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Josh was walking home from school with his older brother Jacob on a beautiful, breezy spring day. It was one of those perfect days. The sun was shining. The temperature was lovely, and Josh's excitement about his tenth birthday was building because as of today the big day was exactly one month away.
The brothers turned the corner onto Hickory Lane and walked one block to 4th Avenue before crossing to the other side of the street. All the children in their small town crossed Hickory Lane at 4th Avenue. They would then walk along the north side of the street for two blocks before crossing back to the south side at 6th Avenue. The children of the town went to all this trouble for one reason: to stay out of sight of The Hickory Lane Terror.
On the corner of Hickory and 5th there was an old dilapidated house. The decades-old white paint that hadn't already peeled off was gray with age and the windows were so dusty someone on the street could barely tell if any lights were on at all. There was a tall chainlink fence all the way around the overgrown lawn, and every day, leering out at the street from his post in the middle of the yard was The Terror.
The Terror was a grizzled and gray old mutt of a dog that spent his time outside every day barking and growling and gnashing his teeth at anyone that walked in front of his house, and the children of the town were so scared that one day he would break through the fence that they all avoided the house. Luckily The Terror did not care, or was too old to see, what happened just across the street, so for as long as anyone can remember the children have made sure to walk on the other side of the street.
As the brothers walked down the sidewalk, safely out of range of inciting a fit from The Terror, Josh was so overflowing with anticipation about his birthday that he started to whistle a bouncy little song. Apparently, the old mutt could still hear fine and launched into a frenzied series of barks, growls, and howls throwing himself against the fence. The boys were terrified and ran as fast as they could to a safe distance. Josh, however, did not lose his good mood.
"You know what, Jacob?" he said to his brother.
"What?" Jacob replied through shaky gasps.
"I bet I could get that grouchy old mutt to like me."
"Yeah right! He'd tear you to pieces."
"No really, I bet you that by my birthday I can get The Terror to let me rub his belly."
"Alright, you're on!"
The boys stayed on the north sidewalk until 10th Avenue before they crossed the street again that day.
The next day on his way home from school Josh started his quest. Directly across the street from The Terror (and with Jacob safely watching from a few blocks away) Josh started to whistle. The Terror immediately launched into a rage, but after flinching initially Josh steadied himself and started to calmly talk to the raging dog across the street. After a few minutes The Terror relaxed a little bit too. That is he stopped howling and instead just growled and occasionally snarled. Josh decided that was a enough for the first day and ran ahead to catch up with his brother, feeling accomplished.
Josh stopped across the street from The Terror every day on his way home from school and talked to the dog. On the tenth day Josh whistled his greeting, and The Terror slowly walked to fence growling but did not fly into his usual frenzied rage. Josh realized he was making progress.
From that day on Josh started inching closer each day he visited The Terror, and The Terror became less and less terrifying and more and more friendly.
On Josh's tenth birthday, The Terror had still only let him scratch his ears a little through the fence, but Josh was determined to successfully complete his quest. He brought a secret weapon this time, a carrot dipped in peanut butter. Josh whistled his musical greeting, and The Terror happily bounded (at least as much as a dog of his age can bound) over to the fence. Josh started talking in his usual calm tone and scratched the pup's ears; then he got out the carrot and pushed it through the fence onto the ground.
The Terror cautiously sniffed the surprise and quickly decided it was safe, diving excitedly into his treat. After eating the whole carrot the satisfied Terror rolled over next to the fence showing his belly to an ecstatic Josh.
From a safe distance, Jacob watched in disbelief as his brother rubbed the belly of the nastiest, meanest dog he could imagine, but even more surprising was that Jacob himself started inching closer to where his brother and The Terror were. When he got close enough The Terror rolled back over and looked directly at Jacob but did not even growl. Josh took this as a cue to introduce them. After the introduction, Jacob cautiously scratched The Terror's ears, and The Terror cautiously enjoyed it.
News of Josh's victory circulated quickly, and day by day, one at a time Josh introduced each of the other children to his new friend. Now, all the children in the town walk on the south side of Hickory Lane so they can say "Hi" to The Terror and scratch his ears.
Author's Note:
I based this story off of "Krishna rides Hastin" by Epified. In that telling of the story Krishna tames the vicious bull, Hastin, by showing him kindness over the course of a month. Every night Krishna visits Hastin. During the visits he plays his flute and feeds the bull sweet treats, and every night he is able to get a little closer to the bull. Finally, after one month, on the night of the full moon, Krishna is able to ride Hastin showing the other people of the village the power of kindness.
I chose to write a story about two small town brothers who want to tame a mean dog. Like how Krishna told his older brother he could win over Hastin with kindness and be able to ride him, Josh bets his older brother that he could get The Terror to like him enough to let him rub his belly. Josh goes about winning The Terror over by whistling songs to him and eventually bringing him a treat similar to how Krishna played his flute for Hastin and fed him sweet treats. I ended my story with Josh teaching all the children and The Terror to get along which relates to the lesson Krishna teaches the other villagers about kindness in the source story.
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