Paola lowered her head as she attempted to sleep from within the wooden shipping crate that she had been put in with two other donkeys.
The cargo hold was practically pitch black except for the tiny glimmers of the rays of the sun that shone faintly through the cracks of the cargo hold hatch. Despite this, Paola's eyes had quickly adjusted to the relative darkness and could make out the other crates in the ship's hold.
Over fifty crates, each one loaded with anywhere between one to three donkeys, sat firmly strapped to the floor of the cargo hold.
Most of the donkeys inside, like Paola and her two crate companions, had given up on trying to escape their captive confinements and had temporarily resigned themselves to the cruel fate that now awaited them on the mainland.
When they reached the mainland, they would all be sold off into slave labor that would last for the rest of their miserable new lives as donkeys.
Paola shuddered at the thought of being forced against her will to pull carts that were loaded with all sorts of heavy things.
But she knew that if she didn't do as she was commanded, she would be beaten and her new "owner" would be blissfully unaware of the fact that Paola was a girl on the inside and not the donkey she fully appeared on the outside.
Paola also knew that she likely would never be able to enjoy the things liked to do ever again. She would never be able to play again. She would never be able to enjoy the food she ate as a human again. And she'd never be able to sleep in a real bed again.
But what hurt Paola the most was the fact that she truly never would see her papa's face or hear his voice. She wished she hadn't ran away from home to be able to "live" on Pleasure Island. Had she known what she knew now, she would have never gone.
Paola felt she had learned her lesson and desperately wanted to go back home and just be a good girl. But the lesson you were forced to learn on Pleasure Island made you pay a terrible price that forever changed your life and gave you no chance for redemption.
Paola looked over to the other donkeys in the crate that were with her, both of whom like the other had been human girls only hours earlier. Due to the sign on the box, and for obvious reasons, Paola realized that the donkey on the other side of the crate had been a girl.
Also Paola knew that the donkey beside her was her friend Nicole. After they had all transformed into the brown donkeys they were now, Paola didn't know how both Nicole and Giovanna had managed to keep their human voices.
Well... Nicole kept her for a short while before losing it completely like the other donkeys.
But Giovanna still had her.
Paola thought maybe it had something to do with all of the beer and cigars that were given away like candy to every kid on the island. Like the cake, cotton candy, ice cream and other sweets on the island, everything had been free and in almost unlimited quantities.
But the beer and cigars had been pushed hard on the children and almost none of them turned them down. All but Giovanna, who didn't even take one puff of a cigar and only drunk one glass of beer.
Maybe there had been something in the alcohol and tobacco that further ensured the transformation from human to donkey would be complete?
Although Paola wouldn't have wished what happened to her and the others on any kid her age or younger, especially friends, she was just glad that she wasn't going to the farm alone. She would have her best friend Nicole by her side every step of the way.
Suddenly the ferry's whistle blew above deck, signaling their arrival at a port on the mainland.
The sound of the whistle frightened the crates of donkeys and they all began to bray in panic, aware of the fact that soon they would be put to work for the rest of their lives.
As the boat came to a full stop, Paola wondered if this would be her and Nicole's stop.
Before they were lowered into the ship's cargo hold back on Pleasure Island, Paola had overhead the Coachman talking to his mysterious and frightening minions. The Coachman apparently made two stops at two different ports along the coast.
Once at each port, he would unload a portion of the crates of donkeys that had already been presold and people that worked for the Coachman would then either meet the buyer at the docks or deliver their newly bought donkeys to them.
The men that worked for the Coachman at these ports were paid very little, but apparently didn't mind and were completely oblivious to the fact that the donkeys that they were delivering were in fact children that had been turned into donkeys.
After stopping at the ports, the Coachman would then take the unmarked crates of donkeys that remained, usually under a dozen, and take them further up the coast and sell them at either a fair or market.
Unlike the presold crates that were sold for steady and cheap prices to his repeat customers, the donkeys in the unmarked crates would be sold for much higher prices and often sold separately from each other unlike the presold donkeys.
Afterwards the Coachman would then sail back to Pleasure Island and prepare for the next batch of boys and girls that he could dupe into running away from home to the island.
As her fellow donkeys continued to bray hysterically, Paola heard the Coachman's voice boom, "Okay, let's get these crates of stupid little donkeys unloaded quickly. I've got more stops to make."
Paola hated being called stupid, but she sadly knew that it was true as she had been foolish enough to fall into the Coachman's trap. A few minutes later Paola and Nicole's crate was unloaded from the cargo hold and set out onto the dock along with nearly twenty others.
As before, both Paola, Nicole and the other donkeys nudged their heads out between the gaps of the crates' boards.
The sun was very bright and both men and women passed by along the docks. Paola and her fellow donkeys looked to the passing people with sad, pleading eyes and tried to communicate with them.
But instead of the human words that they tried to desperately say, all they could do was bray.
Nobody paid them any attention, except one passerby who covered her nose as she walked by and muttered, "Those blasted donkeys smell." The woman walked away taking a fan out of her long dress
Paola was surprised by this remark. She hadn't noticed anything different at all about how she or the others smelled.
She then quickly realized that while she and the others might not have noticed anything different about how they all smelled since they had become donkeys, it must of been an entirely different story for the normal people that passed by.
Moments later the Coachman appeared and began to address the dozen or so men on the dock that worked for him.
"Listen up!" the Coachman said. "The crates on the left are to stay here and wait to be picked up. The crates on the right are to be delivered."
The Coachman then boarded the ferry once more and cast off to deliver the other donkeys at the next port up the coast.
Paola, Nicole and the other jenny in their crate watched helplessly as the men then began to load about half of the assembled crates onto wagons, which would deliver the donkeys to their new masters.
After about a half hour the crates had been loaded and carted off.
Hour by hour passed as the Coachman's repeat clients arrived to pick up their newly bought donkeys.
The donkeys once more tried to vainly communicate with the people that had bought them and tell them that they weren't really donkeys but in fact children. But it was useless as they any word they tried to speak always came out as a bray.
Eventually Paola and Nicole's crate was the only one left on the dock. Their new "owner" had yet to arrive to pick them up and the men on the dock were growing somewhat impatient.
"The Coachman doesn’t pay us enough to sit on these asses all day, you know!" one Man remarked to another.
"Be patient, Matteo," another Man replied back. "While we don't get the gold the Coachman makes off of these donkeys, the pay we do get is just enough to feed our families."
Matteo sighed and nodded. "You're right, Carlo" he said. "I just hate waiting. Where does the Coachman get all of these donkeys anyway?, he must sell two hundred or so a week. How many jennys does he have to breed all of these little ones?"
Suddenly there was the sound of hoof beats and both Matteo, Carlo, Paola and Nicole turned to see a horse drawn wagon coming up the dock towards them.
"Ah!" Carlo shouted. "That's the owner of the farm outside of the village of Grosseto right now."
Both Paola and Nicole's long donkey ears perked up as they recognized the name of the village that the farm was close to. Grosseto was the village that was closest to the one that both Paola and Nicole had lived.
The thought of being so close to home and yet so far away was soul crushing for the donkeys.
Nicole and Paola both took a look outside of their crate through the small gaps in between the boards. They could see that they were on a wagon that was steadily moving throughout the countryside.
The sun had begun to set and it was getting late. Paola's and Nicole's stomachs rumbled and they both licked their muzzles, thinking of eating. They hadn't eaten since their time on Pleasure Island and their hunger was growing more and more by the second.
Suddenly the wagon came to a full stop and moments later a Man hopped off and began to unload their crate from the wagon. Paola and Nicole took another quick glance from between the gaps of their crate and saw that they had arrived at their new “home” – the Vendemmia farm.
Vendemmia farm was nestled in the middle of the countryside and the grape harvest for the winemaking process was its main activity.
The farm had large vineyard fields where a grape picker cut bunches of grapes and put them in large baskets carried by donkeys. There was a two story barn that served as a stable for the donkeys that were forced to work here.
The Man, the owner of the farm, dragged the crate along the dirt as all three donkeys brayed in protest at the rough ride that were experiencing. The Man dragged and dragged the crate towards the barn and opened the door when he got near.
The interior of the barn was rough, but it had at least eight stalls for the animals working the field to live in. Three of the stalls were empty and the other five contained other donkeys.
The Man dragged the crate into the barn and stopped in front of the first stall. He then carefully opened the crate and reached his hand inside.
Instinctively, both Paola and Nicole scurried to the opposite end of their crate, pushing past the other jenny in there with them who was forcefully nudged forward towards the Man's hand.
The Man's hand quickly took a hold of the donkey girl's ears and began to pull her out of the crate. The little jenny let out a frightened bray and tried desperately to resist being pulled out, dragging her hooves into the bottom of the crate but to no avail.
She looked to both Paola and Nicole with a look in her eyes as if she was pleading them for help her.
"Come on, now! Stop being an ass, you dumb animal!" the Man growled.
After a few more seconds he had the donkey out of the crate and deposited into the stall. He then turned his attention to Nicole and Paola, who were huddled next to each other in fear.
With one less donkey to worry about, the Man slowly lifted the crate over the next stall and rotated it on its side, dumping both Paola and Nicole out onto the floor of the stall.
Paola and Nicole slowly rose from the floor and after gathering themselves for a moment, began to look over their new "home".
A wooden gate blocked the entry out the stall and was too tall for either donkey to reach even on their hind legs. A wooden manger, meant to house their food, stood in the front corner of the stall next to the gate and straw coated the floor, intended as their bedding, which was a far cry from the warm beds they were both used to when they had been girls.
The Man filled Nicole and Paola's manger with hay for them both to eat. Paola and Nicole approached the manger and they both took a small scoop of the hay into their mouths.
To their surprise, the hay didn't taste bad. In fact, it tasted delicious to them. So they took more hay.
"Good," the Man said. "Now I'll leave you three asses to sleep. You will work in the morning.”
And with the Man stomped off, closing the barn door as he left. As Nicole and Paola continued to munch on the hay that was provided to them, a irritating sound suddenly began to emanate around them.
“Zzzzzzzzzzz…”
Both Nicole and Paola stopped eating and turned their heads and listened to the noise intently with their long donkey ears.
Their ears were far stronger and sensitive than when they had both been human and now they could pick up noises much more clearly and louder than before.
The source of the noise was four little gnat-like flies which had entered the barn through a crack in the wall and were now buzzing around both Paola and Nicole’s backsides.
“Oh great,” thought Nicole. “Flies are so annoying! Why are they buzzing around us? Don‘t we have enough to worry about now?”
Instinctively both Nicole and Paola swatted at the flies with their tails and they both gave a agitated bray to the annoying insect intruders. After a few more swats with their tails, the flies got the message and flew away.
Nicole then began to wonder about her new tail. She had never had a tail before and she felt she would never get used to it. Yet at the same time it felt natural and good, which caused a considerable amount of worry to the young donkey.
She didn’t want it to feel good, nor did she ever want to get used to being a donkey. She was born human and never wanted to let go of that fact. If she gave in to the feelings that she felt about having a tail then what was to stop her from giving in to other instincts and desires real donkeys felt.
Her mind and memories were all that both she and Paola had left of their humanity after the Coachman had turned them into donkeys and stripped them of their clothing. She wasn’t about to let that go without a fight, especially if there was a chance that one day they could be boys again.
Still it would be a battle, one that she could very easily lose in the coming days, as even now those feelings and desires of real donkeys were gnawing at the back of her brain, urging her to accept who she was now and give in to her fate.
Nicole looked to Paola and saw that her friend too was deeply troubled and distressed by their new normal.
Although she was horrified when she lost her voice like Paola and the others, Nicole was relieved when she ended up in the crate with her best friend Paola. She had felt that Paola was relived too by the look she had given her when the Coachman had put her in there with her.
If there was one consolation about the miserable new life they would both have to lead as donkeys it was the fact that they were both together and didn’t have to go it alone. She was also glad to be in the same stall with her friend and not alone like the other jenny that was in the stall next to theirs.
Nicole moved back to the manger with Paola and finished the hay that was allotted to them.
Suddenly there was another noise, one much louder than the flies and it was coming from the stall next to theirs, which contained the other donkey that had been sold with them.
Nicole and Paola once more stopped what they were doing and trotted over to the wall of the stall next to theirs.
Getting up on their hind legs, both donkeys propped themselves up against the wall and peered over into their fellow donkey’s stall. The jenny was frantically bucking and kicking the door to her stall with her rear legs, trying to break out.
After a few minutes, their fellow donkey grew tired and stopped. She spotted them staring at them and with tears in her eyes began to bray at them.
“HEE HAW HEE HAW HEE HAW!!” she brayed desperately to them, trying to communicate.
Both Paola and Nicole looked to each other and shook their heads.
They were both completely unable to understand her brays or each other’s.
“Why can’t I understand her or Paola’s brays?” Nicole thought worriedly to herself. “I’m sure other animals can understand and communicate with each other, so why can’t we? Can we not understand because we still have our human minds?”
Their fellow donkey cocked her head to the side in a confused manner and continued to bray at them. Eventually she gave up and plopped to the floor to rest. Tears continued to stream down her muzzle from her eyes and she gave several pitiful brays.
Even though they couldn’t understand her or each other, both Nicole and Paola knew that the fellow donkey was probably crying for her mom and dad, which was a sentiment they both felt as well.
Now tired, both donkeys spread out and curled up into a ball on the floor of their stall.
Living the life of a donkey would be tough and grueling, but it was something that would both have to learn to live with. They were no longer girls, at least not human ones, and would likely never see their families ever again.