The Dragon Looks at Me

I Miss You Dad

Claire walked into the house in rage slammed the door and stomped up the stairs as her washed the dishes in the small modern kitchen.

“What a wonderful way to greet your mom,” Claires mom said sarcastically as Claire stomped up the stairs and slammed her room door shut. “I have told you so many times to stop slamming your room door, how many times do you want me to call the handyman this month? If you break the hinges of you door again, I promise I wouldn’t pay the fees, you’ll sort that out yourself,” Claire’s mom nagged yelling at the top of her lungs. “Anyways, dinner’s ready!” She said as she wiped the water off a dish and stalked it on the stalked dried dishes.

“I’ve heard you!” Claire yelled from her room as she lay on her bed staring at the ceiling right after she threw her bag onto the chair at the study area and kicked off the shoes from her feet.

 As Claire wondered away in the course of staring plainly into thin air, she was still angry about what recently happened. Although, that was a really petty reason for being so irritated and angry but the truth was that she missed her dad and she was just trying to cover it up with rage.

 As she walked home from school and approached the bus station earlier, Claire remembered still staring into thin air.  She saw girl crying at the curb of the bus station’s entrance.

  Claire peered toward the distance where she had seen the girl for she was very little and the busy mob kept walking over her. The girl wailed from the distance crouched and dug her face between her two small ties. Claire felt pity for the young girl so she went to confront her. The girl told her that she lost her dad amidst the crowd and she couldn’t find him.

“Don’t worry,” Claire tried to cheer the girl up as she kneeled beside her. “We will find your dad,” Claire patted the girl gingerly as she sobbed.

“Will you?” The girl looked up at Claire with hope.

“Yes, I will.” Claire promised.

    The girl finally found her anxious dad begging the staff to please find his lost daughter after walking round the bus station with the girl for about three times.

“Daddy,” The girl called at the sight of her father and ran towards him in joy.

“Kourtney,” The anxious but now relieved dad embraced his daughter as she ran into his arms. “Where were you, I’ve be looking for you all day, I thought that I had lost you.”

“It is okay dad, I’m here now,” The girl said with a cute reassuring voice as she rested her head on his shoulder as he carried her.

“Thank you,” The dad appreciated after he nodded.

“No sir,” she refused the gesture, “I just did the right thing that’s all.”

“Thank you!” The cute girl said happily holding her thumb up.

Claire let out a smile she hadn’t had for a long time before the father and daughter took their leave.

Claire realized how much she missed her dad the moment she saw the little girl run into her father arms in joy. It reminded her of how he thought her how to ride the bicycle at the park and he knelt down a meter away so she’d ride her bicycle to where he knelt but she fell of the bike and bruised her elbow halfway through the ride but he was there to take care of her wound.

“My elbow,” Claire exclaimed as he applied spirit on the open wound.

“Don’t worry, everything will be okay,’’ Claire’s dad reassured as he put a Band-Aid on her would. “We’d better get rid of this would unless your mom would get furious.” He said tapping the plaster lightly pulling a funny expression of Claire’s mom being angry and they both laughed hard.

  Mom was very mad at him that day because she was very protective of Claire and didn’t approve of her boyish ways because Claire and her dad were fans of wresting, football, camping, hiking and rock climbing. They would usually get front-row tickets to sit at football games and would buy almost all the hotdogs in the cart even before the game started.

“Dad, you should join the hotdog eating contest one of these days, you’d definitely win,’’ Claire suggested as she took a bite out of her hotdog and watched the game with her dad.

“Really?” he started, “I bet I’d beat all those food mongers in hotdog eating contest with you as my coach?”

“Now, what do you mean by that?” Claire suspected.

“Nothing,” Claire’s dad grinned in mischief as he ruffled her hair and put his baseball cap on her head. “You sure got a small head kiddo.” Claire’s dad reacted to the oversized cap on her head.

 One day, her dad was reported missing and all hell broke loose. A week before he was reported missing, he left on a business trip.

“Dad, when will you be back?” Claire held one of her dad’s large fingers and looked into his eyes with her beady eyes.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon.” Her dad said with an anxious look on his face.

“Do you promise?”

“I promise,” Claire’s dad said after a brief hesitation.

  And a week later, his car was found in the woods with his body nowhere to be found. Claire’s mom was broken when she heard the news

“Mom, are you alright?” Claire called running down the stairs as she heard clattering sounds.

“Mom,” Claire exclaimed and ran towards her mom as she saw her mom sitting on the floor with her back rested on the side of the kitchen counter staring into the thin air with her holding the telephone on her left ear and a drop of tear running down her cheek.

 Claire was also lost when she heard the news, she was devastated. She refused to believe what she heard.

“Father’s-still-a-live,” Claire repeated to herself at his memorial service crying and burying her face in her mother’s chest.

“It’s okay Claire,” her mom and aunt patted her gingerly on the head.

  Claire lost the only person who could truly heal her wounds caused by the insensitivity of people.  Her father was the only person that could comfort her anytime she told him that she was bullied at school because of her teeth and brunette but not blonde hair and her mom could only do little when comforting her. Her life was already miserable when he was still with her and it even more miserable without him.