My name is Sakura. I am 17 years old. When I was a little girl of just 4 years old I was adopted by a farming couple in North Carolina where I now live. At the orphanage they told me that they found me on the coast wrapped in a blanket full of gray equine hair and with a wet note stuck to my body that mentioned the names of my real parents: Kiyoshi and Akiko Nakamura. I never knew what happened to them.
I've always lived happily in the farm, but since I was a child... let’s just say I’ve had a case of species confusion. I’m human of course. But whenever I walk by a pasture with a donkey in it, I’ll feel...strange. I’ll slow down, and stare at it. Strange feelings well up inside me when I am around donkeys. Sometimes I’ll let out a mock bray. Others are more...intense. In fact today was the worst...or maybe the best. I don’t know.
There is a donkey farm near my neighborhood, and today when I passed by to get to school, I stopped. I just stared at the donkeys for a while...and then it got weird. I felt an intense yearning to be with those donkeys. I acted on it.
I climbed through the fence and went up to a jack. The animal looked at me curiously, then snorted in my nose. I laughed, a donkey greeting is what that was. From there I found myself on my hands and knees in the middle of the herd. Grazing. Yes, grazing.I had my face to the ground, pulling up grass with my teeth, chewing...and swallowing. Occasionally I’d let out a mock bray. This went on for a good hour before I snapped out of it.
Arriving at school, all I could do was sit on the stairs there and reflect on what I had just done. I’d been part of a herd of donkeys. I had acted just like one of them and they had treated me like one of them...and I was pretty sure I had used the bathroom out there once too. I shook my head. Luckily I had a good friend named Roddy who was always there for me when I needed to talk to him….and that brings us to the present.
Roddy got to school, he saw me surprised. Roddy was a five foot five blond, with mussed hair and a bemused smile.
“You have green stains around your lips.” He said.
I sighed. How to explain this to him? “We need to talk, but alone, after classes.”
In the afternoon, Roddy and me came up to his house.
“Is anyone home?”Roddy shook his head.
“No, my parents are at work. We’re all alone. Are you going to explain me now... what is that so important that you want to tell me? Why did you have grass in your lips?
I looked down and smooth it out. “Umm...I took a nap in it.”Roddy nodded.
“That's it? You took a nap in the grass? Is that the biggest secret?”
I nodded and headed into his house. It was an old style, country house, wood walls, wood floors, very homey...and in the back his pasture. A donkey. I sit down heavily. I really didn’t need to see a donkey right now. I shake my head again and put the thoughts out, staring into space.
“There is something wrong, Sakura?” Roddy asked sitting down in the living room, on a couch that faced a bay window.
“Yes it is...listen, how bad was the green stain on my lips?”
“It’s like a green dye all around your lips, in a circle, and some on your chin.”
I sigh. No use stall-er waiting any longer. “I probably did.”Roddy frowned.
“Say what?”
“Roddy, I was eating grass.” I say heavily. Roddy’s eyebrows raised. Though he seemed unsurprised, his hand gripped the couch.
“You...ate grass. Like a donkey?”
“Or a horse, cow, insert grazing animal here.” Roddy leaned back. His mind was trying to process.
“I prefer cows to donkeys personally.”
“You know that donkey farm down the street?” I said.
“I can’t believe you grazed...uh yeah?”
“Not only did I graze. I grazed with a herd of donkeys. I felt like one of them, and they treated me like one of them.” I said. There, proverbial cat out of the bag. Roddy nodded his head slowly.
“So...how do you view yourself?”
“I...I don’t know. I’m obviously human, a girl. But recently I feel strange around donkeys. Like I belong with them. Today that feeling got so strong I actually grazed with a herd of them” Roddy nodded.
“Do you think you are a donkey? A jenny? Be honest, deep down.”
“Wait...this isn’t weird to you?” I asked in shock.
“Sakura, I’ve watched a lot of TV shows with very strange situations. Nothing impresses me anymore” Roddy said, “If I had a nickel for every insane show I watch, I could sit on my ass…”
“Hee-haw!” I suddenly blurted. I covered my mouth in embarrassment. Roddy smiled at this.
“I find this endlessly amusing. You have a donkey inside you. Why now?”
“I have no clue. But that mock bray you just heard? Those slip out on a regular basis. You still don’t find this weird? This isn’t TV Roddy, it’s real life.” Roddy shrugged.
“Sakura, you know you’re my friend right?”
“Of course! But this goes into the realm of the supernatural. Someone acting like a donkey, eating grass, it's not normal...is it?”I ask, confused.
“Not a clue.” Roddy said, “Actually a big clue. Something is seriously wrong. But...I don’t know. I’m not feeling it?”
“I know you aren’t. But I am. Vividly. When I was with those donkeys...I felt free. I felt at home. With animals Roddy!” I said, a little frantically. Roddy nodded.
“Is that bad?”
Suddenly, the air felt colder on my ears now, I could hear it blowing into them...yet my ears felt pleasantly warm. I cocked my head to the side a bit. Roddy’s eyes went wide.
“I’m sorry, what did you say Roddy?”Roddy cocked his head with mine.
“Your ears...you have donkey ears!”