Mma Makutsi removed her glasses and polished them. “People in Botswana can be lonely too,” she said. “And quiet as well. We aren’t noisy people like some of those people over the border. Those Zulu people, for instance…”

“I know that,” said Susan. “Canada is not really like the way I felt it was. The problem was inside me, not in Canada. The Canadians are good people; in fact, I think there are many similarities between Batswana and Canadians…but there are many differences too, and it was the differences that I felt when I went to live there as a young girl.”

“Your heart had been left behind,” said Mma Ramotswe. “It is not uncommon—many people who leave Africa feel that way.”

“Yes,” said Susan simply. “My heart stayed here. I went off with my parents, but my heart stayed here.”

“But it would not have lasted forever, surely,” said Mma Ramotswe.

Susan looked up; she held Mma Ramotswe’s gaze. “It did last,” she said slowly. “I never got over it. Never.”

“You felt homesick for Africa?” asked Mma Makutsi.

Susan nodded. “I did. I expected to forget it, but I didn’t. Even when…”

She broke off. Mma Ramotswe waited.

“Yes, Mma? Even when?”

Susan did not answer directly. “I had something happen to me, Mma.”

Mma Ramotswe caught her breath. She had been in this exact place before—and on more than one occasion. She had sat with a client, with Mma Makutsi at her desk behind her, and been told about some dark thing that had happened, and that could ruin the life of the one to whom it had happened. It was horribly, painfully familiar.

“I am very sorry, my sister,” she whispered. “You do not need to talk about it. Not now. You can tell me later, if you wish.”

Susan looked up, seemingly surprised by the gravity of Mma Ramotswe’s words. “But it happens to most people, Mma,” she said. “Most people fall in love, don’t they?”

Mma Ramotswe stared at Susan uncomprehendingly. “But, Mma, I don’t see…”

Susan smiled. “I’m sorry, Mma, I’ve confused matters. You see, all I meant was that my…well, I call it my Africa sickness, was very strong, and lasted even when something very important took over my life. That was all.”

“I see…and that other thing was falling in love with somebody?”

Mma Makutsi’s spectacles caught the light. “Hah!” she said. “That is something that can turn you upside down. Upside down. Like that.”