I've discovered that the differences between us don't magically disappear just because we're friends. There is something else though that binds us together; perhaps it's common cause. We do agree on almost everything—but then we mostly talk about 'the system', meaning the law; and it's true that it has ignored the real lives of women like Pauline for hundreds of years, and is very hard to change.

Sometimes I go away, and we miss our weekly talks. But I think of her, she's part of me now. Even sitting in a garden in the early morning, she's there.