Close Encounter

Not having won the lottery (yet), I carried on and lived my life not knowing what's going to happen next.

There are things in life that just come without any warning, like that parking space along the most vehicle congested part of the city or that quip that made you laugh because of its, well, unexpectedness.

And then there's the encounter you have with your mom.

Mom and I stood up from the dinner table and do our own thing around the house on a lazy Wednesday night. I was planning on watching Friends on DVD and she'd go to her room and watch her telenovelas (Eversince Dad passed away, she managed to 'like-like' these shows).

However, tonight was different. Instead, we sat down on the couch in the living room, dissed our dates with our own television sets and began talking about Dad.

Well, Mom did most of the talking.

She went on from one memory to another, from one realization to another...as I sat there and listened, mesmerized, and saw Dad in another light.

I saw him tonight. He was alive. He lives in my Mom's heart. He lives and breathes. He made me smile today...

More importantly, I saw Mom today. A new encounter. She was wife. She wasn't mother. She was lover, not parent.

My Dad, who's often reserved and distant, would have never allowed for such an encounter between us to ever materialize.

Yet as I listened to Mom tell stories she kept hidden like an old scrapbook made for any of her sons, a man I never fully knew slowly reintroduced himself to me.

You, me, never really had
What they had, Dad
Never really asked for much from you.
Just 'Son, I love you, too.'
And my heart keeps on beating
You run through my veins...let's keep it that way, OK?
OK...