There was a tense silence. I peeked again in the mirror. Jackie looked as if she was about to lash out again. I was ready to pull over. Then she put her face in her hands and started to weep uncontrollably. Elise sat by her, her arm around her shoulders, saying nothing. Now she glanced into the mirror and caught my eye. Her look told me: it’s okay, drive on. Jackie took several minutes to calm down. By which time we were a block away from the clinic. And … oh God, not this … there was a crowd up ahead. As I edged closer I saw cops trying to clear away a bunch of men and women who had formed a human chain in the street just yards away from its entrance. In the back seat Jackie was going crazy, yelling at Elise.

‘You didn’t fucking know they were going to be here?’

‘I checked with the clinic this morning. They said nothing about a demonstration, I guess it must have just sprung up now.’

Then Elise told me:

‘Lock the doors, please.’

I hit the necessary button. All the doors closed with a loud click. Elise told Jackie:

‘We don’t have to do this today.’

‘We’re going in,’ Jackie said.

‘Fine by me,’ Elise said, then asked me: ‘You okay with that?’

‘As long as this cop lets me through …’

The cop – white, young, tense – tapped on my window. I rolled it down, hearing nearby chanting: ‘There is another way … there is another way.’

‘Your business here?’ he asked.

‘Bringing these two women to the clinic over there.’

‘Who’s the patient?’

‘Me,’ snapped Jackie.

‘And what are you doing with her?’ he asked Elise.

‘Giving her support.’

‘You’re going to need it. They’re refusing to budge.’

I asked the cop:

‘How close can I get?’

‘Right up to the human chain. Once you let these two out we have officers there who will escort them right up to the door. But I’m warning you: it could get a little ugly.’

Jackie’s face had turned into reinforced concrete.

‘Let them try to stop me,’ she said.

‘Drive super slowly,’ the cop told me. ‘We don’t want someone to decide to play the martyr and throw themselves under your wheels.’

I drove at about three miles an hour. The police were keeping the protesters in line. About ten of them, all with red roses, all forming a wall in front of the clinic entrance, all continuing to chant: ‘There is another way … there is another way.’ I looked over and saw two uniformed policewomen and one plainclothes cop right by the front door.