“Will, I used to come here in my Oxford and sit on this exact same bench whenever I wanted to be alone, just me and Pan. What I thought was if you - maybe just once a year - if we could come here at the same time, just for an hour or something, then we could pretend we were close again - because we would be close, if you sat here and I sat just here in my world -“

“Yes,” he said, “as long as I live I’ll come back. Wherever I am in the world I’ll come back here -“

“On Midsummer’s Day,” she said, “At midday. As long as I live. As long as I live…”

Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass