Where Oh Where
Sister and mom are worried, as the son and brother has not called home and his letters ceased as well, so sister went looking for her brother.
Where indeed, May was in the big city, she checking a map wishing to discover where he dear brother had his apartment. Don had come to live in the city to be nearer the college he planned to attend. All was going as planned, or until his letter to home suddenly ceased, and any phone calls placed to his phone just rang, rang, and rang.
Their mother was worried but May more so, as in the last letter her mom received, Don made mention about his noisy neighbors one flight down. Don felt lucky he found the perfect apartment, it close to the college, he could walk there, as nearby were small shops where he could purchase about anything he had a need.
"There," said May when looking at a city map she found where the street was, and knew just how to get there.
"1248 Mockingbird Lane..., how odd," May thought, I vaguely recall some other address of someone living on a street with the same name.
Mom had given her daughter some extra money for cab fares or if she lost something while travelling and needed a replacement. May decided to surprise her brother, and she flagged a taxicab for the ride across town to where her brother resided.
Upon arriving at the supposed address, the cab driver pointed to a vacant lot.
May sat there gawking out the taxicab window, as she shook her head, feeling real concern and a greater sense of dismay. The address matched exactly the written return address her brother wrote on his last letter to home. May paid the cab driver, and with her one small suitcase, she got out of the taxi.
"I plan now to check around with people living around here, somebody must know where my brother went to, or is residing in an apartment," May told the cab driver. He offered to take her for no charge to the local police station and there to begin asking about her brother, but May declined.
A young woman of twenty years her age walking the streets in a big city is a target for all sorts of people, some kindly, but others plainly nasty. May looked quite out of place, she being neatly dressed, looking more like a salesperson wandering the streets.
"Where are you Donny," May stood then looking around, she muttering her puzzlement, wondering who to ask first about her missing brother.
An elderly woman sitting on the front stoops to an aged old apartment building was looking at May as if she was a cute little rich brat, lost in the big city. "Hey you there Dolly, yea you, come here!" The old woman called to May, and she taught to be polite, she did as asked.
"Hello," said May to the old woman. "I had a letter from my brother, and he wrote the address maybe wrong, it matches to that vacant lot. Might you know of have seen my brother Donald, he stands a good six feet, six inches tall and is very handsome."
"Hmm...," said the old woman, "Six, six hmm, usually well dressed, sporty looking, the athletic type his physique, wears large tennis shoes with red strings, tends to whistle a merry tune wherever he goes, is a college student at the business college on Fuller Avenue, nope, can't say I have seen him for the past two weeks!"
"What, well then you knew him, or maybe where he lives around here?" May asked, she hearing all of what the woman knew of her brother, she knew then Donny.
"Well, ah he got in a tussle with his neighbors. Yup, bad ladies those, strange too, they disliked men but were elated about cute little boys. Queer bunch, four women living together they rented out the entire third floor to the building. They kept weird pets, some big, some small, bold they were as took walks along the sidewalks, leading their pets.
Ha, just one of them, she was a kooky Blonde, and boy was she a pip!
Blonde is not a hair color dear, it is a state of mind, and her mind was all about her pet. The other women had several pets, but Blondie had but one and he was a big boy!
I never before saw someone in this side of town keep a donkey as a house pet, can you imagine that!
She somehow trained the big fellow, she spoke to it, and the darn thing obeyed her as if it knew exactly what she wished he should do, or as to reminding him to mind his manners, and not leave his mess on the sidewalk.
Weird I say, but really, crazy, she named him Donny, petting as she walks him, combing his mane, but he never once brayed as donkeys do, nope, he stayed quiet.
That donkey was her more recent pet, as before she got him, Blondie had as her pet a brown spotted goat. Yea in the city a goat, will you believe it! Oh, and it was a big goat, very tall, long legs. He would on rare occasion bleat, while looking at passing cars, as if he saw somebody he knew. As I would sit here and watch Blondie walking her goat, he tended to bleat more when Misses Albright happened to drive past, the poor dear. She lost her husband, he up and disappeared, the cops looked but they never found him, no body, nothing, imagine that, just poof and he was gone."
"Don Donald Collingwood, we all called him Donny; can you tell me where he resided around here?" May asked, as it seemed obvious to her this woman knew her brother Don.
"Yea, yea-sure, ah Donny huh, yea, you need go through the vacant lot and to the apartment building directly behind, as see there a loading dock, enter there, but be careful, the apartment manager is a real gorilla type." The old woman told May, as May then followed the directions to the letter.
May crossed the street and walked back to the vacant lot. She noticed the vacant lot had not one weed, flower or a blade of grass growing anywhere. As she came then to facing a plank board fence, she saw a place in the fence where two planks were missing, a space just enough for her to slip through to the other side.
As she pulled her suitcase through behind her, May felt something touch the back of her hair. She turned quick-like only to see a large, all black long eared donkey staring at her, it cocking its big head as if puzzled by it meeting her.
"Oh, ah hello, nice boy, good boy, you be good and let me get past you, now I do not want any trouble." May said, she nervous from meeting the horse size big donkey, maybe the one the old woman spoke of, May just wanted to find her brother.
As May tried to pass by the donkey, first to the left of him, as then to the right of it, the donkey continued to step into her way around him.
Angry, May finally yelled at the brute, she said, "Get out of my way!"
Her yelling at the donkey made his ears perk-up, he took two steps backing away from where he stood facing May.
"I am sorry as I thought you might be kind enough to play a game of tag." The donkey said, it spoke with perfectly clear as precise English, as May understood what he said, she felt stunned.
May just stood there, she considering if someone was playing a trick on her.
"Did you just speak?" May said, she did ask the donkey.
"Yes, I did, but please do not tell on me, I am not supposed to speak, or they, those witches that live on the third floor apartment, the Blonde one, she will whip me. I was not born a donkey, no, it is true. As it happened, I came canvassing the apartments offering religious folders. Those four witches hustled me into their apartment and bewitched me, doing all sorts of games. The one game what caught me was pin-the-tail-on-a donkey.
When I felt the prick of the pin, I fainted, and when I awoke, I was as you see me now, a donkey!
I must admit, becoming a donkey is rather nice. I do not need to work and earn poor pay, or hear the manager yell at me as if my mother and father were never married when I was born. They feed me morning and night, as Miss Karla walks me, we get lots of double take looks from people, it rather makes me chuckle.
Miss Karla told me that when or after she meets her next handsome young man, he partner, a Hazel Smyth, she owns a farm on the outskirts of town, well I can then go and live there, doing what a big donkey like me does, and does naturally." The talkative donkey said, as May listened, she wanting to ask about her brother.
"Did you ever meet my brother, his name was Donald, and he lived on the fourth floor of this building?" May asked, as the donkey seemed again as nervous.
"Yes, I remember him, nice, quite an athlete type, snappy dressed. He was here, although Miss Karla told me about him, as she and her cohorts did to him what they did to me, only they sold him the same day to that woman Hazel Smyth. She came and took him away, as said she planned to use him well, had some breeding plans. Karla told me after she knew me better, said that your brother Donny did not fare well and lost more than his dignity after kicking Hazel.
Miss Karla liked the simple name of Donny for her pet, and she renamed me to the same name, as was your brother when he was still here. My name was originally Chester, and I lived alone, my parents asked me to leave home, they really could not afford to feed me, so my coming here, and becoming as I am, is I think providential." The sad sort of donkey said to May, as she felt sad for him, and began petting donkey Donny.
"Huh, Hazel Smyth, maybe I need to go visit her, and see then my brother." May said, as the donkey sad nothing more, he just stood there, looking as handsome as a donkey can, or could.