This train of thought, speculative though it was, might have sustained her for a good part of her walk, but it was interrupted by the sound of a vehicle approaching from behind her and by the sudden appearance of lights. Mma Ramotswe stopped where she was and stood in such a position that the driver of the vehicle would see her face-on.

The car came up quickly, and Mma Ramotswe took a step backwards as the lights came towards her. But she still waved her arm up and down, in the recognised way of one pleading for a lift. The car shot past, which was just what she had feared it would do. But then, once it had gone past her, and she had turned round in disappointment, its rear lights glowed red and it drew to a halt. Mma Ramotswe, hardly believing her good fortune, ran up to the side of the vehicle.

A man looked out at her from the driver’s window, a face in the darkness that she could not see.

“Where are you going, Mma?”

“I am going into town, Rra,” she said. “My van has broken down back there.”

“You can get in the back. We are going that way.”

She opened the door gratefully and slipped into the back seat. She saw now that there was another person in the car, a woman, who turned to her and greeted her. Mma Ramotswe could just make out the face, which seemed vaguely familiar even if she could not say who it was.

“It is very bad when your car breaks down,” said the woman. “That would have been a long walk back into town.”

“It would,” said Mma Ramotswe. “I used to be able to walk for long distances, years ago, before I had a van. But now …”

“It is easy to forget how to walk,” the woman agreed. “Children used to walk ten miles to school. Remember that?”

“Some children still do,” said Mma Ramotswe.

They continued the conversation for a while, agreeing with one another on a variety of subjects. Now the lights of Gaborone were visible in the distance, a glow that lit up the sky, even at that late hour. Soon they would be home.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

MMA RAMOTSWE, MR J.L.B. MATEKONI, AND MR POLOPETSI GET AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE

MR J.L.B. MATEKONI was sound asleep by the time that Mma Ramotswe arrived home from her visit to the Mokoti house. When he awoke the next morning, Mma Ramotswe was already out of bed and walking in the garden, nursing a cup of bush tea in her hands. Mr J.L.B. Matekoni got up, washed and dressed, and went out to find her standing sunk in thought in front of the mopipi tree.

“It is a fine morning again,” he said, as he walked up to her.