I believe that he didn’t like me at the first sight. Like so many traditional men in China, he wanted a boy instead of a girl. He turned up several days after my birth---a little bit late for a father, isn’t it? But nature made him love me, he treated me as good as mum. When I was young enough to remember nothing, he played with me, he raised me up, he took me many places---these were what mum told me, and I could recall nothing.

    My earliest memory of dad is he dropped me into the swimming pool. I struggled for a buoy, he just ignored me! How dared he! It was fortune that it didn’t make me afraid of water, I could swim well. And every time I talked about this ‘evil’ action, he shrugged and said he couldn’t remember. Ahhhhh.

    He was a serviceman. Life in the army made him serious and strict. I never saw him laugh all through my childhood. Actually when I started to remember things, he was too busy to be with me. Perhaps that was why I dare not to get close, he was almost a stranger. I was scared of him and avoided to be with him, the funniest thing was I never admitted that. I didn’t speak to him, either did he. Well, I was not that kind of lovely girl. I was serious, not humorous, even didn’t know how to ask for a hug.

    We both changed a lot when I entered middle school. It was the time that I realized I should be the one to break the silence. Maybe time tendered his temper, or he thought it might be a good time to be a tolerant father, we got along well. I surprisingly found that he was quite good at maths and physics, which troubled me a lot. At that period of time, we discussed every night. I dared to make joke with him, touched him, and hugged him. I finally felt we were like father and daughter.

    The alcohol made him forget how to keep calm, he always talked more after drinking. He would share his feelings with us, he would say he was proud of me. Sometimes he just acted like a boy. Adorable guy.

    He’s still strict but it doesn’t matter, I’ve learned how to ignore this--- he is just worried too much, I can speak in a joking tone to ease him. Mum always says I am quite like him, we both have strong spirits. He’s the closest man to me; surely I will be like him.

    He never talked much. But I know we love each other.