Saturday Morning

 
Saturday morning when I woke up I immediately logged onto my computer to find my Mom and Dad were already on their way up to Flagstaff. I quickly moved my computer next to the front window so I could see the street. The anticipation of their arrival ran many thoughts through my mind. At 7:39am I heard the rumbling of my Dads LTD before I ever saw it. Then out of the cold and dim morning I recognized a car that I hadn’t seen in years. I threw a coat over my shoulders and ran outside, before I could cross the street my Dad was already out of the car. He picked me up like I was five years old and carried me toward my house, I said, "Dad put me down", he said "NO", I heard my Mom say, "Honey let him carry you". As he carried me he rubbed his nose against mine and kissed me all over my face, the tears were flowing from his eyes.
 
Once we got into the house my Mom put her things down then went to move the car closer to unload the rest of the things she brought along, including my Dad’s cat. She quickly came back in the house and said, "Wahl I can’t get FatBoy out of his seat belt". I looked at my Dad and said, "You have the cat in a seat belt"? He said, "Yeah, don’t you wear yours when you’re in the car"? Alright by this time I witnessed two of my Dad’s eccentricities and my heart was laughing,
I had to see this cat stuck in his own custom made seatbelt with my own eyes. I followed my Dad out the door to the car, there in the middle of the front seat was the biggest and fattest cat I’d ever seen. I said, "Dad, that’s not a cat, that’s a full size dog in a cat suit". He said, "Sh, you’ll hurt his feelings". I said, "He can’t hear me, look at his eyes he’s stoned out of his dog size head". My Dad said, "Don’t talk about your brother that way". Okay, eccentricity number three!
 
Twenty minutes later the car was unpacked, FatBoy was asleep, or perhaps passed out on my bed and Mom was unpacking two boxes of shoes. I asked her if she was planning on a yard sale? She said, "No dear just prepared for the unexpected". Now I’m starting to think I’m the odd one here.
 
My Dad was still wearing his glasses from driving up here, as he picked up the newspaper he took his glasses off to read. I’ve heard a lot about my Father’s eyes before but never got to see them close up. He looked at me and mentioned something about the price of real estate up here. I looked into his eyes and immediately knew what people meant. I was instantly looking into his past, I could see his fear, his sadness, his insecurity, all the torment and suffering he’d been through, it was as if I was lost in an ocean of blue sorrow, mesmerized in some enchanted way.
 
My Mom said that she wanted to go look at something they saw as they were driving in and she should be back in about an hour or so, she asked my Dad if he needed anything, he quickly looked up and said, "Yes"! Mom said, "What do you need"? My Dad said, "You, only you"! My Mom made a mad dash to my Dad and gave him a kiss on the lips and said, "Hold that thought". Then she left like one of my Dad’s bad jokes blowing out the window. So I was finally alone with my Dad.
 
At first I felt overwhelmed, I was quiet and I felt myself start to sweat.
Then my Dad said, "So you were born in Los Angeles, I’ve been there many times I hate earthquakes and beautiful people so I never stayed, I lost some of my brain up on Mulholland Drive about three weeks after you were conceived, I don’t remember it so that’s ok, I guess I have one up on Tony Bennett he only left his heart in San Francisco. Your Mom came to rescue me that time too, just like she did when my wife Mare died in Italy". I looked at him and said, "Can we talk, I mean about anything"? My Dad said "Absolutely, I have no secrets, at least none that I remember". I said, "Mom said there were things I couldn’t ask you". He looked around the room and said, "I don’t see her here, so let’s have a talk, after all, you need to get to know me as I need to get to know you".
 
So we talked and talked and talked, I asked most of the questions while he looked at me and listened, I noticed he was looking at my lips a lot as I spoke, then I remember Mom telling me that he had a loss of hearing in both ears, a result of abusing prescription drugs and drumming for many years without ear protection. He honestly answered all of my questions to the point of tearing up at some of them. I didn’t know a lot of these things and I especially didn’t know he knew and worked with so many famous people. I asked him why he never got a credit on songs he worked on. He told me that he didn’t want to be locked in Casa Lantana the rest of his life, or be pursued by insane fans seeking a signature. "I never asked to work on other people’s sessions, they asked me, and the biggest gift you can give someone is yourself". I was starting to finally know my Dad, and what I heard I liked. Mom was right, there is no one else like him.
 
Don’t ask me how but by the time my Mom got back we were rolling around on the floor both barking like dogs. There is a child in him as there is in myself, a child neither of us could ever let out before, before we met each other.