Eleven
Sonya Curtis and the members of the contracts approval committee sat around the table in their preferred meeting room, which was located next to Sonya’s office. On Sonya’s left, sat Pam Watson who provided secretarial services to the committee. To her right, sat the two other active members of the committee: Mary Grant and Helen Stein.
The four women had known each other all of their lives. They had grown up within similar working class families living in the same depressing suburb and had attended the same schools. Sonya had been their leader ever since their first encounter in kindergarten.
Pam, who had fallen pregnant during year twelve, had been the only one of the four not to go to university straight from school. While her friends had studied commerce and worked part-time,
