My dad is a strange, strange duck... Part Two

Like I said, I openly wonder about my father sometimes.

He took us all to the park on his day off, to, in his words, "bond and eat burgers under the stars," but in actuality we spent most of the evening fighting off mosquitoes.

Then when everyone left, he pulled me aside. "This is nice, isn't it?"

Nice? How could it be nice when there are mosquitoes flying around everywhere? "Um, I guess so," I stammered.

"Quiet, peaceful, relaxed."

"Um."

"Makes you really appreciative of life and all its abundant gifts."

I shook my head. Leave it to dad to come up with something weird and hokey like that.

Mom once said about my dad that she fell for him because he still believes in the happily ever after. Even more, she says, that he made her believe. "He was different from anybody else I'd ever been with," mom said.

"You know your dad, he's a supreme idealist," Aunt Margaret likes to say. "Always been that way. Most people, when they grow up, they lose their sense of wonder. He never did. He's a little boy trapped inside the body of a grown man."

Aunt Margaret says that when dad was little, he'd grab his pennies and donate them to charity, and that one time, when grandma found out he'd taken money from the family coffers to donate, she grounded him. This was an inherited trait; even though grandpa didn't have much money, he'd be grabbing spare change and donating what he could.

"You do realize, Savannah, that you'll be graduating soon, and that you'll be out on your own, leading your own life."

I didn't tell him I've already started marking off the days on the calendar.

"Just as important is that we'll become elders at about the same time. We've thought about it, and I actually think that since we're fairly well off...how would you feel about us adopting children?"

I wanted to ask my father if he'd lost his marbles. Really. He's in no position to raise more children.

"Have you talked to Mom about this? Somehow I'm not sure she'd be okay with the idea."

"I feel like I should be doing more than just donating fat checks to charity. I've made more than enough money for myself and my descendants to live on for quite awhile. I just don't feel it's fair for me to have so much when I see so much going on around me."

I shook my head. Like I said, I openly wonder about my father sometimes.