Bill huddled in the corner, wracked and wasted. He stared up at George through eyes filmed with tears. He held up his hands. They had already begun to shape themselves into hooves, but George could still see that both his thumbs were gone. His ears were pointed and long. "Oh, Bill," George said. His brother let out a braying sob, and George saw he had no tongue. # Orville came looking for them the next morning. "Where are the sons?" George asked him, while stroking the donkey's head in his lap. Orville smiled a slightly abashed smile. "I'm keeping them safe. I didn't think that Bill was in any shape to take care of them." George said, "I'll take care of them. Bring them here. Joe, too -- he's in the room. I'll take care of them all." Orville smiled his abashed smile again, then gave George an ironic salute. "Yes, sir," he said. He patted Bill's haunch and smiled to himself. George didn't know how to respond to irony, so he held his brother more tightly. Eventually, Orville went away, and then came back a while after that. He drove an electric cart. In the front seat, three sons bounced -- Tom, bright and curious; another, strong and big; a third, whose little pot belly jiggled as he talked and talked and talked. In a trailer, Joe kicked and fought against his bonds. George let him out first, then took the sons to the porch. Joe and Bill stared at each other for a long moment, then Bill brayed out a long, donkeyish laugh. Orville looked with proprietary satisfaction at the donkeys, then at the sons, then at George. He waggled a finger at George, as if to say, _I'll be back for you, someday_. Then he got into his tram and drove off. George went back inside and made dinner for his family. -- <!-- <rdf:RDF xmlns="http://web.resource.org/cc/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/08/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"> <Work rdf:about="http://craphound.com/place/Cory_Doctorow_-_Return_to_Pleasure_Island.txt"> <dc:title>Home Again, Home Again</dc:title> <dc:date>1999-2-1</dc:date> <dc:description>A science&#45;fiction short story by Cory Doctorow about the golems who tend the rides at Pleasure Island, the park where Pinnocchio and his friend Lamwick are turned into donkeys in Carlo Collodi's novel Pinnocchio, from the short story collection "A Place So Foreign and Eight More," published by Four Walls Eight Windows press in September, 2003 (ISBN: 1568582862)</dc:description> <dc:creator><Agent> <dc:title>Cory Doctorow</dc:title> </Agent></dc:creator> <dc:rights><Agent> <dc:title>Cory Doctorow</dc:title> </Agent></dc:rights> <dc:type rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text" /> <license rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/" /> </Work>