David Shaw - Ghost Writers

And even though the gathering crowd grew bigger, noisier, and more excitable, the alluring item just sat in the shop window, staring innocently as the relative world around it descended into chaos.

Several months earlier, a local radio station had announced that a Tibetan Mastiff had been sold for a huge amount of money. The radio station concluded that the world had now gone completely mad and that you wouldn’t find anyone around these parts that would be stupid enough to pay that amount of money for a dog, never mind even possess that amount of money in the first place. The remarkable news story had entertained the villagers, who thought it was absolutely hilarious, and they all felt fortunate that money and greed hadn’t affected their lives in this desperately covetous fashion. Yet now, here they were, staring in bewilderment at this beautiful Tibetan Mastiff, for sale in their humble little shop, but seemingly only to the richest person in the village!

Urged on by his inquisitive friends, a middle-aged man edged forward towards the entrance of the shop. Before entering, he turned back around to face his friends, inanely searching for a reason not to proceed any further, but was swiftly encouraged to open the door and ask the question that dozens of others were too scared to ask – ‘How much is that doggy in the window?’

After a short while, the shop door opened and the man returned to a barrage of questions. He quickly raised his hand before declaring that if anyone wanted the prized asset then they should write their name on a piece of paper and state what they were willing to offer for it, before posting their bid in a specially made box inside the shop. He added that the current owner of the dog was the captain of a large container ship and he would return to harbour in three days’ time. He would make his final decision after considering all the proposals. The enthusiastic villagers willingly posted their bids and returned home dreaming of owning an extremely valuable item that could then be sold for a small fortune.

For the next three days, the only topic of conversation in the village was about who exactly would win the auction. The villagers boasted how much of their hard-earned savings they were prepared to spend on this tempting investment. They imagined the prosperous lifestyle that selling this asset could afford them and how they could leave this decidedly uninteresting village and set up home in a more prosperous and exciting town or city.

The three days quickly passed and the villagers eagerly awaited the arrival of the ship that carried the owner of the priceless Tibetan Mastiff. As the ship anchored, a huge cheer erupted to the embarrassment of the stunned captain, waiting patiently to disembark from a journey that was customarily ignored on any other day of the week.

The captain began to stride away in the direction of the village shop, now instinctively aware of the reason why his arrival has signified such a euphoric welcome, and also eager to put the villagers out of their self-inflicted misery! He entered the shop and quickly closed the door behind him, whilst the villagers eagerly waited outside in an anomalous silence that had been induced by a mixture of excitement and nervous tension.

After what seemed like an eternity to the frenzied crowd, the captain opened the shop door and stepped outside with an air of authority. Without uttering a single word, he proceeded to individually read each and every written proposal that had just been reclaimed from the box inside the shop. The eerie silence persisted as the captain began to drop each newly read proposal at his feet, before suddenly looking up at the crowd and raising one bid aloft. The crowd murmured, wondering if the captain had finally found the winning bid.

‘Where is Sasha?’ asked the captain. The crowd began to murmur more intensely.

Muffled cries of, ‘Where would Sasha find that sort of money?’ and, ‘I didn’t know that Sasha’s grandmother had any money at all!’ could be heard amidst a second plea from the captain as to the whereabouts of the mysterious Sasha.

All of a sudden, a young boy eased his way to the front of the crowd and raised his hand. ‘I am Sasha,’ he whispered in an unpretentious tone.

The captain smiled before returning inside the shop. The small boy stood motionless as the rest of the villagers started to crowd around him, all hoping that there had been a mistake and that Sasha hadn’t won the prized asset.

The captain returned outside with the Tibetan Mastiff on a lead and presented the dog to Sasha. He smiled at the young boy before promptly leaving in the direction of the harbour. And as he did so, he purposefully dropped Sasha’s winning bid on the road. The disbelieving crowd ignored Sasha and his prize, choosing instead to race for details of the winning bid. The first villager to find Sasha’s bid held it up against the shop window and began to read out loud what had been written on it.

‘“My parents died when I was only three so I know what it feels like to be all alone. But I live with my grandmother now and she loves me very much. She is old and has no money to buy the dog. But she says that if I loved a dog as much as she loves me then I should let you know that it’s all I can offer. I promise to walk the dog every day and I’m sure we would become best friends forever. Thank you, Sasha.”’

As the final word was humbly read out, an unnerving silence returned once more. The villagers turned to face Sasha, before slowly beginning their short walk home to try and resume some form of normality. Some of them smiled as they passed him by, others patted him on the shoulder. One of them whispered in his ear, ‘Thank you for saving our village.’

As they passed the harbour they noticed that the captain’s ship was no longer in dock. Had it left already? Or was it ever there at all?

Sasha took his new best friend home to his grandmother’s house and they proceeded to live a life of unconditional love…as did the rest of the newly educated villagers.

Maybe we could all learn something from Sasha and his dog.

Chapter Two: Forgiveness

To forgive someone is a natural progression of experiencing profound human emotions and accepting the consequences. For example; you may forgive someone for simply being late, which resulted in you both missing an important football match. Or you may forgive someone for tying you up for twenty-four hours; continually force-feeding you sun-dried cauliflower; randomly beating you over the head with a copy of Gardeners Weekly and forcing you against your will to watch episodes of Celebrity Big Brother . The first example should be fairly easily applied – especially as you may very well end up down the pub watching the game on television and getting rat-arsed. The second one, however, takes a bit more ‘savvy’. This veggie-bondage session could be seen as slightly more extreme, and the lasting effects of such a high-intensity desecration of human rights would almost certainly leave a person scarred and possibly ‘vegan-ised’ for life.

But here’s the thing. What if both examples had the same possible outcome? What if you could endure the brutality of the cauliflower-munching sadist and come out the other side smiling, just like the football fans that drank the pub dry? Would it render such a harrowing experience as just another night to forget; to be put to the back of your mind? Of course not! But, it is possible to accept what happened and move on, no matter how grim the experience may have been. And the secret ingredient to washing really bad television programmes completely out of your hair? You guessed it – forgiveness.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. What about extreme cases of inflicted pain and suffering? How could you forgive the Nazis for what they did to the Jews? How could you possibly forgive the terrorists responsible for 9/11? How could you even think of forgiving child abusers? It just doesn’t seem feasible. Well, I cannot personally give you an answer to this type of question as thankfully I haven’t been in a position where I have had to even consider this seemingly abominable suggestion. But many others have and they have forgiven individuals for some of the most heinous crimes you could ever imagine. And you know what? They almost always came out smiling afterwards and lived the rest of their lives in relative peace.