Susan Day
Susan Day is a nationally influential feminist writer and political activist whose scheduled appearance at the Derry Civic Center in October 1993 ignites a crisis that draws retired widower Ralph Roberts and his neighbor Lois Chasse into a conflict between supernatural forces of Purpose and Random. A Pulitzer Prize-winning author and co-founder of the organization Sisters in Arms, Day is both revered by supporters of women's reproductive rights and reviled by anti-abortion groups, who label her "America's Number One Baby-Killer." Her impending speech becomes the catalyst for a series of escalating confrontations, culminating in a plot by the deranged Ed Deepneau to crash a plane into the Civic Center, a disaster that Ralph and Lois are compelled by the entities Clotho and Lachesis to prevent.
Identity and Public Profile
Susan Day is the ex-President and co-founder of Sisters in Arms, a women's rights organization. She is the author of My Mother's Shadow and Lilies of the Valley, the latter a study of battered women that won her a Pulitzer Prize. Bookstore owner Hamilton Davenport describes her as "one of the three or four most politically influential women in America right now," noting that she "can really write as well as think." Her public image is deliberately provocative; a poster in the window of Secondhand Rose, Secondhand Clothes features her photograph in a "WANTED FOR MURDER" format, paid for by the Maine LifeWatch Committee, a tactic that turns her into a symbolic target for anti-abortion activists. The poster's style—unsmiling full-face and profile shots on a white background—is designed to evoke a police mugshot, framing her as a criminal.
Role in the Abortion Conflict
Day's planned speech at the Derry Civic Center is the culmination of a long-running local battle over abortion rights. The immediate trigger is a zoning dispute aimed at forcing WomanCare, the local women's resource center and abortion clinic, out of existence. Pro-choice advocates invite Day to speak to raise a war chest and rally support. Her arrival polarizes the town. The Friends of Life, an anti-abortion group, organizes protests, with Ed Deepneau becoming a prominent and increasingly radical figure. During a televised interview after his arrest for a doll-throwing demonstration, Deepneau states that the major issue is not philosophical but practical, calling the abortions performed at WomanCare "the ultimate act of abuse against women by a sexist society." He and fellow activist Dan Dalton frame the conflict in apocalyptic terms, with Dalton declaring that "rivers of blood run out of WomanCare." Day herself is described by her security team as having received approximately thirty threats, including two to bomb the Civic Center and one from a person claiming to have a water gun filled with battery acid.
The Assassination Plot and Its Prevention
Ralph and Lois learn from Clotho and Lachesis that Ed Deepneau, now under the influence of the rogue entity Atropos, intends to assassinate Susan Day by crashing a plane into the Civic Center during her speech, killing thousands. The entities explain that Deepneau's life-cord has been cut, making him an "undesignated" agent of the Random, and that the forces behind him are malignant and powerful. Ralph and Lois are told that they cannot stop Deepneau directly but must instead convince the women in charge to cancel the speech. Their attempt to do so at the High Ridge shelter is preempted by a violent attack from Deepneau's associates, which leaves the shelter's coordinator, Gretchen Tillbury, dead. Despite the attack, the rally proceeds. Ralph and Lois ultimately intervene directly, with Ralph entering Deepneau's plane in flight and forcing it to crash into the parking lot instead of the building. The explosion kills Deepneau and causes significant damage, but the Civic Center itself is spared. Susan Day is not killed by the crash; she is decapitated by a piece of flying glass, a detail that underscores the tragic but limited success of Ralph's intervention.
Thematic Significance
Susan Day functions as a symbolic figure whose life and death are contested by opposing cosmic forces. To the pro-choice community, she represents the fight for bodily autonomy and political voice. To her enemies, she is a target for elimination, a stand-in for the entire abortion-rights movement. The supernatural entities Clotho and Lachesis reveal that the true stakes of the conflict are not Day herself—whom they describe as "part of the Random" and "none of our concern"—but a single child in the audience whose life must be preserved to maintain the balance between the Random and the Purpose. Day's presence in Derry thus serves as the occasion for a larger metaphysical struggle, and her death, while shocking, is ultimately a secondary consequence of a plot aimed at a different target. Her character embodies the way political figures can become lightning rods for forces far beyond their own intentions or control.
