordallow.“A man who willacceptwho I am and that I need to work, to use my mind like this, to not be tied down.Maybe.”She shrugged.“But if I don’t, I need an income anyway.I can’t live with you and Mom for the rest of my life.You just said yourself, if I were a man, you wouldn’t hesitate on this.After all your support, would you really stand in my way on what could be my big break?Pleasehelp me, Dad.”Emily hated the feeling in her belly, that bitter guilt, as though she were trying to wrestle something from her father’s grip.But in a way, she was.He held the key to the door to the life she longed for.The one that felt as though it fit properly over all her rough edges.
He was quiet for a long while.The sounds from the kitchen had ceased, and dusk was falling across the yard now.He cleared his throat.“As a journalist, I respect the hell out of the idea, Em.But as your father, I’m struggling.It feels unnatural to have my own daughter committed to a prison.But when I really think about it, the truth is I’d bethatproud of you, if you broke this story and helped shine light onto that sort of injustice.”
“Really?”
“ ’Course I would!You’ve been champing at the bit for a worthwhile story since you were yea high,” he said, gesturing a foot off the ground.“And if it works,” he added, “it actually reallycouldbe the break for your career.You’re not wrong about that.”He sighed a little regretfully.“But you’re sure this is what you want?The job, splitting with Jem?The risk?Because there wouldn’t be much option to turn back once the thing’s been decided.”
Emily swallowed the swelling sensation in her throat, as though she’d bitten off too much.Perhaps she had.But perhaps she wanted to.“Yes.I’m sure.”
“And you don’t think a judge will know who we are?”he asked.
Emily thought for a moment.Her father’s name was big in the publishing and news industries in the city, but how far his notoriety reached beyond that was questionable.She told him as much.“And no judge will know whoIam,” she said.“I’m just a woman.”
He stubbed out his forgotten cigarillo.“All right, then.I’ll help you get in there, if I can.”
A surge of emotion gripped Emily and she leaned across, wrapping her father in a hug.His arm came around her as her smooth cheek rubbed against his stubbled one.
“Aw, thanks, sweetheart.You’re my favourite incorrigible daughter.”
Emily breathed a chuckle and wiped a tear from her eye as they pulled apart.
“But now,” her father said heavily, “I’m afraid we still have to convince your mother.”
CHAPTER 10
EMILY
Later that night after the conversation with her father, Emily was holed up in her bedroom, staring down at her cornflower-blue patterned quilt and pinching her chin in concentration.Her essential belongings were splayed out across the bed like archeological findings as she debated what to eventually bring with her to the Mercer.It couldn’t be much, and she had to assume most, if not all of it, would be taken from her upon arrival.But it also felt strange to go down to the courthouse entirely empty-handed.Surely even within their fiction of a father trying to knock some sense into his unruly adult daughter, the “accused” would at least have her handbag with her: some lipstick, a pen, cash.Emily had no idea what sorts of writing implements might be allowed within the prison, but she figured she would have to commit most of her findings to memory, anyway, as she couldn’t risk her notes being found.She needed to get this story discreetly, fly under the radar of the guards and administration as she silently observed, then pour it all out onto the page after her release.
Two hours ago, she and her dad had sat in the living room with her mother and explained the story, the plan for Emily’s investigation.Bess was very still as Emily recounted all the details—leaving out some of the finer points of the inmate’s note.But, predictably, the conversation had rapidly dissolved into an argument.
“I can’t see how either Doris oryou,” Bess had fired at William, “could possibly be comfortable with this!”Her hands were clenched atop the apron draped over her thighs.
“Because they believe in me, Mom.They think I can handle it, and so do I,” Emily exclaimed.
“It really is her big break, Bess,” William had said, shooting their daughter a sympathetic look that was neither smile nor frown.“And she won’t be gone too long.It’s a fantastic adventure, really—”
“An adventure?”Bess said, glaring at them both and leaning forward on the couch.“It’s aprison, for God’s sake!You’re going off to try to prove that this horrendous treatment of those women is happening, Emily.Which means you will be subjected to it yourself!Or at the very least,witnessthese atrocities.”
William had met her eyes then, and his tone was direct, yet gentle.“That’s what I did, too, Bess.Bore witness and was subjected to it.All to report on something important.”
“Yes,” Bess said, with a look of incredulity, “and look at what it did to you, darling.Look what it took from you.”
Emily swallowed.She was so used to seeing her father’s shirtsleeve tied in a knot just below the elbow that she sometimes forgot about his injury.The whole family had adjusted to it.Bess knotted his ties every morning and pre-cut his meat at suppertime.
“And this is not awar, you two,” she said, clearly making an effort not to scoff.“These are criminals in a penal institution.It’s notthatimportant.”
“Except it is, Mom,” Emily said.“The entire point is that this law applies to every young woman and girl in this country.We can be tossed in prison for next tonothing.And if it’s as easy as we think it is, Dad getting a judge to sentence me there is part of the story, part of the scandal—that itisso easy.And that sort of legal vulnerability should matter to every woman.Including you.”
“And what about Jeremy?!”Bess demanded, hands in the air.“Are you just to throw him over to go live in a prison?For goodness’ sake, he’s about to—” She stopped, looking regretful, and Emily suddenly felt sorry for her.
“I know he’s going to propose, Mom,” she admitted softly, letting her off the hook.
