Jiminy Cricket strode out of the Pleasure Island pool hall in a huff.
He couldn’t believe how naïve his friend Pinocchio could be. Although Pinocchio was good at heart, he could easily be swayed down paths that would get him in trouble.
Pinocchio was his charge and Jiminy wanted to help Pinocchio become a real boy one day, but Pinoke sure didn’t make it easy for either of them.
Jiminy quickened his pace towards the entrance of the Pleasure Island amusement park, where he hoped he could catch a ride back to the mainland on the ferry that took them here.
"Candlewick…. Hmph! Candlewick! It burns me up" Jiminy fumed out loud to himself. "After all I tried to do for him. Who’s his conscience anyway? Me or that hoodlum, Candlewick? I’ve had enough of this. I’m taking the next boat outta here."
The park was both still and silent. Not a single soul was around. There are no boys or girls playing and doing whatever their hearts contented. None of the rides were running. There weren't any lights at all outside of the pool hall's and the glare of the full moon. Trash littered the streets.
When Jiminy finally reached the park entrance, he was surprised to find the large wooden gates closed and barred as if they were keeping someone or something in. Jiminy climbed up the stone steps to the doors and rapped on it with his umbrella. "Open up that door!" he shouted. "I wanna go home!"
There was no response.
Getting impatient, Jiminy looked for another way around the doors and spied a tiny hole in the door that was far too tiny for a human to get through but was just perfect for a cricket like him to pass through.
As Jiminy inched himself through the hole, he stopped dead in his tracks at a sound that was emanating from within: "HAW HEE HAW".
It sounded like the cries of a donkey.
Puzzled by this, Jiminy continued to inch his way through the hole until was finally through it and on the other side of the gate. As he stepped forward across the drawbridge he could now hear the sound of more donkeys braying.
Jiminy spied the Pleasure Island ferry docked on the other side of the large hidden harbor cavern being prepped for another voyage. But it no longer bore the festive and colorful flags it had only earlier that night sported. Now it was all cold and businesslike.
And then Jiminy saw the Coachman himself, commanding and directing with a whip dark ape like figures who were loading wooden crates onto the ferry as cargo.
"Come on, you blokes, keep ‘em moving!" the Coachman spoke as he cracked his whip. "Lively there now. We haven’t got all night."
Jiminy then noticed what the crates were carrying.
Each crate was loaded up with what appeared to be two to three frightened little brown and gray donkeys.
Some of the donkeys had nudged their heads through the slats in between the boards of their crates and were braying wildly in a panic. Other donkeys had their heads lowered and appeared to be crying.
There were donkeys being loaded onto the ferry and into the ship's cargo hold, while dozens more rows of crates sat off to the sides of the cave to be loaded later. There were even several empty crates as well.
Jiminy watched as one crate was lowered into the ship’s cargo hold via the ship’s crane and winch.
Two donkeys were in the crate and like the others, had their heads nudged in between the slats of the crate’s boards and were braying hysterically in terror as they descended into the pitch black darkness of the cargo hold!
Jiminy then saw a crate on the side of the dock that had a male and a female donkey occupying it. Both donkeys were standing up on their hind legs and attempting to scale the walls of their crate in a desperate attempt to escape.
But due to their short stature, they could only reach the very tip of the crate’s top with their hooves and could only pitifully paw at it in vain. Tears streamed down their muzzles and they both brayed frantically, terrified at what was happening to them.
Two of the Coachman’s Minions stood next to the crate and were preparing to seal the donkeys inside with the crate‘s lid.
One of the Minions reached into the crate and placed both of his hands firmly onto the top of the donkeys’ heads, roughly pushing them back down into the crate.
The little jack and jenny let a simultaneous cry of pain as they were forced from their hind legs to all fours and before either of them could stand up again, the other Minion placed the lid onto the top of the crate and nailed it shut.
The donkeys nudged their heads out from in between the crate’s slats and could only watch on sadly as the Minions nailed two signs to the crate.
The first one read: “CONTAINS ONE JACK AND ONE JENNY” and the second sign read: “SOLD TO THE FARM”.
The Minions then loaded the crate onto a dolly and wheeled it aboard the ferry. All the donkeys could do was bray and cry at the miserable life of grueling hard labor that awaited them on the mainland.
Finally Jiminy spied what appeared to be a long wooden staircase nestled in the corner of the cavern. There were more donkeys standing in a line on the staircase behind a small wooden gate waiting to be processed like cattle.
But these donkeys were different from the ones that had already been loaded up into crates.
These donkeys were wearing CLOTHES like that of a kid.
"Come on, come on. Let’s have another," the Coachman shouted to his Minions. The Minion who stood next to the cattle staircase bowed his head and pulled up on a rope that was anchored to the wooden door, which caused it to raise up and open.
Three donkeys then stuck their heads out from the opening now that the door had been raised. Those three donkeys were wearing girl dresses. Jiminy deduced from seeing their clothing that those donkeys were females.
The first one wore a light blue sailor’s dress decorated by a black sash around the waist and a yellow ribbon Grosgrain-trimmed hat that made her long ears bend down. The little animal also wore a pair of Mary Jane shoes and long white socks that could hardly fit inside those little hind hooves. The donkey looked both frightened and curious to what was happening to her and her fellow donkeys.
The donkey next to her had a red pinafore tartan dress, a white cotton peasant blouse under the dress and a beret that matched with that dress between her long ears. Unlike the first one, this jenny did not wear shoes.and unlike the other donkeys seemed to be both agitated and defiant about her circumstances.
While the third jenny wore a light yellow adorned dress with a blue sash at the level of her belly, a bonnet that match the dress and brown button up boots and woolen stockings. The bonnet was falling off because the movement of her long ears was pushing it back. The back of the dress skirt was ripped making her also ripped petticoat could be seen, her tail passed right in the middle of that opening. That jenny seemed to be looking around the cave in growing alarm at the donkeys being loaded into crates.
Jiminy studied those three donkeys and thought they looked familiar somehow to him. They both looked like a trio of girls he had saw earlier in the night while he was looking for Pinocchio.
"What were their names?" Jiminy thought to himself. "I think I heard them call themselves... Nicole and Paola."
Before any of the donkeys could react, the Coachman's Minion moved to grab the closest one, which was the donkey with the Grosgrain-trimmed hat.
The unlucky donkey’s eyes widened in panic and she tried to quickly back away but the Minion had already gotten a firm hold of the jenny by her donkey ears.
The poor little donkey’s face winced with pain and she tried to resist by planting and digging her hooves into the ground as the Minion pulled her forward.
But it was no use and after a few seconds the Minion had flung her forward across the floor toward the waiting Coachman with enough force that had her spinning out of control.