“I remember something you said about your sister, Polly: she shared her life with other animals.”

 Maureen wanted to show me something.

 She handed the sheet to me and looked away while I was reading it.

She had made a beautiful line drawing of a herring gull and underneath it she had written:

I read it over twice.

“Have you made lots of these?” I asked.

“A few.  I would like to do more. Maybe there’s a book there.  I am not sure if the drawings are good enough….”

“So we are both writers…”

“I think we are both reporters, aren’t we?”

She had said to me before. “We are one life. Insects have semen sacs and ovaries too.”

Today I learned that Maureen had always wanted to study zoology but Amanda “came along” and if “didn’t work out….”

I can see that Maureen is looking for a way if presenting the inner lives of animals that is direct, fresh and easy. She takes care over the fonts and colour choices, for example.

She wouldn’t let me post the drawing.