Teenage Musings

He stares at me from a distance, assessing my description of himself.

He's tall, I guess, much tall- er than I would have expected, but shorter than me. His nose flares with the tiniest smidge of sass, and a line of brilliant white teeth parade beneath it. There's a black spot square in the center of his forehead. In fact, he's covered with black spots. And he's blue. Very blue.

He is a wooden giraffe, hand-carved and hand-painted in Zimbabwe. For the purpose of clarity, I will call him Blue. Blue has to be at least a footand a-half tall. He will eventu- ally be a present for someone I know wh...