The Time of the Goats

9

56 9 After fin­ ish­ ing Al­ phonse ­ Daudet’s story about Mr. ­ Seguin’s goat,­ Changa could not sleep. He was ­ shaken to the core by the fate of the goat that ­ speaks up and asks her owner to let her go into the moun­ tains, to free­ dom. The poor thing does not know what dan­ gers lurk in the moun­ tains, what kind of wolf­ish do­ main rules there. Se­ guin did not want to lose his goat, so he shut her in a dark stall with a dou­ ble lock, but he for­ got the ­ opened win­ dow. The lit­ tle goat would­ quickly find her way to the moun­ tains. The ­ leaves of the chest­ nuts ca­ ress her ­ bright white wool as she moves like a queen ­ through the leafy green shad­ ows. In the dis­ tance, the eyes of the sun spar­ kle green ­ through the al­ ders. The lit­ tle goat ­ reaches her moun­ tain ­ heaven. The whole moun­ tain re­ joices with her. Per­ haps just once in a life­ time is one ­ touched by such great hap­ pi­ ness. The lit­ tle goat ­ feasts on the suc­ cu­ lent ­ leaves and grass. “O how happy the lit­ tle goat is,” ­ Changa said aloud, riv­ eted by the un­ fold­ ing ­ events. “But some­ thing will hap­ pen,” said ­ Changa sadly, and 57 he con­ sid­ ered stop­ ping his read­ ing, but the fate of the goat pro­ pelled him. His fel­ low goat­ herds felt the same later when ­ Changa read them the story. Some of them sup­ ported ­ Seguin’s ac­ tions; oth­ ers did not.­ Changa, wise man that he was, did not take sides. He let the ­ story’s end­ ing speak for it­ self; he was in no rush. Had the lit­ tle goat been in the Bal­ kan Moun­ tains, her fate would have been dif­ fer­ ent. When ­ Changa first read it, he had not im­ a­ gined that a wolf would be tan­ gled up in this story. But the wolf ­ quickly ap­ peared. ­ Changa was most im­ pressed by the lit­ tle ­ goat’s brav­ ery and her love of free­ dom. Our Bal­ kan goats— like many of their own­ ers—have never fully freed them­ selves from fear. This wor­ ried ­ Changa a great deal. Yes, ­ Seguin’s hum­ ble lit­ tle goat did not know fear. The goat­ herds later ex­ plained this to ­ Changa: fear trans­ ferred from the peo­ ple to their Bal­ kan goats. He ­ thought about the goats wan­ der­ ing the Roman forum, and later he ­ pushed for the goats to roam ­ freely in our city as well. This drove the party ca­ dres re­ spon­ sible for the goats to dis­ trac­ tion; but the goats did what goats do. The mu­ nic­ i­ pal party func­ tion­ ar­ ies con­ soled them­ selves with the ­ thought that the day would come when the goats and the goat­ herds would pay for this; an end would come at last to this ­ cursed sea­ son of goats. They also threat­ ened ­ Changa, who, in their view, was read­ ing bour­ geois West­ ern lit­ er­ a­ ture to the goat­ herds. They had their sym­ pa­ thiz­ ers hid­ den among the goat­ herds to whom­ Changa read. Later, in com­ mit­ tee meet­ ings, they at­ tempted to piece to­ gether a mo­ saic of truth based on con­ fused ev­ i­ dence, but in their pow­ er­ less­ ness, all they could do was shout, “Who is this Mr. Segen with the goat? This is pure bour­ geois prop­ a­ ganda. West­ ern lit­ er­ a­ ture about the poi­ son­ ing of goat­ herds, fu­ ture mem­ bers of the work­ ing class . . .” But the story did not end here; there was both de­ noue­ ment and epi­ logue. The wolf had en­ tered the plot. Who could allow such a fate? ­ Changa­ thought of the Bal­ kans, of Sta­ lin. The lit­ tle goat went along her way; from a dis­ tance she saw Mr. ­ Seguin’s house, her re­ cent ­ prison. She was at the peak of her hap­ pi­ ness. 58­ Changa wor­ ried about her fate, even ­ though the wolf had not yet ap­ peared be­ fore her eyes. “She lost her bal...