“Maryah!” exclaimed Alaa, a big grin on his broad face and an elder brother’s glint in his eye. “Look!” he said, pointing at the head peering around the corner. “The enemy! The enemy! It’s your enemy Osama, ya Maryah!”

Poor Osama flushed red and his head snapped back out of sight. For months, although I would sometimes see him at dinner, he would avoid eye contact, eat faster than anyone I have ever seen, and head immediately back outside. We never spoke.

“Friends With Goats” appears in the nineteenth issue of Amsterdam Quarterly (AQ19), online at www.amsterdamquarterly.org and www.amsterdamquarterly.nl in June 2017, and will also be in the printed Amsterdam Quarterly 2017 Yearbook in December 2017.