“If we had sacks …”

“You don’t have any, Mma?”

Mma Ramotswe shook her head. “I thought about it, Mma. I even made a mental note to get some. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni has a pile of old sacks back at Zebra Drive. If only I had remembered.”

They climbed out of the van to inspect the situation, which was worse than Mma Ramotswe had feared. The two front wheels of the van had spun energetically into the sand, effectively burrowing deeper with each revolution. Now the sand came three-quarters of the way up each wheel, and any further movement would undoubtedly sink them further.

“This is very bad,” said Mma Makutsi.

Mma Ramotswe looked down the track. “How long will it take us to walk back to the main road, Mma? You are good at calculations.”

Mma Makutsi stared in the direction from which they had come. “We’ve been travelling along here for about thirty minutes,” she said. “And we’ve been doing about fifteen kilometres an hour. That means we have come about seven kilometres. How fast do you think we walk, Mma?”

Mma Ramotswe scratched her head. “Three kilometres an hour?” she ventured. “Maybe less in places where it is very sandy.”

“Then we are at least two hours from that road,” said Mma Makutsi. She looked at her watch. “And now, Mma, it is almost four o’clock. We would get back to the road at about six o’clock, just as it is becoming dark.”

Neither of them said anything. There had been a conversation about lions only a short time ago, and they were both thinking the same thing. Mma Ramotswe looked at Mma Makutsi, who looked first at the ground and then at the sky.

Mma Ramotswe cleared her throat. “People say that you should never leave your vehicle when it breaks down,” she said. “If you do, then when the search party arrives, the searchers find the car but they don’t find you.”

“If there is a search party,” said Mma Makutsi.

Mma Ramotswe looked around them. It was often the case that a landscape that appeared to be empty was not; human habitation could be found in unexpected places—a single hut tucked away here, a collection of dwellings there; and there were paths between such places, bringing life to the landscape as arteries do to the body.

“Somebody may come along,” she said. “I think that we should stay in case that happens.”

Mma Makutsi shook her head. “There will be nobody, Mma. Who is going to come along here this close to sunset? No, we will not see anybody for a long time. Maybe days, Mma.”

As Mma Makutsi spoke, her voice faltered slightly, and Mma Ramotswe realised that her assistant was frightened.