THE GOAT TOWN

A married couple finds themselves in a town mysteriously inhabited by goats.

THE GOAT TOWN

BY

BRIAN POMPHREY

BAM! Just the sound you never want to hear when driving across country. Harold, and Janet are no different. 

"Shhhhhit!" Harold exclaims before pulling off to the side of a dirt road next to a sign that reads "WELCOME TO HAPPY" with a big yellow face spray painted next to huge words. The lack of green life stretches on for miles. The two reek of a marriage that is ten years too long. Janet is only 32, when the sales people in the mall refer to her as grandma. Harold is 43, when he's assumed to be on social security. It's never a lucky day with them. Their youth stopped the moment the thought saying "I DO" meant more then having money. Welcome to Happy. 

"I have on the map, 1 mile left before we hit the next town." Janet sighs. 

"Let me take a look under the hood before you go on assuming we have to walk."

"Only thing I'm assuming is you not fixing our car." Harold rolls his eyes as he opens the driver side door, and pops the hood. Steam rolls into Harold's face the moment the engine is reveled. He coughs his lungs out. Janet rests her face into palm. This happens more then she'd like. 

"Walking?" she asks in monotone. 

"Walking." 

The heat is unbearable, but Janet has her hat, and Harold has his pride...and a red face. Though the two are used to handling situations as such, it never excuses the little irritations they both have. Their thrift store shoes tap and scrape against the street and dirt. It's enough to drive Janet crazy. Harold's sweat rolling down his face can sometimes be too much even for someone who has been through the heat before. His skin crawls, and this emotion...to HIT something...or someone, develops like a bug painfully digging its way under his skin, and the only to stop it...is to kill it. 

"Goat Town?" Janet's confusion stabs Harold in the ear, and annoys him more then the sweat. 

"Goat Town?" Harold asks. The two look up ahead to see a town. Buildings, homes, a bar, a town hall, everything. They go running into the center...but no one is around. 

"A ghost town more then Goat Town." Harold laughs. CLANK! They both turn to see a small billy goat in little boys overalls looking at them after kicking a small soda can. A long silence. 

"Harold?..." The goat stares into Harold's eyes. An overwhelming heat comes over Harold's brain and sweat poor down his cheek. The goat's head turns sporadically left and right. More clanking is heard, and small hooves making there way to the couple.  

More and more goats arrive, each one wearing people's clothes. A big white and grey goat, in a black hat, with a suit on, and a pin next to his left breast that reads "Mayor".

"Look honey...they're goats...in peoples clothes!" she laughs. "Get it? It's Goat Town!"

"Shut up!..." Harold whispers loudly. "This isn't normal baby.Why are you acting like this is a joke?"

"It HAS to be! What else is this?"

"BAH!" Harold and Janet turn quickly to see a black goat with a broken horn, in a dirty blue jump suit. Harold slowly lifts his hands up and veers closer to his wife. 

"Hi....are you a umm....mechanic?" The goat's head moves left and right. 

"Um Goat Town right?" Harold asks. "Where are the people?"

"Our care broke down about a mile from here..." Janet interrupts.

"Janet!..."

"Shush!" she lifts a finger to him. "We really need your help sir...Mr.Goat." The Goat Mayor lifts his hooves against the ground, kicking dirt and sand in the air. The town seems to come to life now as more and more goats arrive in human clothing and walk all around themselves. Harold and Janet are left confused. 

"What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know Janet, you seemed like you were getting along with them." Harold exclaims. 

"Harold look!" Janet points over to a motel. "Lets go spend the night, and try to figure this out tomorrow."

"I need water before doing anything else." He says with a frustrated tone. 

The bar is filled with goats. Harold walks among them bewildered and disgusted by the smell they leave. He takes a seat, where a bar tender goat lifts his head up from behind the counter. Harold looks almost un-phased. 

"Bar keep...beer." A long silence. "Beer!" he demands. The goat's head veers up and to the side. "Bah!" the goat replies. Harold stares at the goat intensely. "Fine!" he says. "Ill get it." Harold reaches over the counter, and poor himself a drink. 

Janet tours the town. She finds the Goat Mechanic standing by an open garage door with two cars inside. One car is lifted up on the high rise. The goat stares at her before loosing interest and focusing back it's short attention span on the ground. Janet keeps forward and makes her way into the motel lobby, where the inside matches the yellow dust look of the outside. 

"This place could use a little more TLC." She rings the bell. "Bah!" The head of a goat lifts up behind the counter. He is in a red suit and black tie. 

"Oh hi!...um 2 please for one night." A long silence. "This is very funny!" she snorts. The goat peaks a glance at the counter where a small patch of grass lays. He munches on it ignoring her. Loudly chewing. The sound and look of a goat's mouth chewing gets into Janet's ears and offends her sight. She closes her eyes tightly to ignore it. She opens to see the goat looking right at her. His chewing comes to a close. A long silence. 

The last drop of beer falls into Harold's mouth. He slams the glass on the counter. 

"Ahh! THAT was good!" He yells. "I needed that like you wound't even believe!" The goats around him go about their ways ignoring him. Harold looks over to a smaller goat sitting next to him. He turns his way. 

"You ever get married?" He asks genuinely. "Cuz let me tell you, it's a f*****g scam!" The goat turns his head away while Harold continues. "I met her and thought everything was gonna be okay....but you the truth? I didn't like her! HA!" His laugh echos though the goats ears, and they all turn to him. "Yup! I loved her mother though! Oh my God talk about a woman!" He reaches around the counter to grab another drink. The bar tender goat bites at his hand. 

"Hey! What the f**k?!"

The door creaks open. Janet's ex[expectations are lowered more when she notices the hotel room. Her heart sinks. The bathroom door is broken off and the walls seem painted with dust. The window is so filthy, it's hard to tell if it's day or night. She moves around the room until her eyes catch something...a picture. Examining it closer, she realizes the town she is in, with people. She catches the Mayor...and mechanic....the motel lobby boy, and the bar tender...all human.

"What the hell happened?" The long silence is cut open by the sound of a goat standing behind her. She jumps. The goat is dressed in a black suit and hat. He turns his head and walks out the door, but before he leaves the room, Janet catches a glimpse of blood stained on the bottom of the blazer. Her eyes go wide. 

"What's your f*****g problem?!" Harold screams. The bar tender goat lets out a "Bah" before turning his head again and walking away, Harold watches him leave. Before the goat notices, Harold reaches around again and poor himself another drink. "F**k you goat." he whispers. 

In shock, Janet drops the picture and tries to run down stairs. A goat blocking the stair case looks right at her. 

"No...NO!" She runs back to the room where another goat is heading right for her. Her scream is glass shattering as she makes her way for the dirty window and shatters though it. THUD! a long silence surrounds her dead body as blood leaves her mouth and ears. More goats gather around her. 

Harold comes walking out the bar. 

"What was that?" He sees the goats all gathering around in a circle. Coming closer to the attraction, his heart sinks when he realizes his wife is dead in the dirt. 

"Janet!" He hurries to her body, but the Goat Mayor walks ahead of him. "
"BAH!" Harold screams and turns to a retreat. The goats all move around ignoring Harold's crisis. 

Running to find anything that resembles safety. He makes his way to the mechanic shop where he finds a car with the doors unlocked. He pulls the wires out from under the wheel and tries to hot wire. "Bah!" Harold hits his head against the wheel when he is shocked by a loud angry sound. Behind him stands a tall black goat with big horns. His hooves kick the ground. This goat stands as tall as Harold.

"What the f**k?!" Harold moves away from the car where he trips over a hose hitting the back of his head hard. Trying to move past the pain, he sees the tall goat looking at him, kicking the ground harder. Harold tries kicking himself away but his efforts activate a switch on the ground that unhooks the high rise. A long silence. Harold looks up slowly to realize a car above him...SLAM! Blood pools out around the car. Harold's body is gone under the weight of the car. "BAh!" the black goat goes crazy as he continues kicking the ground. 

The sun begins going down over Goat Town. The Goat Mayor bahs and while the citizens make there way inside each of the buildings. One naked goat moves his way to Janet's rotting body and begins gnawing at her clothing. Another naked goat is trying to reach it's head under the busted car that became Harold's grave.  

Next morning in Goat Town, two goats join the crowd, wearing Janet and Harold's clothes. 

FIN.

Author's Note

Please don't be scared to rip this to pieces, but keep in mind have fun with it. Stories are for entertainment. Feel free to enjoy it or hate it as much as possible.

Reviews

[Writergurl]

I really enjoyed this write, I don't get too much into stories, But I really enjoyed this. Love this, it was cute and the characters stood out.

[Brian Pomphrey]

Thank you. I have been wanting to go back to it, but I'd rather continue writing new stories to get better.