Busy Weekend - Installment #1

I've never had the typical "father/daughter" relationship with my father. For most of my childhood and adolescence it was more father/daughter than relationship. There are times though, that my father surprises me. A very private, quiet man, he's the one man that can throw me into emotional hell - and he's the one man that I've always wanted to know better, who I have a feeling I'll barely know at all. Yet he will - once in a while - give me a glimpse into who he is. And I find that as rewarding as the bedtime stories he never told me. I called my father up this weekend for help with directions to an interview. He offered to meet me halfway so that he could help me find my way to the building. We found it quickly and on the way back to his car he said, "hey, keep on the right side okay?" He wouldn't tell me why at first, but after a few minutes he told me there was a motorcycle shop where he wanted to get out and look around. I remembered my father having a bike when he was married to my mom. He only had it for a short time before he sold it, and I don't think I remember seeing him ride it. But at the motorcycle shop he told me that he had a bike when he was younger, still living in Dublin. He also told me he'd gotten into a bad accident - something I never knew about him. Riding on the outside of traffic during a traffic jam, a Volkswagen Beetle pulled out, out of nowhere and his leg got caught on the bumper - and he flew over the car. When he woke up, the paramedics were cutting off his boot and blood came pouring out from his leg - so he fainted. This story doesn't involve any miraculous feats or anything jaw dropping - except for the fact that he actually told it to me. On my way home, with my father driving ahead of me, I could just picture him as a young man on the streets of Dublin. A rebellious middle child. Rushing through traffic most likely just to get to a pub for a pint. Wandering the streets just trying to find his own way. Maybe father/daughter relationships are supposed to be implicit.