#29 My father's profile illuminated by a flashlight.
My father would occasionally go out for night fishing with his friends.
I would pester him time and again to take me along as he headed out night after night with his fishing rod, cooler, and tackle box.
Before I reached middle school, he would brush me off by saying, "When you're in middle school," and once I actually became a middle schooler, he stubbornly refused to take me, saying it was "too dangerous."
One day during summer vacation, my father unexpectedly invited me, asking, "Do you want to go catch crabs at the breakwater tonight?"
I answered with an immediate "Yes, I'll go!" and it was decided that he would take me.
The breakwater at night—
The lights from the streetlamps spaced at equal intervals dimly illuminated our feet.
I held a flashlight and a bucket, while my father held a flashlight and a landing net.
For me, a middle schooler, the sense of superiority in having my father all to myself wrapped the night breakwater in an excitement as if I were at an amusement park.
We were targeting small swimming crabs that only come near the breakwater at night during the summer.
I would shine my flashlight along the wall, peer into it, and call out, "Dad, there's a crab here."
He would immediately come over saying, "Let's see," and gently reach out with the landing net.
"Ah, it got away."
Saying that, he would shine his light along the wall again and move to the side.
When he said, "Watch your step," with concern, I turned toward him and replied, "I know," but he had already turned his back to me.
Seeing him like that, looking like a young boy as he intently shone his light on the opposite wall, I found it a little funny.
In the nearly silent darkness, we managed to secure a few crabs over the course of about two hours.
When we got home and I proudly showed off the contents of the bucket, my mother was happy too, saying, "You caught a lot."
My father had a look on his face I didn't usually see, and he was smiling even more contentedly than I was.
Looking back, I liked this side of my father, too.