The giraffe was once a tiny animal with a short neck. He resembled an averagely-sized goat actually. In fact, the goat, the deer, and the giraffe were friends who lived in the same neighborhood. They grazed together and shared stories about their experiences.
Soon, the deer and the goat started isolating the giraffe in their conversations and activities. The giraffe did not understand his friends’ sneaky behavior and he confronted them about it. However, they denied that there was nothing that they were hiding from him. Nevertheless, the giraffe noticed that his friends distanced themselves from him and treated him like a stranger, unlike before.
“What could they be hiding from me?” He wondered. Being modest and not wanting to keep bothering his friends, the giraffe decided that he will investigate the answers privately.
During some days, the goat would visit the deer in his home, while some other days, the deer would go to the goat. The giraffe tried to eavesdrop on their conversation but their voices were muffled by the wall. The animals’ huts were a circular wall built from mud and sticks. They didn’t have rooftops and there was only one wooden door for entry and exit. Outside their houses were all kinds of vegetation, from grass to shrubs to tall trees from which the animals grazed.
When the giraffe realized that he could never hear what his friends were talking about through the wall, he attempted to stretch his neck to observe them from the open roof. Since he was short, he kept stretching his neck bit by bit, hoping to get a glimpse of his friends.
One day as the goat was escorting the deer out of his house they caught the giraffe trying to strain his neck over the roof. The giraffe had not heard his friends’ footsteps and so when he saw them standing outside, he pretended to be jumping towards the leaves on the tree near goat’s house.
“What are you doing?” The startled goat inquired.
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m just hunting my supper unless you guys have introduced a rule that we can’t graze from one another’s compound anymore.” The giraffe answered with contempt.
“Of course you can eat from any compound in this neighborhood. I was just wondering why you are aiming at some leaves that are high above your reach when there is plenty of fresh grass and twigs right on the ground.” The goat reasoned.
“Well, I am just enriching my diet. I mean, we eat the grass on the ground daily and let these leaves fall down and rot. I want to taste the leaves of the tree before they fall down.” The giraffe explained.
Having been convinced by the giraffe, the deer, and the goat left him to his diet experiment while they continued with their own secret conversations.
For several days, the giraffe sneakily followed his friends to whatever house that they went in. He kept on straining his neck until one day it stretched to the top of the wall and he could see his friends. He pretended to eat at the leaves of the tall trees while his ears captured what his friends were saying.
“Yesterday some cheetah tried to outrun me but I tricked him to following me into the darkest part of the forest before I turned around and sped in the opposite direction.” The deer was saying.
“I was grazing on the plains the other day when I saw some creatures on two feet. They were talking about how goats have the best milk and that we give the best hide. The older two-legged creature was teaching the younger one how to hunt goats.” The goat contributed his share of banter.
“Is this what they talk about all day?” The giraffe wondered after gazing from the rooftop for several hours.
The nightfall began and the giraffe saw the deer and the goat standing up to say goodbyes. He quickly walked away back to his hut. His head hit the door frame when he tried to enter his house. That is when he realized that his neck did not go back down after he came from spying the goat and the deer. He tried to push it back in but the neck sprang back to an even longer length than before.
The giraffe was pissed that he had permanently damaged his neck over nothing. It was clear that the goat and the deer had nothing special going on apart from the normal conversations as before. After crying the whole night and still waking up with a longer than the normal neck, the giraffe decided to accept his situation.
The next morning, the giraffe stayed in his homestead and grazed from the trees in his compound.
Feeling bad for alienating their friend, the deer and the goat decided to pay him a visit and ask him to get back to their circle. They would all graze together again as before.
The goat and the deer were chewing on some grass that they had cut up with their incisors when they met face to face with the elongated giraffe. The giraffe was also chewing on some leaves that he had bitten from the surrounding tall trees. The two of them stared at the giraffe with a puzzled look. The giraffe stared back at them with an indifferent gaze. They all continued chewing without saying a word.
“Maa! That’s one long neck.” The goat spoke finally.