Theme Four: Person

A man in his fifties awakens from his slumber and rolls out of bed with his dog. The man robes himself as he makes his way down the hallway into the bathroom, and proceeds to pee with the door partially ajar. He continues down the hall, into the living room to the kitchen.
He opens the cupboard door and selects a mug. Pouring the already brewed coffee into the mug adds some milk and pours in the sugar. He yawns, and his whole upper body shakes. He stirs his coffee, and then leaves the sugar and the spoon out on the yellow countertop. Opening the glass door to the back deck, he let’s Tank out on his leash.
Sitting at what we call the bar, (his desk) in the kitchen, my father lights his morning cigarette. He coughs and hacks with the first drag, then sips from his steaming mug. Then presses play on his answering machine to collect his missed calls. He is the owner of a contracting business; (his twenty sixth year). He built our home with his own hands. He is a business man to the core, he likes to talk money. He returns his calls on estimates and talks to his crew. He has the gift of gab. Sipping from his coffee and chain smoking, he prepares his schedule for the day. Sitting on his stool, he always has a tendency to rub his big toe against the next toe. (Something I have always noticed.)
Then he is off, to shower. He must get out of the shower before he dries off. There always seems to be wet foot prints on the floor from the shower to the closet. Returning to the living room; my father sits on the footstool, grunts while tries to put his socks on, on her pot belly. White shaving cream has gathered in his ear, he wipes it off with his hand and wipes it on his jeans. He places a hat on his bald head, and grabs his cell phone and Tank off the leash. They both jump in the van, for another days work.
My father is a veteran of Vietnam, he enlisted for two years, in the Marines Corp. Unfortunately, and he is a republican and sides with Bush.
My father has always been there to bail out his kids; and he knows a lot of people, or the right people I should say. He is softer with his girls than his son. When I was in high school, he would sign me out of school when I was having a rough day. He’d call my sister and me in sick, when we decided to stay home. (Our grades were good, so that was how he justified it.) For a while, this was a common occurrence with Kati and I. He has an indulgent parenting style, which would make my mother the bad guy, more of the times than not.
My father is a stubborn man, especially when it comes to him, and the way he does things. He likes to do things his way, and he doesn’t have much patience. I think he has passed both of these traits down to his children, more so my brother and sister, than me.
Now when I look at my father, I see an aging man, with a big heart and a hard head.