The following piece was submitted on November 30th, 2005 as an assignment on “A childhood memory” during Creative Writing class.
I am not trying to be funny when I state that once in my life I wished for a donkey. I was obsessed with horses ever since I learned of their existence, as I still am. I always put demands forward to my parents to buy me a horse, and they never complied.
Never losing hope, I opted for a donkey. I figured, ” If they do not want to get me a horse because it is expensive, then a donkey will certainly do!”. I think some supernatural power overheard my innermost plans and granted me them.
I was sitting in a minimalist house in a village called Samara in Karak, where my family used to spend the weekends. A regular weekend would end with nothing exceptional taking place, perhaps a lizard here or there, or an injury, that’s about it. Not anything flashy and - it came out of nowhere; a donkey on the loose wandered into the room where I was sitting.
The image that haunts me of that day is surreal. The way the donkey came inside the room, engulfed in light and terribly confused, was dreamlike. I gave the poor creature a name and my father helped me give him basic, yet urgent, medical attention. His leg was severely scratched and he was very thirsty. I was amazed at the quantity of water that a donkey can consume; I had had no prior experience in this field.
Later on in the day, a woman came and claimed the donkey. She said it was hers and had run away in the morning after, in a magical sense again, having liberated itself from the rope that tied it to a fixed spot. I cried.
