Ama had been even younger than Billie when her mother had first told her to stop showing off. She had indeed stopped showing off. But these days she couldn't care less about such fussy rules — on the contrary, it delighted her to take up so much space when the world wanted women to be as small and inoffensive as possible. And it was a pleasure to demonstrate this to a young girl, as well — Billie would hopefully learn from this that there was something magnificent about a woman making herself known.

The giraffe sent a sweeping, long-lashed gaze over the treetops as if looking out over the village as Billie had suggested. But the truth was, the hedges and trees were very tall; she couldn't see much.

Having awed the youngster an appropriate amount, Ama dwarfed back down to size, dusted off her dress gracefully, and gave Billie a dimpled smile. "I'm a giraffe", announced the human. "The tallest land animal in the world, belonging to the sweeping Serengeti plains of Africa."