You could rely on the Germans, even when it came to death.
They’d phoned Dani Stricker immediately after Thirit, her turtle, had died. Dani wasn’t surprised. Her time in Germany was coming to an end. Without Harald, she felt more like a stranger every day, more than she’d felt for the past twenty years.
She hurried through the rainy park to the Mannheim botanical house.
Harald had brought her here when she’d first arrived in Germany. The heavy, humid air reminded Dani of the rainy season back home. She got homesick every time she entered the huge building, but she’d never told Harald. And they’d come back, as often as Harald had found the time, to admire the crocodiles in the entrance hall, and the Mongolian gerbils racing about in their enclosure, or they walked through the butterfly g
