New Kid On the Block

Zero Flash 2016

My neighbor got a baby goat, a kid as they’re called, and it was cute as a kid can be. My kids (who are not baby goats) would walk across the field to look at it and talk to it.

They asked our neighbor, Mr. Swanson, what he called the goat and he said, “Goat” and Charley and Annie, my eight year old twins didn’t understand and asked if they could call the kid something besides Goat and Mr. Swanson said he didn’t think it was a good idea but to go ahead and do what they wanted.

Since it was a girl goat and would be call a doe when it grew up they decided to name her Doe-ris which sounded like Doris their Aunt. They became close to Doe-ris and would visit her every day after school and she seemed to be growing before their eyes.

Annie would sit by the fence feeding Do-ris pieces of apple and telling her about her troubles with her girlfriends and ask Do-ris for advice. Charlie would do the same except he would talk about sports and Do-ris seemed interested in that also. She was always a little less interested when the apples were gone.

Charlie and Annie went over to say goodbye to Doe-ris before we left on our trip across country and three weeks later when we returned they ran over before unloading their car to say hello to Do-ris and there was a kid in the pen and no Do-ris to be found.

They came home and said Mr. Swanson told them to ask me why they shouldn’t name the new kid on the block and I had to sit them down and tell them. I left them stunned and holding hands and when I came back into the house Charlie asked, “Do you think that the Swansons ever had real kids like us?”