Iron Bitch is on her way to visit her mother.
Her mother has cancer. It's recurrent. Iron Bitch is in her second year of practice as a family doctor in a rural area. Iron Bitch's mother had stage III ovarian cancer which means that her chance of surviving 5 years was less than 25% at diagnosis. With the recurrence, the currently accepted chance of survival is zero.
Iron Bitch is low on funds at the moment and therefore only she and Baby Bitch are flying up to visit.
Iron Bitch knows that her mother will not discuss the cancer or the prognosis. She will want everyone to be happy and cheerful. Iron Bitch has dressed the part. She is in a soft little blouse and sweater with a shear flowered skirt and lacy slip. Her mother, Nice Bitch, will tease her about being SSNG, Sweet, Simple and Girlish, but she will actually approve. Iron Bitch has dressed Baby in a sweet flowered dress with a little white collar and white ruffle. They have the usual stroller, diaper bag and accouterments, along with Iron Bitch's backpack carry on. Books, writing materials, flute, camera, etc. They fly from the single gate airport in the desert valley to Denver and change planes.
Everyone keeps helping Iron Bitch. Or rather, the men do. It is a Friday and the planes are crawling with business men. In their flowery girlie ruffly gauzy clothes, Iron Bitch and Baby rather stand out. Baby is charming to everyone and doesn't cry a bit. Men in business suits keep taking Iron Bitch's arm and putting her carry ons in the overhead bins and asking if they can help.
Iron Bitch realizes that it's the girlie clothes, finally, and is rather enjoying it. She simpers a bit and lets her voice be a bit higher than her norm. She plays the part. Now she and Baby are on the Denver plane, helped into their seat by another nice man-in-a-suit. She exchanges polite small talk. He tells her about his sales job. She anticipates his next question moments before he asks, with pleasure.
"What does your husband do, honey?" he says.
Iron Bitch bats her eyes and looks adorably confused. "Oh, he has been staying home with the children and actually I am the one with the career."
"Oh." Disconcerted. "Uh. What do you do?"
"Oh, me? Oh, I'm just a family doctor." She smiles very sweetly at the nice man-in-the-suit. He has run out of questions. She leans back and prepares for takeoff. It's a fine day to fly and a fine day to be Iron Bitch on a plane.