Killing Lions

Nothing new going on in the personal life. No crazy stories no nothing. Then again I haven't been drinking. I have been in Houston the last couple of weeks on business. So it's not like I can get bent all sides ways at my favorite Houston watering hole, pick up some strange and deranged women and bring them back to the parents house. I would imagine I could, but, I would hate to wake my parents up in the middle of the night to the sounds of whales mating! Could give my poor folks a heart attack or something.

But, I have been male bonding with my father, not that we have a bad relationship, its great, but, living in San Antone these past couple of years has put a strain on our relationship. Feel like we have lost touch a little bit. We are usually able to look at each other from across the room and a simple grin be on the same page. Then I sat back and realized that we haven't lost touch at all. We are just two men at different stages of our lives. One filled with pride and confidence ready to take what the world has to offer and the other filled with pride and confidence that he has taken everything the world gave him and made it work.

When I was younger my father stood eight feet tall, killed lions with his bare hands, and drank whiskey from the largest of bottles.

My dad is 69 now and judging from his weathered hands and sun damaged skin I'd say he proved what I knew all along, just a little shorter now. My dad told me a fucked up story the other day and I'm sure there was a message in there somewhere. He has never been the one to lecture. I can't remember a day that he ever did. But he always knew when I needed some advice. He would just tell me a story. We were sittin on the couch the other day bullshittin and telling jokes, of course my mom was not home, otherwise we wouldnt have been talking like a bunch of drunken sailors.

Anyway he tells me a story about one of his cousins and his cousins girlfriend. Dad was my age at the time, already married with about four kids. He was drinking his whiskey and shooting the shit when his cousin's girl makes a pass at him. My father being the man that he is, thanks her for the gesture and quickly degrades her. Words were exchanged and that was the end of it. Well, she goes back and tells his cousin that my father was making a pass at her and she was deeply offended. Words were then exchanged between dad and his cousin and all hell broke loose. The cousin takes out a gun and cocks the handle, my dad quicky slaps the gun down as the cousin raises it from just below his waist line. Dad picks up the gun, releases the clip and cocks the gun to remove the bullet from the chamber. Takes his knife from his back pocket tooses it to his cousin and says "here you mother fucker, if you want to kill me, your gonna have to get some blood on those hands." My father said that his cousin to a long look at him and then the knife and asked him to leave. The cousin married the woman had several kids, but, my father and him didn't speak for over 20 years. The man dropped by the house several years ago and him and dad drank some beers and thats when the cousin told my dad that he and the wife were divorced, the reason...she had been cheating on him for 10 years.

A quick" I ain't shittin you" was said in response to my laugh. I would like to say that my father went on to explain the conversation between the two of them or if they still keep in touch. But that was it. That short that simple. Knowing how he tells a story, I would have asked questions and he would have replied "shit I don't know what that son of a bitch was thinking", or "I didn't ask no questions I just left". So I kept my questions or comments to myself.

I'm sure there are allot of lessons to take from that one. The balls my dad had. Are you kidding me, I'm thinking to myself "let me disarm you and then give you another weapon to harm me?" I don't think so. The restraint from not wanting beat this shit out of him after a weapon was pulled. Especially coming from a man that got into a fight in front of church after the mass was over. Trust me it sounds bad, but its not, well only if you were the other guy,you would have to hear the whole story about that one later. I didn't understand why dad didn't go on to explain his side of the story. Then again, the cousin wouldn't have listened to him anyway, judging from his reaction to the whole situation.


In the end only time will tell what good his story will do for me one day. But, today I'm thinking I want to be just like my dad when I grow up. 8 feet tall and Killing Lions with my bare hands!