Same moment, many years later  

“Dad, sing more of the old songs, please…”

        He turned his head back to see his daughter, a full-grown woman yet a child to him forever, and smiled. She’s not supposed to call him Dad anymore; this is a title that he had given up long ago. But this is his forever little girl, how can he ask her to call him otherwise? He continued driving the car up into the wilderness, singing the old folklore one after the other, beautifying the scenery.

        What kind of trip this had been for him? Have been traveling for more than he can remember, he actually has the chance of spending time with his daughter for more than one hour.

        Both of them have been apart ever since anyone can remember. Their lives have not been interwoven for so long that makes every moment that they spend together a rear treasure. It’s always either the school vacation of hers or work vacation of his that they can see each other. As she grew older, her travel schedule intensifies and at the same, as he ventured away from mundanity, there are many years passed that they were not able to see each other.

These couple of years has been great. Both of them are trying to stay in contact, even just a phone call a year, it was worth everything. This year was even amazing. They met in their hometown a couple of times, when he had the chance to stop by and his daughter had time off. And now, it’s even amazing. Not even he gets to see his sister since many years ago, and his daughter was with him for a whole week.

        There was a period once, when his daughter was little, when they have more time together. He liked to install pieces of his love into his daughter. His love for traditional poetry, for Classical music, and his passion for singing have continuously enriched the little girl’s life.

Since the baby girl was still in the cradle, he would bring her to the choir practice. The group would serenade the baby girl to sleep. As the girl got older, they would sit in front of the antique stereo with the big amplifiers listening to “Peter and the Wolf” trying to figure out which instrument represented Peter, which represented the duck; and there were times that they would lie facing bedroom wall telling the stories of the ancient poetry, and sing the songs until their eyes wouldn’t stay open anymore. And he is happy because now he begun to realize that these early installments had no doubt enriched the little girl’s life: constant involvement in the singing group, although it may relate more with the karaoke singings; still trying to distinguish grandfather from the wolf*; and she went to Su-Chu** just because one of the poem that she remembered from her early years.

        This time around, nothing has changed. He sat in the car seat, singing the songs that his baby girl used to fall asleep with, telling her many other poems that he didn’t have the chance to teach her, and later on when they get back to the house, he would get out his CD case, lined with all of his favorite music that he collected while traveling around the world, and they both would sit and enjoy in front of the stereo, still with big amplifiers.

To my dad

August 18, 2001