The White Giraffe

Martine is eleven when she goes to live on a game reserve in Africa, a place where mysteries and secrets abound, where the intoxicating magic of the country casts all sorts of spells. One lonely night, she looks out of her window and sees a young giraffe, silver tinged with cinnamon in the moonlight. ‘For a split second their eyes locked, the small sad girl and the slender young giraffe, then the sky went dark. Martine pressed her face to the window, desperate to see the white giraffe again’. In that instant Martine knows that she is prepared to risk everything for it. The giraffe looks at her as if it is waiting.