Play It Again Daddy

When I was seven, I thought everything,everyday would always be okay. Until one day,my father was shot and killed by a petty street thug all merely for a wallet that only held enough for him to get a pack of cigarettes.

Life took a big full circle turn after that.Things were very hard and days were difficult to live by. My mom slept most of the day away, because she worked nights at a diner eatery. You couldn't tell that my father had ever lived there when you walked into my house. My mother had either sold or thrown away most of his things. She told me that seeing his things around the house would make her cry. I said that I didn't mind, but only if she kept the medium sized piano that my grandfather had made for my dad when he was seven.It was my sole request that she couldn't say no to. My mother said all right, but we had to keep it in the basement. I was as happy as a child, well because i was stil a child. I'd get to reminisce the times when my father would always sit me on his lap before bed and play Mary Had A Little Lamb.I had even named it "Daddy's piano".

One night my mother went to work at around 10 o'clock at night. It was Friday, so I stayed up until midnight, then I went to bed. I was just about to fall asleep when I heard music playing softly. Thinking it was just my imagination I tried to shrugg it off and pressed against my eyelids so hard to try to go back to sleep, but the music would not go away. In split second, I heard something which sounded really comfortably familiar and at the same time too of course distinctively different from the initial music I heard that i would pushed away the blanket which by now is getting warmer, to discern what it's all about.

Never would my wildest imagination would have prepared me for what I was about to witness before me, it was my toy robot T.I which is one those old robot toys with tape inserting and playing function at their bellies which they used to sell that comes with trivia questions and children music tapes. They would blink and gives out colourful lightings when the tape is being played along.Til this day i stil remember as clear as day, T.I was playing my then favourite BackstreetBoys music tape yet what was unusual was it was stuck and frozed at one certain song lyric line which sings*hole in my heart* (played repeatedly) and its eyes were glowing bloody red .I was so scared at that moment that I grabbed my pillow and blanket, ran into my mothers room, and eventually fell asleep. I woke up the next morning and ate breakfast as I always did like nothing had happened. I thought it was odd that she didn't ask me why I slept in her bed, but I thought nothing of it really.

However, the music would not go away. Every few nights I would hear the same music (no more T.I robot incident though) and end up sleeping in my moms bedroom.
One Friday, after my mom had left for work, I decided that when the music began to play I would find out where it was coming from. I sat in my bed until around twelve thirty, then I heard the music. I braced myself and got up from my bed and began to look everywhere. For some reason I somewhat finally remembered daddy's piano. I crept downstairs, feeling very utterly afraid as the music grew louder. The steps I took down seemed never ending. I stopped when I reached the bottom stair for what seemed like had taken forever to reach. I then tried to collect all the remaining courage i had and took a peep at the total dark basement while adjusting my eyes to the darkness. There, sitting at the piano was a silhouette. I was so afraid until I realised the song, it was Mary had a little lamb. At that moment, all my fear was washed away, and only the best feelings were the ones I felt. I remember saying "Is that you?". When I asked that I had a strong feeling as if everything was going to be okay. Then the music stopped and the light disappeared. I cried again and then walked upstairs and into my room and fell asleep. I never told my mother what happened because I was sure that she would not have believed me. and the remaining was history.

And you know what? Life from then on did get better. My mom got a much better job, and she met and married a really nice guy nevertheless, I will always remember the time in the basement and will always remember my dad and how he made me feel so happy when he was stil alive.I love you daddy. Yet, I'm stil containing a desire to yearn for the day when I'll finally have an opportunity to say these three words to the silhouette from the piano if I'll ever meet him anymore."Play it again daddy"


dad s'm.eiram p.i.r