A Father ' s Gift
St . Margaret ' s Co-Educational English Secondary and Primary School ( Secondary Section ), Albano , Lauren – 16
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Idiots . id you know that in 1559 during the Ming Dynasty , Pan Yunduan built Yu Gardens as a comfort to his father , the minister Pan En ? Unfortunately , the expense helped ruin the Pans .
My father and I don ’ t have the best relationship , if we ’ re going to be quite frank about it . Honestly , it ’ s not much of a relationship , we keep out of each other ’ s hair usually and we do what mom tells us to do . This way , everybody wins- no expectations , which means no disappointment , meaning no conflict . See ? Everybody wins .
There had been a time when it was just my dad and I against the world . We were , I thought in my little four-year-old mind , invincible and no one else mattered- not even my mom or Cora . He ’ d hoist me up on his shoulders and we would walk through the city and I towered over everyone while he laughed introducing me to everyone who cooed at me as his little man . Some days we would sit at the breakfast table and he ’ d talk to me “ mano a mano ” like an adult although I ’ d have to admit that sometimes I hadn ’ t the slightest idea what he was talking about . And then I think he decided that being a father meant raking in money for us and he switched his job and I barely got to talk to him .
“ Oh for God ’ s sake Oliver !” He pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation , “ Can ’ t you see that I ’ m busy ?” my mom ushered me out of the room quickly and told me in a hushed voice . “ Your father needs time to adjust to his new work , you can ’ t bother him right now give it time .” That was the last time I ever asked to play . I was five .
Cora had made it very clear that when we were young that mom was hers , which I see now was a very smart move on her part because mom usually did all the cooking and her favourite was very clearly Cora . Dad had no favourites , he didn ’ t have time for that .
This changed a couple of years ago when mom got into an accident , now neither Cora or I had a parent who favoured either of us .
“ Mr Chan says that he wants to talk to dad about something .” I said to Cora one morning over breakfast , she was chewing toast lazily , looking at one of my paintings on the wall . The kitchen ’ s walls- actually , the whole apartment ’ s walls were filled with my paintings . Grandma said that one day I held a pen with my right hand and just began drawing on the walls and then when I got tired I switched to my left hand because I didn ’ t want to stop .
Cora continued to chew her toast not even bothering to glance my way . She had been gone a few months on a study tour maybe a year after mom died and when she came back there was something about her that had changed . She wasn ’ t my annoying older sister , she took care of me- she did the best she could anyway , she was graduating from high school soon and she wanted to do law , she had to work really hard to get in on a scholarship and even then I know that it ’ s crazy expensive .
I tried to snap her out of her blank stupor “ Where ’ s dad ?”
“ He had to get to work early .” She looked at the clock “ You better get to school .”
I want to be an artist when I grow up . I ’ m not good in school like Cora . I go to school because it made my mom happy , like I said before I tried my best to not cause as much conflict as possible but I ’ m wasting my time . I ’ ve tried reasoning with her in the past but she says that before I become an artist I need to finish school for my dad . I ’ ve never seen him pull me out of bed to go to school as he ’ s never here so really I did it for my mom and that means while I ’ m in school I still have to deal with double history today .