All his braying had attracted unwanted attention.
An old woman shouted at some young men lounging on the tailgate of an old truck. Jared couldn't understand a single word as the old woman kept yelling at the two men who eventually left their seats on the back of the truck and walked toward him. The old woman grabbed one of his ears and gave it a painful yank to jerk his head toward her.
"Are you nuts?" Jared protested. "EEh-Haw!"
The old woman in a long, black loose fitting garment held on to his ear with fierce determination as the two young men worked a crude rope collar around Jared's neck.
"Fuck! Stop!" Jared ordered. "Eee-haw!"
The woman released his ear, but now the tallest man tugged on the rope and forced him to clop across the parking lot toward the truck. What were these crazy people doing? He needed to get to the amulet...
The man stooped and tied the rope to a hitch on the back of the truck. Jared, in panic, pulled against the restraint without success.
The old woman went back into the laundromat and soon returned with a laundry sack. The other man took the sack and heaved it into the back of the truck for her as she walked to the passenger side and eased her way into the cab.
The other two men got into the truck, as well, and the man who had tethered Jared to the back of the vehicle slid behind the wheel and started the engine.
"Wait!" Jared exclaimed. "eee-HAW!"
The truck pulled slowly from the lot, forcing Jared to trot along behind it. He had only a limited amount of slack in the tether, so he had to move or get pulled.
For nearly five minutes, to the consternation of other drivers, the truck proceeded at Jared's pace. Finally, the driver turned the truck onto an exit that led to a narrow road that soon changed from pavement to gravel. By the time the family completed the journey back to their farm, the poor donkey felt exhausted and sore from the rough rope around his neck.
After the truck stopped near a barn, more people came out to have a look at the curiosity arriving with the woman and two men. The bossy old woman gave some instruction, and the driver went into the barn and soon returned with a leather bridle that he soon fastened around Jared's head, looping it around his mouth, side of his face, and behind his long ears.
Most of the people then lost interest and wandered back toward the house. The old woman patted the side of his head and joined the rest of her family, leaving her grandson to introduce the donkey to its fellow livestock. The young man directed Jared's movements with a practiced control of the bridle, moving him toward troughs for food and water. Jared shied from chickens scattered around his hooves as they pecked for seed, but the man gave a tug and forced the donkey to keep moving. Jared got tethered again, his lead tied around a post that still allowed him access to the troughs. One was already filled with water and the young man distributed straw into the other.
Jared stared at the meager offerings and brayed in discontent. "What the hell?" EEe-Haw!"
Inside the house, the family sat together for dinner. The old woman and her husband had immigrated years ago, but their children and grandchildren had been born in the country. They all worked mostly at making the large family farm thrive. They didn't waste too much money on farm equipment, preferring to do things the old-fashioned way by working beasts of burden from sun-up to sun-down. They were not too particular, obviously, about how they acquired their animals. Jared glanced around him and saw some other raggedy donkeys milling around the barnyard.
The young man spoke harshly and kicked the side of the trough with the straw. Jared might not understand the language, but he got the message. He bent his snout over the trough and picked up a mouthful of straw. The stuff tasted even blander than it looked, which he would have thought impossible.
"Umm-Haw," he brayed around the straw that his mouth chewed at a placid rate. "Help me!"
He couldn't tell the young man that he wasn't a donkey, and even as he opted to try in vain, the young man was already walking away to join his family at dinner.
"Wait! Please!" Jared pleaded. "Eee-Haw!"
But the donkey wanted more of the straw and he felt his neck bend over the trough, determined to eat its fill of the first of many of the same bland meals to come.