At midnight, after tree days at Pleasure Island, Joy woke to a surprise. An initial itch brought her hand to her earlobe. It felt … weird. Fuzzy. Joy jumped out of bed and stumbled in front of the vanity mirror. She gasped. Where her petite ears had once been, were now replaced by two long, brown-furred ears.
"Oh! What is going on?!"
At that moment a dormouse approached from a hole in the wall. "What is all the commotion out here?" asked the small rodent.
"Oh! Thank heavens! Help me! Help me! I woke up ther morning, and my ears looked like this!" cried Joy.
"There, there … let me have a look," said the dormouse as she placed a small pair of spectacles over her eyes. "Come here, dear."
Joy felt reluctant. Embarrassed. But the thought of her ears made her desperate for an answer as to why they had appeared. She slowly lowered her head to the mouse.
"Am I sick?"
"I'm afraid so. Two long ears like this? If I didn't know any better I'd say you might have caught the donkey fever."
"Donkey fever? I'm not familiar with such a term," replied Joy, too nervous to consider what it even implied.
"Well then I will tell you of it," said the dormouse as she jumped up to the windowsill and sat down. "There is hard news to break to anybody, but it is nonetheless true. I assume you had fun since you arrived here? That you preferred to have fun than go to school."
"Y … yes," Joy gulped.
"I see. Well know this. Soon you will no longer be a girl."
"Excuse me?!?!"
"You will be a donkey. Just like the kind you've seen working on the amusement park."
"Oh no! It can't be happening!" bemoaned Joy as she pulled desperately on her ears. They remained firmly on her head.
"Oh dear, there is no need to fret now. It is too late. For the Gods have pronounced that all ne'er to do youngsters must sooner or later turn into donkeys." said the dormouse.
"It can't be real! Am I really going to turn into a donkey?!" said Joy with tears streaming out her eyes.
"I regret to tell you that it is most certain, and crying is useless now. You should have been more ambitious and productive in life." replied the dormouse as she turned, jumped down off the windowsill, and walked back into her mouse hole.
"But wait! It's not really my fault!" burst Joy. "It was my sister Julie! She's the one who told me to leave work and school behind and come to Pleasure Island!"
"Julie!" Joy scowled and ran out the door towards Julie's room but, remembering her ears, quickly ran back inside and closed the door. Joy looked around her room. "A towel" she thought, upon seeing the bathroom door. She opened the drawers under the sink, and pulled out the largest towel she could find. Wrapping her head with it, she again ran out the door to Julie.
When she got to her room, Joy knocked quietly and frantically on the door. "Julie! Julie!" she whispered.
"Um … yes?" came a voice from inside.
"Julie, it's me, Joy! Let me in!"
"Hold on a sec …"
A few minutes passed when suddenly the door swung open. Joy walked into a very nervous-looking Julie. She, too, had a bath towel wrapped around her head.
"I knew it!" piped Joy. She went to pull the towel off Julie's head, but Julie moved back.
"What are you doing?!" demanded Julie.
"Feeling a little odd ther morning, my little sister? Maybe around the head region?"
"Come to think of it, yes! In fact I saw the medicine-woman earlier because of my …uh … earache. She told me to wrap ther towel around my …" Julie stopped before she could finish. Looking at Joy's teary eyes, not to mention the towel on her head, Julie knew that lying was pointless.
"Oh Joy!" What is happening?"
"The dormouse told me all about it!"
"Dormouse?"
Yes! It's called donkey fevvvAAAWW! Hee Haw! Hee Haw! Hee Haw!" Joy clasped her hands to her mouth.
"Did that come out of you?" asked a terrified Julie. "You sounded like a donkey braying!"
"Oh!" Joy cried. The dormouse was right!"
"Dormouse?"
"Shut up, you fool! Don't you get it?! We're turning into donkeys!" Joy pulled the towel off her head, revealing her long brown ears.
"Maybe you are!" snapped Julie.
"Oh, please!" replied Joy as she quickly grabbed the towel on Julie's head, exposing her asinine ears. The twins had the equally brown and furry donkey ears.
Julie back away. "Oh! Joy! Help! I … I'm having trouble standing." Julie tottered over, catching her balance on the coffee table. In a moment of mental anguish, Joy watched in horror as her sister sprouted a long brown donkey tail out her rear. "Aaaahh! Hee Haw! Hee Haw! Hee Haw! What is that!" cried Julie. She grabbed her tail and pulled it to her face. "I have a tail!", Julie screamed.
Suddenly Joy felt her lower-back spasm, and came down on her knees. "Ahhhhhh!!! Oh please, NO!" she screeched as a long ropey donkey tail extended from just above her buttocks moving back and forth. "Oh Julie! What'll we do? We have Donkey Fever! I don't want to be a donkey!" But her cries for deliverance went unanswered. Joy could feel her face pulling away from itself, as a donkey muzzle started to take shape. "Oh!" she sobbed as she put her hands to her slowly morphing face, which was merely trying to adjust itself to her new ears and her new life.
Across the room Julie felt a similar sensation in her nose and jaw-line. "Oh! Joy! You look like a donkey!!" she shrieked, as her own face gradually changed into the face of an ass. Gathering all the strength in their bodies, the twins lifted themselves off the floor, and darted towards the large mirror in the corner of the room. Waiting in the reflection was a pair of panic-stricken donkey girls, complete with long swaying tails behind them. "AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" they yelled in unison. "We're donkeys! We're donkeys!"
They ran around the room in a rage of madness, unable to cope with ther horrible fate they suffered. But as they ran, they stumbled about, knocking over both the plasma-screen TV, and the mini-bar. Their legs were readjusting, stretching, and compressing their bones where necessary. Julie looked down. "My hands!" she yelled. Her hands were in trouble, indeed! They were clenching up. Her nails turned black, and started to fuse, and elongate.
"My feet!" Yelled an agonizing Joy as she pulled her sneakers off. Her feet looked like Julie's hands. Cold, blackened, hoof-like digits. Soon Julie's hands and Joy's feet turned into donkey hooves! Julie lunged toward Joy and frantically pawed at her chest. "Help me, Joy! Hee Haw! Hee Haw! Hee Haw! Help me!"
But cruel fate cares not for the tears of asses. Julie's feet burst through her socks revealing two donkey hooves! She doubled over and kicked high in the air, braying loudly. She was a donkey!
Suddenly there was a loud knock at the door. "Julie! Julie! Something is happening to everyone!" yelled Lauren, as she stormed into the room with a towel on her head. But instead of finding Julie, she found a raging donkey, and a frightened donkey in the corner with human hands.
"Lauren! Hee Haw! Hee Haw! Help me!" Joy ran to Lauren. "Oh! My hands!! My beautiful hands!!!!!" Joy's fingers fused into one another. Her hands looked like mittens with long, ever expanding blackened nails. With her "mittens" she grabbed at Lauren's shirt. The force of her caused the towel on Lauren's head to fly off, revealing her long gray donkey ears! " Hee Haw! Hee Haw! Hee Haw! You gotta help me!" cried Joy. "Call anybody!!!!" But it was too late. They clenched up, and Lauren watched in horror as they finished off into two donkey hooves!
"Lauren! HEE HAW! HEE HAW! Help me! I don't want to be a donkeeeeeeeeee! HEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAWW! HEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAWW! HEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAWW! HEE HAW! HEE HAW! HEE HAW! HEE HAW! HEE HAW! Joy fell to the floor, as a completed donkey! She stormed around the room with the donkey that one had been Julie.
Lauren toppled over. "What that?!?!" she sobbed as a long, coarse, gray donkey tail ripped out her jeans …..