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sexuality. She’d developed a crush on one of the female teachers and was considerably relieved to discover that half her class felt the same. But two years later, when others were gushing over movie stars, singers and boys from a neighbouring school, Josie was fantasising about the head girl.
    At seventeen, with dogged determination tofind out once and for all which way she leaned, Josie lost her virginity to one of her older brother’s friends who had always made it clear that he was attracted to her. It was a terrible experience. His assurance that it would be better the second time made sense. Nothing could hurt
that much
again. He was right. But it was still terrible. That left Josie with a problem. She didn’t know any lesbians. The dilemma was solved by the same teacher most of her class had fancied three years earlier. The older, more experienced woman knew a potential partner when she saw one.
    Josie had gone into the relationship with her eyes wide open and nothing more than a desperate desire to discover the truth about her own sexuality. She did not expect to fall in love. Once she realised she had, that question had at least been answered. The relationship didn’t last but, by the time it ended, Josie was fairly comfortable with the knowledge that she was gay. Just to be sure, she went back to her brother’s friend. Despite his confusion over her hot, cold, and then hot again behaviour, he put it down to the unpredictability of women and enthusiastically obliged. It was a disaster.
    â€˜So,’ she told herself. ‘You’re gay. Get used to it.’ It had not been difficult but, so far, the only other people who knew were those she’d been to bed with. Lately, Josie had started to think that if her hormones were all mixed up and she was meant to be a man, then why the hell did her body have to endure these monthly visitations?
    Jewishness was more of a burden to Josie thanher sexual preferences. Both set her apart, but she couldn’t hide her background. Unlike a lot of people who belonged to the Jewish faith, Josie found no comfort from the company of others who shared her religion. In any case, although she supposed there were plenty of gay Jewish women out there, looking for them in South Africa struck her as being a futile and restrictive pursuit. So she cast her net wider and, in the doing of that, discovered that with few exceptions, gay gentiles – who really should have understood how hard it was to be different – found her faith a stumbling block. It wasn’t Josie so much as her stereotyped parents, Ozzie and Yonina, with their accents, expressions and preoccupation with money, which made others look at Josie as though she were a different species altogether.
    One day she might meet someone, Jewish or otherwise, with whom she could connect and share her life. In the meantime, Josie was a loner, uncomfortable in the presence of straight women, wary around men and having a period she didn’t believe appropriate.
    Dressed in khaki shorts and black T-shirt, Josie solved the problem of used tampons by stuffing a wad of tissues in her pocket to wrap them in. They could be disposed of back at camp. Running fingers through her short black hair, she stuck an oversized Australian Akubra on her head and left her tent to join the others.
    Angela Gibbs was in no rush, doing her usual early morning exercise slowly and with greatconcentration. Perfectly proportioned to fit a frame all of one hundred and seventy centimetres high, her body had the well-toned entitlement of youth, although Angela firmly believed it was only because she worked at it. Likewise with skin and hair. Angela had tried every skin care product going. Strangely, her dedication to outward appearances had nothing to do with vanity. She simply had a deep-seated need to look as good as possible for as long as she could. With beauty and body routines in place, Angela was content to leave her ample