This is the 1st story I told for my Storytelling class last semester. It was my favorite of the 4. Probably because I didn’t know what I was doing, so I couldn’t over think it. I tried to groom it a bit, but it’s still made for oral presentation over reading.
Here is the original story. You should be able to see my embellishments pretty easily.
“Kaldi and the Dancing Goats”
Centuries ago, there were two brothers who lived in the Ethiopian country side.
Kaldi, the oldest, was his parent’s pride and joy. He was strong, smart, ambitious, and wildly handsome.
Then there was Samson, the baby. He wasn’t loved, as much as he was tolerated by his parents. If Kaldi got all of the good traits from his parents, Samson got the worst. He was short, clumsy, homely, and perhaps worst of all he suffered from narcolepsy.
Although the boys were not loved equally by their parents, they grew to be best friends. Kaldi was Samson’s hero, and Samson was Kaldi’s loyal side kick. The pair grew- Kaldi tall and strong, Samson–wide and more clumsy.
When it came time for the boys to choose a path for their lives, the parents pushed Kaldi toward life in the Monastery. He was everything a good monk should be–loved by everyone, strong, and smart. Samson, on the other hand, they shooed toward the family business–goats.
However, the boys had dreams of their own. One of the largest goat herd in Ethiopia, and the other of a simple place along the straight and narrow. So Kaldi took over the herd in hopes of fortune, and Samson began long hours of prayer, fasting and silence.
But before the brothers parted ways, they vowed to meet once a month halfway between the monastery on the mountaintop and the sweeping meadows in the country side below.
As time went on, their lives continued down the expected path. Kaldi’s herd grew larger and larger every day. And Samson, well he did his best, but as it turns out life as a monk–praying, fasting and being quiet–was every narcoleptic’s night mare. He was always in trouble the Reverend Father and had no gained any clout since he first crossed the threshold of the monastery 10 years before.
But as it were, life, or maybe God, finally started answering Samson’s prayers:
“Dear Heavenly Father,
Please help me to be a better snooooooorrrrrrrr….”
On that very morning, Kaldi took his droves of goats to a new field to roam. This field was covered in trees with strange red berries. So Kaldi’s goats ate the berries because goats will really eat just about anything. But what happened next Kaldi did not expect. The goats started dancing. The goats ran in circles. The goats “maaaaaa”ed for hours on end.
“What is happening?” Kaldi thought to himself. “It must be those berries.” So he tried a few. The berries were sweet, but they didn’t taste different from the other berries he had tried. But then… Then he felt a surge of energy. He felt like dancing. He let out a loud “MAAAAAA”. Kaldi had to much early to think. All he could do was dance. And so Kaldi and his goats stayed in the field and danced.
When he came off of his berry infused high, Kaldi new he had to tell his brother about this magical fruit. It could cure Samson of his lifelong napping addiction, as their mother put it.
So Kaldi gathered up a handful of berries and carried them with him to the brothers’ next meeting half way up the mountain.
Samson greated his brother with a sad face, “Brother, I will never be a good monk. The Revered Father has put me on a solid food fast. He says overeating is the reason for my sleeping problems– all of those carbs. He will only let me drink boiling water.”
Kaldi was not listening. He said, “Brother I have a magic berry. It will give you energy. It will make you dance. It will keep you up all night and day. Just eat a couple at a time, and you will never fall asleep again.”
Kaldi then shoved the berries in Samson’s hand and ran down the hill.
Samson trudged back to his little room in the monastery fighting the temptation to eat the berries. He trusted his brother, but he knew he could not disobey the Revered Father. Not knowing what to do with his magical gift, he placed the berries on the end of his desk as he studied the Word that night.
He settled into his chair and began to read his favorite scripture.
“The Lord is my Shepherd…”
“Yes, yes, that’s true he thought.”
“I shall not want,” he read.
“To be truthful, I’d like some roasted goat and a loaf of bread right about now,” he grumbled.
“He leadeth me beside….”
And he was out without any warning. His head fell forward on the scriptures and knocked the berries right off the table. Right off the table and into the fire.
With in minutes, Samson woke to the pleasing aroma of the berries roasting in the fire. At first he did not know what it was, but then, as he looked around Samson realized the berries were missing. They must have fallen into the hearth when he faceplanted on the table.
So he scooped them out one by one. Each berry was very brittle. He admired them, now dark purple almost black, but kept smashing them in his chubby, clumsy fingers. And soon he had a fine powder in his hand.
He thought, “What a strange thing for berries to do.” And then he went to take a swig of his boiling water. That’s when it hit him. What if…
“Berries aren’t really berried if they are powder,” he thought, “and if I mix them with the water, I won’t be eating solid food…”
So that’s just what he did. Samson took the fine black powder from the berries and placed it in his boiling water. Then he drank every drop.
With in a minutes he had more energy then he’d felt in his whole life. His legs began to twitch a little jig. His mouth opened before he knew what he was doing and let out a big “MAAAAAAA”. The ground berry mixture left him dancing and “MAAAA”ing the night away.
From that day on, he never had a problem with falling asleep at the wrong time again. Instead he was able to study, pray, and sit in silence like all the other monks. He was so good at being a monk, in fact, Samson eventually he did find his place on the straight and narrow. That place was the Right Reverend Father Samson, the most admired Father in Ethiopian history.
And what about Kaldi you ask? Well, he knew the value of those berries, so he sold his best goats, and bought that field with the strange red berries. The strange red berries are what bring us coffee today. And because of these strange red coffee berries, Kaldi became the richest man in all of the land.
So the boys parents got just what they wanted–a beloved monk and someone to take care of the family business.
