Valentine the Goat

This is an excerpt from the first book in "The Faith Series," Innocence: Simplicity of Spirit:

Whenever Lilia's dad, Jacob, wanted to get some serious work done, he closed the door of his office off of the kitchen of the ranch house. It was a polite way of indicating to his family that he didn't want any interruptions for a while. He had closed it after the cattle incident because he was falling behind in his work. He had worked in his office for about three hours, and had accomplished a great deal. Jacob heard his eleven-year-old daughter, Lilia, and her best friend, Mele, having a tea party in the kitchen, and knew that all was well.

When he opened the door, he couldn't believe his eyes! Lilia and Mele were all dressed up in jackets and full-length skirts, and were wearing high heels and hats. They both had on a long necklace and a bracelet. They had found some of Francine's lipstick, and smeared it on. The little plastic tea cups held Koolaid, and the small plastic plates held cookies. There on the other side of the table sat Valentine the goat in one of the kitchen chairs. She wore Francine's good sweater, a pearl necklace, and a large straw hat! Valentine jauntily nibbled on a cookie.

Jacob grinned and nimbly whipped out his cell phone to take a picture. No one would believe this story without pictorial backup!

His dad, Apelehama, reached the door of the kitchen to see the bizarre sight before Jacob could say a word. He tried to stifle his laughter on Jacob's behalf, but couldn't. "It appears that Valentine is right at home." Jacob and his dad guffawed with laughter until tears ran down their faces.

Jacob cautioned the girls, "You'd better wind this up, Lilia. Your mom will be home soon, and Mele's mom will be here too." He hated to break up the unusually strange tea party.

"Okay Dad, we'll go hang everything back up." Lilia pulled out Valentine's chair, and Valentine stepped off with ease, as if she had been sitting in a chair all of her life. The sight of Valentine wearing the sweater and hat with the pearls hanging down set off Jacob and Apelehama anew. They laughed uproariously until they were out of breath.