"You are very kind, Mma," she said. "But why did the giraffe give his tears?". Mma Ramotse shrugged; she had never thought about it. "I supppose that it means that we can all give something," she said. "A giraffe has nothing else to give-only tears." Did it mean that? she wondered. And for a moment she imagined that she saw a giraffe peering down through the trees, its strange, stilt-bone body camouflaged among the leaves; and its moist velvet cheeks and liquid eyes; and she thought of all the beauty that there was in Africa, of the laughter, and the love.
From "Tears of the Giraffe" The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith
(www.anchorbooks.com published 2000)
