Page 29 - Demo

Ditching the Guff15SecretsMy father, a silver-tongued raconteur,took his children on magic carpet rides with talesof mischief from Vladivostok to Valparaiso.A likely lad who ran away to sea aged fourteen,jumped ship at 31, met and beguiled my mother.At eighteen, she was a %u201810%u2019.When Dad saw her thighs, belly, breastsdescend stairs towards him, he gawped,lusted like a voyeur at a peep show.He vowed on the spot they%u2019d marry,have six kids. She laughed, called him crazy,yet eight weeks later tied the knot.No hint of a worm in the apple%u2014Dad forgot to say he%u2019d changed his name,he had abandoned a wife,two sons and a daughteron the other side of the world.When I think of my father%u2019s deceit,both households unaware, I wonderhow that other family coped, expectinghis homecoming with more storiesof derring-do from foreign ports.Waiting, waiting.Endlessly hoping.