Do you have some random memories about your father?
Random memories about my father huh? Hahah, I can think of a few!
You see, my father was my hero. Whenever I was in trouble, distressed, or basically whenever i needed any help, he'd always come rushing in—like a superhero!
I could always count on him to come to my rescue and comfort me, even when I wasn't actually in trouble! So, I'd like to tell you a funny story where he did exactly that.
As my father was a merchant, we used to move around the country often, and at the time we were living in Oga Peninsula, in one of those wooden, fully furnished traditional houses, with greens and flowers all around the area. It was a pretty rural area and my dad was relishing the heck out of it.
It was New's Years Eve that day, and as tradition, him and I would spend the whole night together and he'd let me stay past my bed time for the special occasion! We'd eat seasoned fried chicken, play games, drink hot chocolate and chit-chat, play board games...
...Anyway, as I was saying—it was late at night on New Year's Eve, and I was only seven years old at the time. I was home on winter break, coloring in an animal book with my crayons and I was absolutely bored out of my mind. All my friends at school had their own plans that day. I didn't want to force my way into them since we weren't really close enough for that, and besides—I wouldn't have missed spending New Year's Eve at home for anything anyway. Suddenly, our home phone started ringing, and I quickly ran over to it, hoping hear my Dad's voice.
It was indeed him, but he told me something urgent came up, and that he'll be a little late. Being the spoiled brat that I am, I whined a little bit, but eventually caved in and decided to patiently wait for him as I started to look for something interesting to watch on TV.
Now, here's something interesting about Oga Peninsula. Every New Year's Eve, this place celebrates a tradition unique to this city. Neither my dad nor I was aware of this "particular tradition" so this next part wasn't something either of us could predict.
About like, 20 minutes later, while I was watching a New Years special of an anime I occasionally watched but not a big fan of, our bell suddenly rang.
Now, before you judge me here, I'd like you to know that I was a good boy. Usually. I'd never open the door to anyone, even my father unless I was absolutely sure it was him.
But, the whole day was uneventful and it felt like forever since I'd last seen him, so the moment the bell rang a second time, I rushed straight to the front door, opening it with shining eyes, and a huge smile.
...Only to be met with a demon with dark, long, unkempt hair, sharp fangs the size of my fist, wearing a shaggy straw cape, who had ferocious, bulging eyes—staring right at mine. His face was exactly like those red, oni masks people wear to festivals, and he was towering over little me, and let me tell you something: if I hadn't go to the toilet 5 minutes ago before this terrifying encounter, I would have done my business right then and there.
I froze on the spot, just looking at this thing with huge eyes, on the verge of a freakout. The demon just stood there, then he leaned down, and with a grumbling, terror-inducing voice, he said:
"Are there any crybabies around?"
I IMMEDIATELY slammed the door in that thing's face, ran to our home phone, speed dialed my dad, and started BAWLING MY EYES OUT.
"Papa, there is a monster in our house!!" I screamed, fully convinced that thing wants to devour me in New Year's Eve in place of fried chicken. My dad kept asking me what was wrong, but I was stuttering like crazy, and even I was losing track of what I was trying to communicate through my hyperventilating and nonstop sobbing.
As you might have guessed, that "thing" was just a person wearing Namahage costume. Namahage are these men wearing these oni masks and they go door to door to discipline children and bless the household as part of a New Year's ritual. They're not actually supposed to be evil demons—I think they're a type of Toshigami, or visiting deity. Either way, they are notorious for terrifying little kids.
So my poor dad, being unfamiliar with the New Year rituals of this city, after profusely apologizing to his prospective contractors, practically bolted out of his meeting to sprint back home. He had to hang up a few times, and kept redialing to make sure everything was ok, telling me stuff like "It'll be ok", "Papa's coming home soon". By the time he arrived at our house, he saw the so called "monsters" hanging outside the streets and found out the root cause of his little brat's emergency call.
He finally arrived, he saw me, still sobbing my heart out, curled up in a ball, and came running to embrace me, rub me in the back and calm me down enough to help me stop crying. It didn't stop there either, even after crying, and my dad explaining the thing I saw wasn't actually a monster but just some dude in a suit, I was still shaken up about the whole thing, so we spent the whole night basically glued to each other until I was calm enough to finally relax. Haha, I really couldn't handle getting scared like that, being the scaredy cat that I was.
Most people's fathers would probably burst out laughing at the spot or scold them for worrying them, forcing them to leave their work for something this absurd and silly. But my father was different—nothing was more important to him than me.
He saw how distressed I was and took the situation seriously like he would do in any other emergency. That's how much he cared.
That's honestly who I aspire to be like as a teacher and as a man. I don't know if I'll ever manage to be as dependable and as amazing as my papa, but I hope I at least can become someone people can rely on.