Then, one day, the lid of Mitch’s Dumpster lifted and blinded him with the sunlight. As the glare faded from his painted on eyes, he saw a filthy old bag woman with rotten teeth reach into the Dumpster and pull out his folded up body. Not the greatest liberation ever, but Mitch decided he’d take what he could get in his state.
“Welll,” the old woman rasped, “somebody threw away a perfectly good horsey! Heh, maybe you’ll make me a few bucks I guess. Never know what people will buy, hey horsey? Just clean you up a little.” Mitch felt himself unfurl with a squeaky snap and then heard a hearty laugh from the old woman. He guessed correctly at what the old woman was laughing at. How degrading. He would have blushed. An equally dirty rag rubbed off the slimy junk Mitch had been sitting in for the past week, and he felt a little better. Not enough to make him adjust to his new reality as an inanimate donkey, but again, he’d take it given the last week he’d had.
The next thing he knew, Mitch had been folded up all neatly again and was travelling in a shopping cart filled with various odds and ends and empty pop cans. He wished he could see where he was going, but since his only uncovered eye was staring up at the sky, that was in vain. To great irony, though, Mitch did see a garbage truck pull up to his Dumpster as the old woman wheeled him off. He felt distinctly glad of at least having a chance to travel instead of winding up in a landfill degrading for a few years.
Later that day, Mitch guessed he was lying on a table with other useless junk people had thrown out. Apparently the bag woman was running a little makeshift bazaar on the street corner, from what he could piece together. Mitch hadn’t really been paying attention until he heard – of all things – a voice express interest in him. “Some kinda blow up horsey thing!” the bag woman explained. “Don’t see why somebody tossed him, looks brand new.”
The next thing Mitch knew, he was being picked up by somebody else and put in a plastic bag. He heard a car door slam and felt motion. Things were starting to look up again!