Ryan stands in front of a stall that sells ornaments for the cows and goats. He ogles at the rows upon rows of colourful collars, chains, leads, necklaces, crowns and anklets weaved with plastic pearls and multi coloured strings.

He selects a red and yellow collar with numerous tiny bells and puts it on his beautiful pure white goat with long floppy ears and tiny horns. He has named it “Snow” because of the colour.

“C’mon Ryan! We are having a goat race in the compound. Hurry up!” says Abeer, his neighbour.

Tugging Snow’s lead, Ryan walks it towards the parking area of his apartment building where a group of young boys have gathered with the animals their parents have bought for the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha festival.

“Yeah, let’s start so you see how fast my goat runs. It was the biggest and the strongest in the market,” says Babar proudly, patting his very handsome goat.

“Our goat will win the race, our goat is the best!” chants Saif.

Ryan hurriedly joins seven others boys at the starting line.

“On your mark!” shouts Abeer Ryan looks into Snow’s eyes and whispers, “Please run fast Snow, let’s win this race, oh please!”

“Get set … go!”

There’s a roar of applause from the children gathered to see the race and the participants break into a run, tugging their goats hard and shouting encouragements at them. Ryan finds himself neck-to-neck with three other boys as he reaches the wall at the far end and turns back around. He sees Babar digging his heals into the ground pulling the lead of his heavy set goat with all his might, but it stands obstinately, refusing to budge an inch from where it stands. With his spirits suddenly high, Ryan runs faster while Snow keeps up with him, the bells on his collar jingling loudly.

Mohsin is the only one ahead of him and they’re only a feet away from the finishing line when Mohsin’s goat leaves the track altogether, trots over to a nearby potted plant and starts munching on the leaves. Two more strides and Ryan wins the race.

Children jump up and down screaming, “Ryan won the race!”

Ryan looks at Snow with pride and yells, “Yes! We did it Snow!”

“Did what?” asks Ryan’s mother.

Ryan wakes up with a jolt. It appears that he had been dreaming about a goat of his own. He suddenly feels a cloud of gloom settle over him. His mother couldn’t buy him a goat this year. His father had passed away eight months ago and they couldn’t possibly afford a goat on his mother’s limited income.

He quietly climbed out of his bed and watched out of the window. With two days to go, all the boys his age had already gotten their goats and were now walking around the building, chattering excitedly about goats, animal feed, goat-wear, goat-supplies, goat-prices, goat-sizes, goat-ages, goat-races, goat-fights, and every other thing related to goats.

Abeer rushes past him shouting, “C’mon Ryan! We are having a goat race in the compound. Hurry up!”

With a very heavy heart Ryan walks towards the car parking.

“Let’s start the race!” says Mohsin.

“Yeah, let’s start so you see how fast my goat runs. It was the biggest and the strongest in the market,” says Babar patting his very handsome goat.

“Our goat will win the race, our goat is the best!” chants Babar’s younger brother Saif.

Ryan recalls the beautiful white goat from his dream and blinks tears out of his eyes. Suddenly he can’t see anymore. Everything has gotten dark. Panicking, he tries to remove the hands that have clasped over his eyes. The pressure of the hands lifts and he squints up at the long white bearded face smiling down at him.

“Grandpa!” Ryan gives a whoop of joy and hugs his grandfather. That’s when he hears a soft ‘Meeh”, turns his head around and finds himself nose to nose with a goat. He takes a startled step back and his mouth falls open in astonishment. The goat standing beside him, with its pure white coat, tiny horns and long floppy ears, is an exact replica of Snow. It even wears a red and yellow collar with tiny silver bells.

“Do you like it?” asks Grandpa.

“It’s beautiful!” exclaims Ryan.

“It is all yours,” says Grandpa.

Ryan does a double-take and stares open-mouthed at Grandpa.

“You will care for him over the next two days, won’t you?” Grandpa smiles down gently at him.

This time Ryan blinks back tears of happiness as sheer joy courses through him. He gives Grandpa another hug.

“I will call it Snow,” decides Ryan.

“Alright, tie its rope up securely while I go and meet your mother,” says Grandpa

However, Ryan has no intention of tying Snow up, not when he has acquired a goat after craving for it for so long. He remembers the dream and decides to go ahead and participate in the race. All his friends rush forward to take a look at the new goat as Ryan straightens its collar feeling immensely elated.

Ryan takes his position at the starting line and as Abeer yells, “Get set … go!”

Ryan breaks into a run with Snow galloping behind him. Snow turns out to be faster than every other goat in vicinity. They have barely begun the race and already it’s Snow who is ahead of everyone, yanking Ryan along forcefully. Ryan tries to exert some control over Snow by pulling at its lead, loses his balance and falls on his knees as Snow gallops on dragging Ryan behind. Ryan lets go of the lead with a yell as it scrapes his palm and Snow sets off at a run, exits the gate of the building and disappears outside.

The race forgotten, all boys rush after Snow with Ryan in the lead, yelling, “Ryan’s goat has run off!”

The younger children, highly excited over this business, waste no time in spreading the news of the goat’s escape far and wide. Ryan runs around the entire block, tears streaming down his face, his heart crushing with despair but finds no sign of Snow. He recalls Grandpa telling him to tie Snow up and his heart swells with guilt at the prospect of facing him. He prays desperately, begging Allah to make Snow come back.

After searching for a half an hour or so, he walks towards his home with his shoulders weighed down with grief. He finds Grandpa waiting for him at the entrance, having heard the bad news.

He takes a look at Ryan’s tears and snot smeared face and says, “Come on Ryan! We’ll go look for your goat in my van, it couldn’t have gone too far.”

They head towards Grandpa’s van in silence. Ryan looks up at his serious face and feels extreme remorse for letting him down.

With a choked voice he utters, “I am sorry Grandpa! I shouldn’t have gone racing.” His body starts shaking as fresh tears spill from his eyes. In response, he hears Grandpa say, “Meeh!”

Thinking Grandpa was trying to amuse him, he looks up at him quizzically but finds his own surprise mirrored on Grandpa’s face.

“Did you make that sound, Ryan?” asks Grandpa

“No, I thought you did,” says Ryan

“Meeh!” comes the voice again and Grandpa slams the breaks and they both turn around to look into the back where munching away at a pile of hay sits … Snow!

Ryan jumps into the back and hugs his elusive goat that had caused him so much worry.

“I had forgotten to shut the tailgate after taking Snow out of the car. I think Snow remembered where his food was and came in for a meal,” says Grandpa with a smile.

“Oh you smart, naughty goat, don’t ever do that again!” says Ryan half sobbing and half laughing.

Ryan helps Snow descend from the car, Abeer comes rushing up to him and says, “Oh you have found your goat, Ryan, Come on! We are having another race.”

“No!” says Ryan, “I think I have had enough races to last me for a while. Come on Snow, let’s tie you up securely in the tent.”

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 18th, 2018