[Later]

Well, anyway, a reporter had phoned me, wondering why I wasn't on the Floor, because one more sorry labor bill was being approved with a rider that I might not like, one that would give employers the right to demand that workers show up on any day of the week, except Sunday! It was over!? The bill passed!? [We know "hirerers" are having their troubles too; any worker needs and demands some rest and some days off, but that's beside the point.] Before the reporter could answer, I hung up, grabbed a coat and umbrella, and took off like a surfer on the crest of a terrible flood; and there was Molly, shrieking, yelling at me to wait-up, that I'd be murdered, that she'd drive me. [The Senate subway wasn't working.] But I didn't want to jump into that old car of hers and fight through jamming, honking, taxi-skidding traffic--only in D.C. are there those taxis with funny engines--so although it was raining some [a brief drizzle, finally!], I ran unafraid. I ran and skittered through the brownout and the sticky darkness and came, finally, to a check-point at a wire-fence opening. You know, there just isn't the money for good workers. So, three stupid, lazy guards--like so many police (if you don't include the brutal ones) everywhere - including the Capitol ones who are supposed to keep angry mobs at bay. They tried to stop me from entering an eerie Capitol basement. I was at the lower Senate entrance, where there were none of the usual protesters that evening, but I had to bellow my name and number twice. I had forgotten my badge! I don't remember tearing up the inside stairs, not waiting for the jerky elevator. I do remember the shocked looks on faces in the chamber's foyer when I had yelled at Doug and stumbled forward without another pause. I wasn't even breathing hard. I lurched onto the Floor brandishing my furled umbrella, not waiting to listen to what was going on. I remember while still at the rear of the chamber that I shouted something like: "Just a very mi-nute few minutes, my distinguished colleagues!" I was striding forward and barking through my teeth. "Just hold it, please, right there!" I must have been a real something! I remember one Senator reaching out to try to stop me by grabbing my coat. Other Senators, who were standing, rang for help. I snatched away my coat and drew it around me like a toga. All faces were gargoyles - dotted gargoyles, and I yelled at them [I took this from a tape]: "I was prevented one way or another from coming here on time and learning about a caboose of a religious nature on that last bill that you've railroaded in these last hours' usual mess! Somehow or other, I wasn't notified about that vote, nor any part of it, nor the riming! How was I prevented, my dear colleagues, from knowing, from coming here to vote, to speak? My aide, alone, couldn't have messed-up that much!" [There are very few women in there, and they aren't like Willa........ by now, all women have lost too much of their "control" because of the dominant Party.]