The Game of Shepherd and Dawse by William Shepherd Page A
Authors: William Shepherd
Tags: esoteric fiction, spiritual books spiritual healing personal growth, understanding the world, parables for today, understanding self, understanding reality
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went on to fly more sorties after that, didn't he, Joe”?
“No, Charlie, I'm afraid not. That landing came at a price for him, even though he managed the landing itself. It was so heavy and awkward that he broke his back in the process. He later told me he heard the fateful 'snap'. When the rescue crews finally reached him, they were amazed Adam wasn’t in any pain at all. He had only tears of joy running down his face”.
“Ahhh, right. That was because he was really happy he'd survived. Right, Joe”?
“No, Charlie”, Joe said with a bit more somber tone, as he stoked the dying embers of the fire. “It wasn’t. It was because as soon as he heard his back snap, he knew he'd never have to kill another German. Happiest man you ever met, who'd live the rest of his life in a wheel chair”.
Other evenings when Joe wasn’t telling stories of the war or teaching other life lessons, Joe taught Charlie to play several games – first snap, then draughts, and finally chess. Joe never let Charlie win on purpose though - not because he couldn’t stand losing but because he wanted to teach Charlie the true taste of victory and the lesson that nothing in life is just laid on a plate. One day, Charlie asked Joe what was in the dark brown book on the bookshelf near where Joe sat.
“Ahh”, Joe said curiously with a smile on his face, “I wondered when you were going to ask me about that”.
There were about 70 different books on the two long bookshelves in Joe’s reception room, but Charlie was interested in only this one.
“It’s called The Chronicles of Us”, Joe said as he pulled it carefully from the shelf and dusted off its cover. “It has many stories of all different types. Some are long and others are short; some are funny and others sad, while some are real stories and others are made up. There are stories from all around the world in this book, Charlie”, Joe replied, in a way that he now knew his little student was already hooked.
“Wow”! Charlie gasped. “How did they ever fit so many stories in just one book”?
“Well, this isn’t the only book in the series. There are 56 different volumes in total. I keep the rest upstairs because,” Joe said with a knowing smile, “there’s only room for one down here”.
In all the years that Charlie went round to visit Joe, not once ever had he been in Joe’s bedroom. Joe never said he couldn’t. It was the just the unspoken rule that bedrooms were private and out of respect, Charlie had never asked. Joe’s mother had come from the Victorian era. She’d been a decent woman who had certain standards and one of those things was that children never went into their parents' bedrooms. Joe had the same belief.
“Why did the author write so many books”, asked Charlie.
“Well, there’s a good reason for that...” Joe said as he sat down in his arm chair and switched on the floor lamp. Charlie felt a story coming on and settled himself on the floor in front of Joe. Satisfied that his audience was ready, Joe began.
"The author of The Chronicles of Us was named Chorley Chumley. Chorley Chumley had always dreamed of being a writer, right from an early age. But as so many artistic people like him discover, life had a way of preventing him from doing the one thing he was really good at. Over the years, Chorley had become rather melancholy with life and his health began to suffer as a result. One day he started feeling a pain in his head. After seeing several doctors and having many tests done, the doctors told him he had a brain tumour and that he didn’t have long to live.
Seeing that he was going to die, Chorley decided to quit his job and use the money he had saved up over the years to start writing. He wanted to leave the world with at least something that he was good at. Shortly after he began to write, Chorley started feeling much happier about himself. For the first time in his life he was
“No, Charlie, I'm afraid not. That landing came at a price for him, even though he managed the landing itself. It was so heavy and awkward that he broke his back in the process. He later told me he heard the fateful 'snap'. When the rescue crews finally reached him, they were amazed Adam wasn’t in any pain at all. He had only tears of joy running down his face”.
“Ahhh, right. That was because he was really happy he'd survived. Right, Joe”?
“No, Charlie”, Joe said with a bit more somber tone, as he stoked the dying embers of the fire. “It wasn’t. It was because as soon as he heard his back snap, he knew he'd never have to kill another German. Happiest man you ever met, who'd live the rest of his life in a wheel chair”.
Other evenings when Joe wasn’t telling stories of the war or teaching other life lessons, Joe taught Charlie to play several games – first snap, then draughts, and finally chess. Joe never let Charlie win on purpose though - not because he couldn’t stand losing but because he wanted to teach Charlie the true taste of victory and the lesson that nothing in life is just laid on a plate. One day, Charlie asked Joe what was in the dark brown book on the bookshelf near where Joe sat.
“Ahh”, Joe said curiously with a smile on his face, “I wondered when you were going to ask me about that”.
There were about 70 different books on the two long bookshelves in Joe’s reception room, but Charlie was interested in only this one.
“It’s called The Chronicles of Us”, Joe said as he pulled it carefully from the shelf and dusted off its cover. “It has many stories of all different types. Some are long and others are short; some are funny and others sad, while some are real stories and others are made up. There are stories from all around the world in this book, Charlie”, Joe replied, in a way that he now knew his little student was already hooked.
“Wow”! Charlie gasped. “How did they ever fit so many stories in just one book”?
“Well, this isn’t the only book in the series. There are 56 different volumes in total. I keep the rest upstairs because,” Joe said with a knowing smile, “there’s only room for one down here”.
In all the years that Charlie went round to visit Joe, not once ever had he been in Joe’s bedroom. Joe never said he couldn’t. It was the just the unspoken rule that bedrooms were private and out of respect, Charlie had never asked. Joe’s mother had come from the Victorian era. She’d been a decent woman who had certain standards and one of those things was that children never went into their parents' bedrooms. Joe had the same belief.
“Why did the author write so many books”, asked Charlie.
“Well, there’s a good reason for that...” Joe said as he sat down in his arm chair and switched on the floor lamp. Charlie felt a story coming on and settled himself on the floor in front of Joe. Satisfied that his audience was ready, Joe began.
"The author of The Chronicles of Us was named Chorley Chumley. Chorley Chumley had always dreamed of being a writer, right from an early age. But as so many artistic people like him discover, life had a way of preventing him from doing the one thing he was really good at. Over the years, Chorley had become rather melancholy with life and his health began to suffer as a result. One day he started feeling a pain in his head. After seeing several doctors and having many tests done, the doctors told him he had a brain tumour and that he didn’t have long to live.
Seeing that he was going to die, Chorley decided to quit his job and use the money he had saved up over the years to start writing. He wanted to leave the world with at least something that he was good at. Shortly after he began to write, Chorley started feeling much happier about himself. For the first time in his life he was
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