"Love is defined as a socio-psychological response occuring between a male and female of equal or similar social status which presents the following physiological reflexes..."

Was the law always so boring? For three years Graciela had studied American law and its interpretation. She had started out naïve, like most law students, thinking that the Constitution held everything of any possible legal importance to the student lawyer. Holes began to appear, the deeper and deeper one studied it. Ancient English was rife with difficulties, and a particularly fundamentalist sect of constitutional literalists had set forth in the unwritten law that the document was not to be translated. They were fundamentalist, alright; the staunchest of their defenders came very close to saying that Ancient English possessed unique words that perfectly captured the meaning of the law. Books had been burnt over such heresy.

So instead of translating the one law into another law that could be agreed upon again, the law was mistranslated by everyone. Only the most studious, the most talented, the most highly blessed students became successful lawyers. But even Graciela's talent and blessing were insufficient to grasp this amendment. She tapped the page with irritability; it was this page that she must grasp beyond all others.

For whatever "love" meant, she knew in her heart it described Kara and her, and that as such she was entitled to certain inalienable rights, tax write-offs, possibly even a federal grant...