“I’ve got two words for you,” Strange Brew said. “Baby goats.”
Strange Brew was an old friend of Sal and Nancy’s from the Old Corn community who decided to come north to join the commune. They were excited to have an comrade from the southern commune join them but they were even more excited about the three little goats.
“Baby goats!” yelled Nancy. “Look at them. They’re so adorable!”
“Wooeee, they’re just amazing,” said Blue Sky. “I’ve never seen baby goats before. This is so great. It looks like a real farm here now.”
Strange Brew seemed happy to have brought them. “I thought that you folks could use a few animals for your farm. Besides, we had way too many goats at Old Corn. Hey, I only brought you three of them. I could have brought a lot more. Really. But I only brought a couple of the little ones.”
“Oh, wow,” said Marge. “We have goats now! Real goats! This is wonderful.”
“Goats and chickens,” Sal said. “That means milk and eggs.”
“Goats and chickens mean that we’re a real farm now,” Patsy said. “It didn’t feel like a real farm to me when we were just growing vegetables.:
“Oh, my,” Viv screeched, “Baby goats! They’re so cute!”
Slowly folks gathered until there was a flock of people around the goats, who simply took it all in stride. They were petted and brushed and hugged and eventually Strange Brew came back with bottles of goat’s milk and the communards took turns feeding them. The goats enjoyed being petted but they enjoyed being fed most of all.
“Aren’t they the cutest things you’ve ever seen?” asked Chuck.
“They are pretty cute,” said Darren.
“What’s cute?” Ken asked.
“Check it out. We have baby goats.”
“Oh my goodness,” Ken said. “Look at them. We have goats. We really have goats.”
Cat was calmer about the whole thing. “Nice goats. It’s too bad I’m allergic to most animals or I’d want to pet them.”
Blue Sky and Paul G and Broc came by and each picked up a goat and carried it around on their shoulders. The goats took all this in stride as well. They seemed quite happy as long as people kept petting them and giving them milk. The goats knew what they liked and they liked life at the commune.
Pretty soon everyone knew about the cute baby goats.
Everyone except Dan and Luna.
“Maybe we should tell Luna soon,” Nancy said.
“Do you want to tell her?” Sal asked. “I don’t.”
Dan didn’t find out about the goats until the next morning at breakfast when he heard Grace say, “I still think they’re the cutest things ever.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I missed that. Who do you think is cute?”
“Those adorable baby goats. Haven’t you seen them?”
Sal and Nancy were nearby and held their collective breath.
“Wait,” Dan said. “We have goats?”
Grace took one look at Dan’s face and realized she made a mistake.
“Oops,” she said.
*
Dan found Luna out in the fields checking out how the crops were coming up.
“What do you think?” he asked Luna.
“I think we’re doing very well,” Luna replied. “Most of our greens are up and the other crops are doing well. We’re going to have a full fledged farm this year.”
“Absolutely,” Dan said. “With chickens even.”
“True. I mean I didn’t really want animals on the farm but the chickens will produce eggs and we can integrate them into the farm management.”
“You’re really good at integrating things into the farm. I really admired that about you. You’re pretty flexible in dealing with things.”
“Yeah, I like the challenge.”
“Hey, are you interested in more challenges?”
Luna stopped what she was doing and looked at Dan. “Is there something here that you’re not telling me?”
Dan spent a minute thinking about what to say next. “I think you might have some more interested challenges now.”
“Like?”
“What would you think about figuring out how to integrate some more animals into our communal farm?”
“You mean beyond chickens, don’t you? Somehow I think you’re not talking about ducks or geese.”
Dan paused again. “What would you think about the idea of integrating baby goats into the farm mix?”
“Why do I think this isn’t a theoretical question?”
“We’ve got a new commune member. Have you met Strange Brew from the Old Corn community?”
Luna took a minute to put it all together. “Okay. Did Strange Brew bring some baby goats along?” she asked.
“Apparently they had too many at Old Corn. It’s their gift to us.”
“Do we have any choice in the matter?”
“We could figure out who we could give the goats to, I suppose,” Dan said. “Of course it might be a little difficult since almost everyone else in the commune already adores the oh so cute little baby goats.”
“How many baby goats are we talking about?” Luna asked.
“Just three.”
“Well, that’s at least not as bad as I feared.” Luna paused and thought some more. “Okay. I guess that now we have vegetables and chickens and goats. It’s not what I wanted but I think I can live with it. Probably. But please, please, please. No cows.”
“I don’t think you have to worry,” Dan said. “I don’t think anyone here wants cows.”
“Good,” said Luna. “No cows.”
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