“Jake, please, no,” Sam pleads standing, “please don’t be a donkey.” The donkey that was his friend just bucks and kicks hitting other donkeys and causing a panic in the corral. Several Uniformed Men start noticing the commotion.
“What’s going on in there?” one yells, “sounds like someone didn’t go willingly,” answers another. They look and then they see Sam with his long ears standing up in the herd. “Hey, there’s a boy in there, he’s barely changed at all,” one man yells. Uniformed Men start gathering at the corral.
Sam looks up and sees the gathering crowd and drops to the ground. “Do you see him,” one yells, “no, but he’s in there. Watch all the exits. Sam scurries along the ground through the donkeys and makes his way to the fence. He looks through and sees a small gap and goes for it.
Sam dives out of the corral and gets to his feet, but immediately trips. He scrambles to recover, but a Uniformed Man grabs him. “Got him,” he shouts. Sam struggles and tries to break free, but two other men subdue him. “No, let me go, I don’t want to be a donkey.” The men all laugh, “did you hear that? He doesn’t want to be a donkey.” They all burst into laughter and mocking brays.
They drag Sam over to a chair and sit him up in it. One man holds Sam’s hands back behind the chair. “I told you I’d see you again,” comes a voice. Sam looks up and sees the Uniformed Man from earlier. “Get this, he says he doesn’t want to be a donkey,” says one of the other men.
“Oh… What’s your name?” the man asks. “S… Sam,” Sam replies timidly. “Well Sam, where’s your friend?” Sam starts to cry, “you turned him into a donkey. He’s a donkey.” The men all laugh. “Sam, we didn’t turn him into a donkey, you turned yourselves into donkeys, being such foolish boys. Thinking you can have all of this fun for nothing.” The man fills a cup up with beer from a dispenser in the wall and then slowly walks back to Sam. “And now that you’ve had your fun, you have to pay for it.” A man grabs Sam’s head and pulls it back. Sam yells in pain, but his yell is gagged by the pouring of the beer into his mouth.
They let Sam go and he throws himself out of the chair coughing and spitting the beer out. Then Sam groans and grits his teeth as the tips of his shoes pop open and a set of hooves grow out. Sam just starts laughing. “Feeling better?” the Man asks. Sam looks up and smiles, much better.” “More?” the man smirks. Sam just nods and the Uniformed Man brings him another cup.
Sam stands and wobbles on his hooved feet and takes the Uniformed Man’s cup. “Cheers,” Sam smiles and drinks the whole cup very quickly and laughs then groans. This time his neck stretches and his nostrils flare outward. “More, more,” Sam chants. The man obliges Sam with another cup which he drinks quickly. “Tell me Sam, do you remember your friend?” the man asks. Sam looks up with a slightly muzzled face. “My friend, yeah, my friend’s a donkey,” Sam breaks out into a fit of laughter, “my friends of donkey.” The man laughs with him, “and so are you.” They both laugh.
“My friends a donkey, me too. I’m a donkey… I’m… I’m a donkey… I…. Aaaawww… HEE HAW HEE HAW.” Sam brays and then falls to his knees. “I’m… no… wait… I’m not…,” Sam groans as his pants start to rip. “No, I’m a boy, this… this…” Sam look at his hands as they start to darken and curl up. “I not want… no want be donk… donkeeeeee HAW HEE HAW.”
Sam slams his new hooved hands to the ground and starts kicking his back legs. His pants slide off and the crowd of men watching just give him room. Sam brays wildly as his muzzle takes shape and his body starts to swell.
A rope is tossed around Sam’s neck, but he fights to get it off. Finally, he is pulled hard to the ground as the Uniformed Man walks over with the small light. He shines it into Sam’s still human eye as he brays. Then Sam’s eye slowly turns dark and into the eye of a donkey, and he calms down.
The Man strokes his neck and pulls the rope forcing him to get up. “Okay, shows over,” the man yells, “let’s get the rest of them and I want a full count. There were 213 boys on that boat, so I want 213 donkeys.”
The men quickly busy around with their work and more donkeys, including Jake and Sam are loaded into crates.