Vacationing Cow (2009)

This is the second in the Vacationing series. (Click here to see the first one, Vacationing Kitty.) This time another girl travels to India, where she finds herself adapting to quite a different kind of life.

Vacation Diary, Day 2: After sleeping off the jet lag, we took a tour of the Taj Mahal. India is amazing so far. This is going to be an unforgettable month!

Day 6: There's so much to do here, we're going out every day. I'm starting to feel strange, though. At first I thought I was getting burned out already, but there's something weird happening to me. My lower back always itches and I feel kind of bloated. I'm trying to see as many sights as I can, in case I get worse and wind up in bed for the rest of the trip. That'd be a real bummer.

Day 14: What a night! My friends and I went to a dance club and we had the best time ever. I'm so glad I stopped having those weird feelings a few days ago, otherwise I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much. My friends said I tore it up on the dance floor, and that everybody was watching me and cheering. Wish I could remember more of it, but I was pretty sloshed. I made my friends promise to go back at least once before we leave.

Day 21: The strangest thing happened today. We spent a few hours shopping, and wherever we went, people kept giving me stuff for free. I got a beautiful silk skirt that I'm sure I never could have afforded. And at a jewelery store, I was trying on a necklace and the man there said "Take it, take it! For you, everything's free!" I tried to give him some money, but he refused to touch it. All week it feels like wherever we go, people treat me like some kind of celebrity. My friends are starting to get jealous, especially after I made out like a bandit at those shops.

Day 30: Boy do I feel silly! It turns out I was under some kind of spell, and it only lifted after getting back to the States. Magic or no magic, it's unbelievable my friends and I didn't realize what was happening this whole time. You'd think I would have noticed things like my hair growing, the horns on my head, or this huge friggin' udder! I'm just glad we left India before I started walking on all fours. At least everything makes sense now, like how the last few days people were flocking to our hotel to drop off tons of gifts. We kept what we liked the most, but there was no way we could take it all back on the plane. Everything else my friends gave away to people on the street on the way to the airport. I think something like two dozen kids now have their college educations paid for in full. What an amazing time! I've never felt so special in all my life. To whoever, or whatever did this...THANK YOU!!! And, uh, now that I'm home, I'm gonna turn back to normal, right? ... Right?

This is the official ending of the story, but a while after drawing this sequence I came up with an alternate ending where she stays in India:

ALTERNATE ENDING

Day 47:
Yay, a new journal! This is my first entry being made with voice dictation software. I lost the ability to write three days ago, and my hands are now glorified hooves at this point. When we inquired about getting a computer with a voice-recognition word processor, a few local techies were all too eager to whip this up.

Since you're a new journal, I'll backtrack a few weeks for a more detailed account. All that strange stuff I experienced, with the attention and the gifts, was finally explained on the day we were going to leave. Just before heading to the airport, a woman showed up at our hotel. She'd heard of me through the grapevine and knew I was under some sort of spell. I didn't understand most of what she was saying, until she cast an incantation and touched my forehead.

At once I saw myself for what I had become: A freakish cow-girl! For a whole month, my friends and I had been completely oblivious to the fact that I had been growing horns, fur, hooves, and an UDDER. Seriously, how could we have missed that?!

With that part of the spell lifted, she told me I had a choice to make. If I went home, the changes would reverse themselves within days. But if I stayed in India and allowed the transformation to complete, I would live a life of royalty, free of want, fear, and pain.

Easy choice, right?

When my two best friends found out about the curse, and my decision to stay, they insisted on staying too. For their loyalty and friendship, the spell has apparently decided to bless them with transformations of their own. And they've become so lovely! To be honest, I don't know what I'd do if they hadn't stayed. My udder has grown so big I can't stand or walk for very long, and now I have no fingers! It's inconvenient, but it's a small price to pay for everything I get in return.

The adoration I've received has been indescribable. When I asked for a place to stay, they gave me a palace. When I asked for a comfortable chair, they built me a throne. But their gifts go so far beyond the jewelry and the furniture. For the first time in my life, I feel truly loved.

They come in droves to tell me about themselves. Their stories are inspiring and humbling. All of these people, looking for someone to listen, someone to tell them how great they really are, if they just believe. Some just come to see if it's true that a creature like me really exists. I don't blame them. Even I have trouble believing sometimes. But they all leave happy. And the children! They melt my heart with their smiles. I read stories to them and play games. We have so much fun.

The strangest part, by far, is the udder. Last week I relented to being milked after a couple days of feeling a building pressure. I hate to admit it, but being milked was...disturbingly pleasurable. At first we just tossed the stuff out, but before we could stop her, one of our visitors grabbed the pail and drank from it. As more people took sips they clamored about how good it was. I tried some for myself and, surprisingly, it was actually pretty amazing. We found out that my milk has five times the nutritional value of any other milk in the world. A company came to us asking for exclusive bottling and marketing rights, but I refused. We give it away freely to anyone who wants it. I'm compelled to give back in any way I can a fraction of the generosity that has been bestowed upon me.

Everything I've experienced here is a dream come true. I think of India as my real home now. They've even granted us honorary citizenship. What is there to go back to the States for? My foster parents have never been about tender loving care. The two people that mean the most to me and that have ever sacrificed anything for me are right by my side. They do talk about visiting their families, and from what we're told, if any of us leaves the country we'll change back into humans and then back again when we return. It's really a win-win for everybody.

So if that's all true...why am I crying? I guess the computer hasn't been picking this up, but I've been trying to hold back sobs for a minute now. It's just...I'm so happy. So incredibly happy, and I don't even know what I did to deserve all this. To whatever force has granted me these things, thank you from the bottom of my heart. All I can hope to do is live up to this gift and prove I am worthy of this extraordinary life.