“Hope you’re ready for the exams. All the best. Love, Dad.”

That’s the SMS I woke up to today. I know it’s common courtesy to respond when someone sends you an SMS, but I don’t know what to say. Really, I have absolutely no words for him. The last time we spoke was when he was in Cape Town and left without even making time to see me. So, I’m still angry at him! I mean, when I called to tell him that what he did was not OK, he said I was exaggerating.

Can you imagine? I mean, how is it exaggeration to want to spend time with your dad? Which sensible dad says that? I dropped my phone and we haven’t spoken since. Our only means of communicating it seems have been through third parties (i.e. mom and Sim).

I ask Sim about him and he asks mom about me (or he wouldn’t have known that I’m starting with my exams), but we never speak directly… So, I don’t know what to say to him now.

What do you say to a father who has chosen to stay away from you for a long time? Do you open your arms like the father of the prodigal son did in the bible? I don’t know what to say to him, if I did I wouldn’t still be thinking about his SMS.

Hope you’re ready for the exams. All the best. Love, Dad.

Is that all he could say? I mean, are those the only he word he could say to me after such a long time of not speaking? Noxy, my roommate, says it’s a start. At least, she says, he was the one who took the first step and that means he wants to make up for the lost time.

“You can’t stay angry forever, he’s your dad after all,” she says. I guess she has a point, right? I can’t just renounce him. He’s my father after all. And to be honest I miss him. I hate how things are between us. I mean, me and him use to be close that he knew almost everything about me. When did he get to be so busy that he can’t even make time to spend time with me?

I guess it all comes as part of the package of growing up (and the distance, of course) that is gnawing at our once very tight father-daughter relationship.

What do I say – is “Thanks Dad” enough? Or maybe I should just read Shakespeare and forget that he ever sent an SMS.

ZZ xxx

Dish it: what do you think I should do?

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