A Day Too Cold for Goat

Sometimes I wish I never opened that parcel that mom gave me for Halloween.

So, I was glad to see the way it was on Sunday. It was gray and cold all day. The wind was cold. It shook the trailer and scratched the branch of the dead cottonwood back and forth across the window. There was a little snow slanting across the road between us and Dowd Waskewitz’s trailer. Then at night when I opened the door, it was still with the stars speckled in the sky. My breath was a cloud. I could hear someone chopping wood clear over by the school. It came clear and sharp without echoes.

I opened the door because I thought about putting on the goat and going out. It was like something was calling me to put it on. So I was both glad and not glad that it was too cold. Even with how warm the goat was, I’m not a person who likes walking around in the cold. So it was a good thing it was a gray, windy day that turned colder at night.

Last night I said I wasn’t going to put it on again, not even next Halloween. It was a Halloween costume. I shouldn’t have worn it last night to the Sadie Hawkins bonfire. After what happened last night I told myself I shouldn’t have worn it, and I wasn’t going to any more. When I hung it up in the closet, I told it I wasn’t going to any more. Last night I was going to put it away. So on Sunday, I was glad it was too cold.

But all night, watching TV with mom, I kept thinking about the goat. And I didn’t get much sleep with the goat hanging in the closet and me thinking about it and about last night after the bonfire. I was happy I did not put it on. But I thought about it a lot and about last night and about O.D.s Pontiac doing the back seat Rock and Roll while I let air out of his tire.

When I went to sleep, I dreamed about being the goat. I dreamed about leaving goat footed prints in the snow. I saw a girl walking in the snow and went to help her, but when I left her she was just a shadow under the trees. I dreamed of looking into a pond of water and seeing the goat, and it wasn’t me any more at all.

I woke up in the morning sweating.

Also posted in response to GoDogCafe three word prompt, gray, wind, and echoes.

Please note: that the “mom gave” link and the “what happened” link in this post refer to earlier, related posts that provide context for this post.