Dad Come Walk with Me

"Hey Pop wanna walk down to the store with me? I promise all I want is just some gum and a brush...and please dad don't make those terrible noises when you get in the car."

"Do you or your sisters need any...um mm, panties?"

"Dad! please don't say panties. Say uuuunderwear" they seemed to shout at him in unison as they giggled and shook their heads.

"Dad please don't hold my hand...it's embarrassing and, well ..."

"Dad I think we say 'I love you' too much in this family."

"Hey Pops good morning I want to sleep in all day tomorrow but Sunday get me up at 6 O'clock and we can go fishing then...if you want to...just no worms please...I can't do worms!"

"Father i have a proposition to make. If you.......and.....maybe mom....I decided to ask you first....would let me go with my friends , whose parents know, to the concert? It's only 200 miles away...I will..."

The man sits in his chair after a long day at work leaning back and stroking his chin. His hair is clean and cut short but it is not expensively styled. He has a heavy brow left over from his high school wrestling days. His looks are not handsome, not ugly. There are a few pockmarks on his face. His hands are strong with thick short fingers and a few broken fingernails one black and blue, struck by a hammer while on the job.

The house is silent and he sits in his favorite very worn and comfortable easy chair given to him on a fathers day years ago. The wife is out playing bonchos and the youngest daughter is out with her friends after playing her piano recital which he had to miss to get in a little overtime. The t.v. is off. and only the kitchen light is on exuding a warm yellow glow from a room that has produced many many family meals. The light cuts through the gloomy living room where he sits, illuminating his tired eyes that stare unfocused in thought and his unlaced work boots lying on the floor next to his chair. The rest of the man has disappeared into darkness.

He does not realize it but he is striking an identical pose his father used to portray after work when the man was growing up. Not much to remember, his father worked hard and long hours at two jobs. Worked and slept worked and slept. The money his father had made put four kids through college. Except for him. The man had been a good student but some events as well as twists and turns in his life had kept him away from that world.

Soon the man closes his eyes and tilts his head back against the top of the easy chair. In a few moments the quiet of the house is broken by his snoring.

"Dad puulleeze don't sing...no one else's dads sings."

"Alright dad let's get ready to stay up all night and watch some bad horror movies. I bet you fall asleep first."

"Hey dad we made it to Arizona. Yeah we miss you guys too...yeah I know...I love you too...Now we...."