Spadina streetcar, sitting patiently as a woman rolls her computer carry case over her toes.

Caucasian woman, early 50s, wearing a crisp white shirt, collar up, with flowing, black linen pants and black sandals. Her hair is silver and black, her long bangs draped over one eye.

Memoir Of Friendship, Blanche Howard (Viking Canada)

Page 23:

Dear Blanche:

Thank you for including me among your luncheon guests last Thursday. It was great fun putting faces to the names of people I've heard you mention so often. I was especially pleased to meet Carol Shields. She is so warm and very natural. She told me she had had two novels published and I look forward to reading them.

In high school, she wore one of three dresses each day. In the library, she sat across from another quiet, poor girl who wore one of two dresses. The girl had thick red hair and pale green eyes. She glowed despite the absence of lunch and possibly breakfast. They sat knee-to-knee finishing their homework, shaving their pencils with pocketknives, smiling toothy grins, their commitment to lifelong friendship sealed in entwined ankles.