I stood by my fathers bedroom door waiting for him to wake up from his free base high…

‘Wake up, Daddy, wake up! And take me to the zoo. Wake up Daddy, wake up! Teach me how to play catch. Wake up Daddy, wake up! And help me with my homework. Wake up, Daddy, wake up! I want to ride piggyback!’

I watched my father through a crack in the door, dreaming his and my life away. Another vacation where we  would lose another chance to get to know each other. I decided that I would sit down and wait… until he woke up… and when he did we would have a talk. One of those father- son, man-to- man talks like they have on television. For three days I sat by his door watching him wake up and take a hit from his pipe and go back to sleep. It was like that pipe was the most important thing in his life!