Once upon a time, there was a toyshop. It was only a little shop stuck
between two high buildings, if you walked fast you would miss it all together.
Many people did, except for one lonely man who stopped every day to look
through the window.
What he was looking at sat on the highest shelf, a little dragon with
rainbow wings. The man had been looking at it for a long time. However the
price was too high and he was not a rich man. Instead, he strolled past every
morning to say hello to the little dragon.
At one time, he had been a violinist and a composer of music. His playing
was perfect and his music had the ability to make people laugh or cry. His life
consisted of music and there was no room for anything else. He was a happy and
contented man until he fell ill.
He was sick for a very long time and could not hear any music in his mind to
write down. When he was better, he picked up his violin, and found his playing
was not the same either. The people still liked his playing, but he knew it was
not perfect like before.
He did not even try to write music again. He could not settle for less and
eventually stopped playing. After a while he moved to this city and became
another lonely man like so many others. That is, until he saw the little dragon
in the window.
One morning when he looked, there was a bare space where it used to sit and
he felt sad. He had enjoyed greeting the little dragon, it had become his
friend and he would miss it on his daily walk. His life would be a little bit
lonelier from now on but he was glad someone had bought it.
In bed that night, he was sure he heard the little dragon. It was in a dark
place crying and calling out. The man hardly slept all night. Every time he
closed his eyes, the dragon would start calling again.
The next morning the man put on his coat and went back to the toyshop. He
hesitated for a while, then went inside. "Who bought the little dragon that
was sitting on the shelf," he asked the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper looked
blankly at him and the man pointed to the empty place on the shelf. "Oh
that toy," replied the shopkeeper, "It had been there a long time and
we are clearing the shelves to make room for new toys. When I took it down it
was too dusty to sell. Even when I tried to give it away, no one wanted it. I
think it is with the other rubbish in the back."
The man said, "I want it if you do not mind." The shopkeeper
looked at this grown man who wanted a dusty toy dragon, then shrugged his
shoulders and told the man he would go and get it.
The man went home happily with the dragon tucked away in his coat. He put it
on the cupboard next to his bed when he got home. It was as if the dragon was
telling him that that was the right place for it.
When the man went to bed that night, he smiled at the little dragon sitting
there. "Have a good night, my little friend," he said, "you are
not in a dark place anymore." And he went to sleep. As he slept, he
dreamed...
***********
He was traveling through space with the stars so close, he could almost
touch them.
He looked down and saw he was riding a dragon! Not just any dragon, but the
toyshop dragon. The dragon’s rainbow wings were like great sails, catching
the solar winds.
He knew he must be dreaming, but it seemed so real. As he was thinking
that, he heard a voice and it came from the dragon. "It is real in this
time and place," the dragon said. "During the day, I am a toy dragon,
but at night I am "Thangath the Dreamer" I can take you anywhere your
heart wants to be and we are there now."
Saying that, the dragon stopped and they were floating gently in space.
"I did not know my heart wanted to be anywhere," the man replied. The
toy dragon, now known as "Thangath" to the man, turned his head around
to look at him. The man noticed that the eyes of the dragon were rainbow-coloured
also and they were huge.
"Your heart misses the music that used to be part of your life"
Thangath answered. "You feel it as loneliness, but your heart knows the truth.
Listen…"
The dragon flew through space again, past planets and stars the man had only
heard about. Then his rainbow wings folded around the man, cocooning him in a
rainbow world and the man listened.
He could hear a low humming and the singing of stars. Songs that had no
words that he could hear, but he knew the words were there. Some notes were not
perfect and the man winced at first, then he realized that the imperfect notes
were part of the music too and belonged.
"That is the music of the universe," Thangath said. "Not
perfect, because the universe is always changing and perfection is static. The
joy is in reaching, not in being there. Let you heart listen and end your
loneliness. Your playing made many people happy and perfection was not needed
for them. You were the only one that demanded perfection of yourself. No one
else ever did, they were content to listen and admire you for being able to do
something they could not do. Listen with you heart……"
As the last words were spoken the man found himself in bed, with the sun
streaming through the window. He looked at the cupboard beside his bed and the
toy dragon was still sitting there. That was a queer dream I had, the
man thought, but still..
He got out of bed and took the violin case out of the cupboard where he had
put it all those years ago. He lifted the violin to his shoulder and started
playing. The music he heard in his mind was beautiful, not perfect but warm
with feeling.
The man felt he had learned something during the night, but even afterwards
he could never remember what. All he knew was that the toy dragon had something
to do with it. There was music flowing in his mind again. Beautiful music with
the odd off key note that blended. Music of the Universe.
The people that came to his concerts noticed a little toy dragon sitting on
the floor next to him when he was playing. They might have wondered why, but it
did not really matter. They loved the music and every one knows that artists
are not quite like anyone else.
The end...
"Thangath Again"
Once upon a time, there was a toyshop, sandwiched
between a big supermarket and an office block. Most people walked past it, too
busy to stop and look. One of them was a woman, who went by everyday on her way
to work.
She had not lived in the city for very long. Once
she had lived in a small town with her nine-year-old daughter and they had been
very close. When a car hit her daughter and killed her, the woman’s world had
collapsed.
She had been a writer of stories, magic stories
about dragons that delighted children, especially her daughter The wonder of a
world seen through a child’s eyes had been the woman’s inspiration. Life
for the two of them, had been a new and exciting beginning every day.
After her daughter died, the magic had gone. The
world that was once so bright had turned gray. The stories that had always come
into her mind without effort disappeared. The people of the town had been
sympathetic and kind, but the woman had pushed them away. Telling them no one
knew how she felt. After a while they had left her alone to grieve.
She had moved to the city where no one knew her and
worked in one of the offices in the block. She had not told anyone she had once
been a writer. That was the past and she wanted to forget it. She was a sad
woman, who’s only refuge was the flat where she lived alone with her grief
This day she had worked late and as she stepped
outside the building, it started to rain. The woman decided to take shelter in
front of the toyshop, until the rain stopped. The bus would be a while yet. As
she stood there, she felt a tugging at her mind and an impulse to turn around.
She ignored it at first, but it got stronger.
At last, she slowly turned around and came face to
face with a toy dragon. It had big rainbow wings and was sitting on a red
cushion in the window. The dragon looked a bit old and shabby and the woman
felt the first stirrings of interest. What was an old toy doing in the window
of a toyshop that sold new toys?
The bus arrived and the woman hurried to get on it.
In the following days the woman used to stop by the window and look at the toy
dragon. After a while she started to say hello to it every day. It was the
first time the woman had thought about anything else, except her loss.
One day she found herself smiling at the dragon.
Surprised, that she had done so, she stood there, then made up her mind. She
went into the shop and asked the shopkeeper if the dragon was for sale, but the
answer was no. When the shopkeeper saw the disappointed look on her face, he
told her a strange tale.
The toy dragon had arrived in the post one day with
a letter attached to it. Apparently it had belonged to a violinist and had gone
everywhere with him on tour. After his death, his son had found a letter tucked
away in the violin case. His father had written it just before he died, saying
that the toy dragon was to be sent to the toyshop. There was a strange request
with it; the toy dragon had to sit on a red cushion in the window. The
shopkeeper had been so intrigued by the unusual request, that he had done so.
The woman was disappointed; she would have liked to
have taken the dragon home. Her daughter had loved dragons. The two of them had
spent many happy hours, naming the dragons in her books. Something she had not
thought about since her daughter’s death. Any memory of her had been pushed
away. The hurt was too much.
When she went to bed that night, she found herself
thinking of the story the shopkeeper had told her. In her mind, she saw the toy
dragon sitting on the red cushion. His wings bright rainbows,
growing…reaching out to her…
She was in a moving rainbow world, the colours so
bright, they blinded her for a moment. When she could see again, she found a
dragon’s head looking at her. It was the toy dragon from the shop! She was
frightened, until the dragon spoke to her. "Do not be afraid. My name is
Thangath, also called "The Dreamer." "I am taking you to the
place your heart wants to go..."
She saw they were flying through a clear blue sky,
his rainbow wings catching the sunlight. Making them sparkle like crystal dust.
In her mind was the sound of children’s happy laughter, coming from below,
coming closer. When she looked down, she saw a big garden filled with children
of all ages and races. The joyous laughter came from them. Thangath landed
silently, his wings folding around her. The children took no notice and the
woman wondered why.
Then she heard the voice of Thangath. "The
children can not see us. This is Heaven’s garden. All children come here to
wait for their parents. When the waiting time is over for a child, a big bell
rings out and the gates open. Children will rush towards their parents and they
will go together through Heavens gate, never to be separated again."
Then the woman noticed some children sitting quietly
by themselves. There was an aura of sadness about them. Why are they sitting so
alone she asked? "They are not remembered," Thangath answered sadly.
"Sometimes the loss is felt so deeply, that parents push all memory of
their children away. Yet, the memories are there to stay, although the children
have gone. The spirits of the children live on, in the hearts of those who
loved them so well. Nobody ever truly dies, while they are remembered with
love".
When the woman looked again, she saw that one of the
children was her daughter. Tears started running down her face. She knew what
Thangath was saying applied to her. She had tried to forget the memory of her
daughter. All the joy and laughter they had shared for nine years. The
happiness her daughter had brought into her life. Even the books she had
written and had been planning to write. She had tried to keep nothing….
She woke up in bed and felt tears on her face.
"Was it real" she thought, "did I fly on a dragon
named Thangath. Was one of those sad children my daughter?" She turned
over, to try and go back to sleep. As she did, she felt something touch her
face. It was a flower, a tiny rainbow flower.
The next morning she got up early and started
writing…
The books always said, "dedicated to my
daughter and a toy dragon." Adults wondered at the dedication. Then they
shrugged their shoulders and started reading her books to their children.
The End...
Publication date: March
