A Bouquet of Petals

This thesis includes opening chapters from an adult literary novel set three years in the future and tentatively titled A Bouquet of Petals. Told in retrospect, the fictional work follows fifteen-year-old Josie Benner as she navigates coming-of-age at a time when the U.S. birthrate has plummeted by thirty-three percent. In the shadow of her mother—a renowned sociologist—Josie begrudgingly relocates from Maine to Cambridge where she becomes privy to university students analyzing the links between fertility and forever chemicals in the soil, microplastics in the water, global warming and our nation’s food supply. Everyone talks of consequence. No one speaks of choice. But as violence against women increases, so does Josie’s awareness. A trusted new friend helps Josie realize what’s at stake for women—and children—when healthcare is metered out by politics before medicine. And Josie can’t help notice something more. Resistance? And a secret language? One without words, but manifested in quiet brushes on the subway, petals of paper tucked under a tip at a café. So much like the small note she’d found in her home by the shore. As Josie comes to understand the discreet, hushed correspondence of women and the true revolution it’s inspired, she can’t help think her father’s disappearance might have something to do with the rebellion of women banding together in the silent solidarity of protest and empty wombs—a new kind of choice—in a quest to protect their human (and reproductive) rights.