The Donkey Lady
Story collected by Abdulla Al Gosaibi
Adapted and Edited by Patty Paine
Once upon a time, a long time ago, two children named Abdulla (age 12) and Ahmed (age 10) wanted to go outside and play. They begged their mother to let them go outside, but she refused to let them. It was much too hot for the children to play outside, but the she knew that this reason would not convince the children to stay inside. The mother decided to tell her boys a story to scare them from going outside. She told Abdulla and Ahmed that as much as she would like to let them go outside, she couldn’t because there was a monster outside waiting to prey on small children. The children’s eyes grew wide, and they demanded to know more about the monster. The mother told them that while the children were playing three black dogs would appear, and then shortly after, an old woman would arrive. Instead of having human legs the old woman had donkey legs and this Donkey Lady would chase the children until they collapsed and died.
After the mother finished telling the story the boys promised that they would not go outside to play. After their mother left the room, the children laughed and laughed about the silly monster story, then they snuck outside to play.
The children were outside happily playing with a ball when they felt a slight tremor in the ground and heard the sound of hooves. Ahmed started to feel scared and he asked Abdulla if he felt the tremor and heard the hooves. Abdulla told Ahmed to stop being a baby and keep playing. The boys went back to playing ball when three black dogs approached and started circling. Ahmed was very afraid and said, “look Abdulla, now there are black dogs, just as mother said. The Donkey Lady is coming!”
Abdulla replied, “Stop being so silly. They are just dogs. There is no such thing as The Donkey Lady. Now throw me the ball!”
Suddenly, the sound of hooves grew very loud and they saw an old woman running towards them. The boys watched her approach and saw that instead of human legs she had donkey legs. Her hooves were beating against the ground and kicking up dust as she approached.
The boys screamed and began to run.
Back at their house Abdulla and Ahmed’s mother discovered that they had snuck out. Day after day she searched for them, but she never found them.
