The Goat

Anna tossed a few more letters onto the bulging pile of mail and sat down at the other end of the table. The letters and bills at the bottom of the pile were already two weeks old and still unopened, despite her mother’s nagging. She sighed and let her head drop into her open hands. Someone knocked on the hardwood door. She groaned and hesitated for a moment before rising from the bench. It took her a minute to recognize the man standing before her. He was tall and thin, well-muscled, but scraggly too, and he had gray whiskers poking out across his jawline. His eyes were bright, blue, and kind of bloodshot and the skin around them was wrinkled and thin. His hair was thinning and gray and touched his eyebrows. If things had been different, she would have smiled at the old man, but as it was, she just stood in the doorway, staring.

“Sorry I couldn’t stop by sooner,” he said in a rasping voice. “I’ve been awful busy.”

Anna composed herself, stood up straight and took a step back into the house, motioning for him to come inside. “It’s fine. I haven’t really been in the mood for visitors anyway.”

The man looked around the kitchen. “So, you got everything, eh? Your grandma left it all to you?”

Anna nodded. “Yeah. The house, the farm, the business. I got the whole burden.”

The man looked at her intently. “How are you holding up? You’ve always been tough as nails. Just like your grandma.”

“It’s been hard. I have no idea how Grandma did all of this, took care of everything and still had time for life and children. I don’t think I can do it.”

“Do you want to do it?”

Anna frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I knew you when you were a little girl. You always had big dreams.”

“I don’t know. I never accounted for something like this when I was a child.”

“You know you don’t have to do it.”

“I know, but that doesn’t help me. It would feel so wrong to leave. But it wouldn’t feel right for me to stay here either, wishing I could be somewhere else. I don’t want to do something just because I feel like I owe it to Grandma. But I do owe it to her, and I can’t just let it go.”

“You need to choose soon. All those fancy colleges won’t wait forever. I expect that’s all from them?” He pointed to the pile of mail on the table.

“Most of it. My mom keeps telling me to decide, but she acts like it’s so easy, like it’s not the most important choice I’ve ever had to make.”

“You forget, your mother has had to make hard decisions too. Hard decisions need to be made even more than easy ones. And sometimes hard decisions aren’t as difficult as they seem.”

“I know, I just can’t yet.”

A quiet fell over them. The old man’s expression was curious as he looked at Anna. Anna stared at the ground. A shout and another knock on the door broke the silence. Anna opened the door and a young man in dirty jeans and a t-shirt stepped just inside the doorway.

“A goat’s missing,” he announced. “We need you Mr. Owen. I’m really sorry to interrupt, Miss Anna.”

“No, it’s fine, John,” Anna responded, crossing her arms. “What can I do?”

John paused. “We’re going out in pairs to find him. You can come, if you want. Mr. Owen will need a partner.”

“Okay,” she said. She took a deep breath.

Anna and Mr. Owen followed the young man into the yard and through the gate, into a green pasture where a group of Anna’s employees waited for them. Mr. Owen stepped took charge. “You all have your whistles? Good. Bill and Ashton, I want you in the East. Al and Larry, you take the West. Mikey and John can take the North and Anna and me will go South. If we don’t find this goat by sunset, everyone come back to the farm. Let’s go.”

The group broke up and Anna followed Mr. Owen into a forested area of the property. “Do you think we’ll find the goat?”

Mr. Owen shrugged and pushed through the brush. “There’s a fence in about half a mile that circles the property. The goat’s got to be somewhere on this side. I just hope we’ll find him alive. If a coyote got through the fence, he might have found dinner.”

“All this fuss over one goat. Why?”

Mr. Owen smiled. “It’s what your Grandma wanted. She ordered all of us to do this every time an animal went missing. She loved this farm and every creature who shared it with her. She was quite the lady.”

“I wish I could be like her,” Anna said.

Mr. Owen laughed. “Child, you already are like her. You can do anything. Do you think college is going to be easy? If that’s why you want to go, then you might want to rethink it.”

A sharp whistle sounded twice. Mr. Owen stopped. “They found the goat and it’s okay. See, sometimes it’s not so hard as you think it is. It doesn’t usually take us long, but we still plan for the worst. And you’re never alone. If you were, it could take forever to find a goat.”

“You’re right, Owen,” Anna said. “The hard decisions do have to be made. I have always wanted to go to college, and who would I be if I gave up my dreams? I’m going to put you in charge of the farm. Grandma trusted you enough, and so will I. I can go to college and take care of the business. I don’t have to choose between them. I can be like Grandma.”