I drove back to the hotel and indeed Samantha was waiting for me in the lobby. She hadn’t lied about that. Refreshing, I thought, on the backdrop of the last hour.
I thought to lead her upstairs to my room and skip the entire act up to the curtain call, but then years in business had taught me a few valuable lessons about patience. And so I decided to bid my time and be subtle.
We’d go out and have dinner or whatever else she was in the mood for. And I’d catch her off guard when she least expects, hit her smack in the face with her lies like a sac of nickels. That was the plan.
I just needed to control the tremor that started from my left foot and radiated upward to my arms.
She hugged and kissed me. ‘Hey dad. You look good.’
I grunted.
‘How was your day?’ She asked, hands resting on my arms.
‘Revealing…’ I drawled ominously. The import went right over her head.
‘So? Where are we going?’
‘Urm, I don’t know. Your decison…’
She regarded me somewhat suspiciously for a moment, a look that was somewhere in the neighbourhood between curious and unnerved.
‘Oh-kay’ she intoned carefully. ‘I guess we could hang out over a few drinks.’
‘Drinks?’
‘Yes. I know a nice bar not far from here.’
‘Samantha I’m your dad not your study-group buddy.’ I turned and headed for the exit and she followed.
‘Well you did say it was my decision.’
‘I did think you’d make a sensible choice. Wonder what I was thinking…’
‘Is there something you are not telling me?’ She stopped.
I paused long enough to look at her over my shoulder. ‘I don’t know Samantha. You tell me…’
I went to the car and yanked open the driver’s door.
‘Are you coming?’
She remained stationary a moment longer, regarding me coolly before walking to the other side of the car and getting in.
I followed suit.
‘So where are we going?’ She asked.
‘Which way is that bar you mentioned? I think I need a drink.’

“Steve’s Bar” was housed in a building that might have been a department store at some point in history. The patrons consisted mostly of coeds and the odd trucker who’d probably been lured by the huge, blazing red neon sign outside. Who could resist the colour of sin?
Sport buffs on parade I realized as I stepped into the buzz. A football match was showing live on a small central TV to competing levels of egging and booing.
The patrons looked to be in high spirits (no pun intended). The bartender and waiters looked happy. Beer was flowing endlessly, and as my daughter and I found a spot in the far corner where the smell of sweaty armpits wasn’t as strong, I remember thinking how the scene around me was a potent mix for trouble.
I don’t watch football and so I had no idea what the festivities were for. I just didn’t get what the fuss was about.
I like golf. Play at the country club back home every once in a while. A mature, clean, un-fussy game, golf. But football? I suppose there’s something savage and primal about the game, which I find unsettling.
Samantha motioned for a waiter. ‘A glass of vodka please. No ice. And you dad…?’
‘Yeah?’
‘What would you have?’
‘Oh! A beer would be just fine, thank you very much.’
The waiter disappeared.
‘Vodka huh?’ I began by way of an opening line.
‘I’m legal. Want to see some ID?’
‘Yeah maybe… A student’s ID if you may.’ I cocked a brow.
‘Are you okay dad?’
‘Trust me its not me I’m worried about?’
‘I’m not telepathic Mr. Sam Cohen. If you’re going to communicate you’d have to drop the innuendos and speak English. Remember it?
‘Frankly I’ve had enough jargon for one day. Can I please have a non-wiseass uncomplicated conversation with my father. Thank you very much.’
Our drinks arrived and she threw the glass of vodka back in one swallow. ‘Another please’ she snapped at the waiter, slamming her empty glass back onto the table.
She had tears in her eyes.
‘Did you drive four hours to come here and piss me off dad?’
I didn’t respond for a long time. I’ve never really been one to be moved by tears.
‘You said something about having had enough jargon for one day. I suppose you were making reference to lectures today, right?’
‘Your point being?’
Her second drink arrived.
‘Take it easy with that’ I said with unmistakable emphasis. The look in my eyes must have been steely.
She sighed and demanded for some nuts from the waiter.
‘I’m going to see the Dean of Student Affairs at your school first thing tomorrow morning Samantha…’
‘Why? What happened?’
I was incredulous, besides myself with disbelief. I felt my hands start to shake again.
Who was this girl sitting in front of me, I wondered. Remorseless. Cold. Narcissistic enough to think she could have gotten away with deception of this magnitude.
I took a deep breath, but it was pointless trying to keep my tone even: ‘I saw the matron at the girl’s dorm today Samantha… There’s no record of you on their student list!’
She heaved a sigh and covered her face with her left palm.
‘Did you really think I wouldn’t find out about this Samantha? Did you really think you could get away with this –this –this–’
‘What exactly dad!’ She snapped at me.
I felt a vein pop in my temple. I couldn’t believe her nerve. Definitely not Dutch courage, I knew. It’d only been one glass of vodka.
‘Are you insane!’ I couldn’t keep myself from yelling. And in that instant I couldn’t care less that other bar patrons suddenly found my daughter and I a whole lot more interesting than live football.
‘I burst my…behind all these years to give you a good life! I sent you to the best schools. Made sure you’ve had the best education possible. And then you suddenly decide to throw all of it away, and think that’s okay?!
‘Do you know how bloody much your tuition’s set me back? And when did you even drop out?’
Samantha just looked at me in that same cool manner. And then did the most infuriating thing possible: she laughed. But there was nothing humourous about the sound.
‘Okay’ she said, ‘let me get this straight: you think I dropped out of med school?’
‘I checked with the matron at the girl’s dorm!’ I thundered.
She laughed again and then her countenance changed swiftly to one of stony seriousness, and beyond that to vicious anger.
‘The matron doesn’t have the comprehensive list of students. Only for female boarders at the dorm.’ She rose.
‘Check with the Dean tomorrow Einstein!’ She yelled, drawling the last bit and stomping off.
‘Samantha! Samantha!’ I hurried after her.
‘You haven’t paid for your drinks Sir’ said the waiter who’d served our drinks, appearing out of nowhere and blocking my path.
I gave him enough money to pay for our drinks and what might have been the sum-total of his tips on a regular week.
It sure wasn’t a regular day for me.
‘Samantha! Samantha!’ She’d gone across the road by the time I’d exited the bar, making her way in very long strides.
I ran after her. ‘Samantha! Get back here!
‘Samantha! Don’t you dare walk out on me!’
‘News flash dad: I am!’ She hurled back without looking back at me. Her voice broken with tears.
I felt tired already. I wasn’t cut out for this sort of drama.
I stopped in my tracks and called out after her: ‘Samantha! Samantha! Stop!’ She kept on walking.
‘Please! Please Samantha…’
Her pace slowed till she stopped altogether and braced herself against a streetlamp, her back to me.
I could tell she was crying by the way her shoulders heaved, up and down.
I took my time closing the distance between us.
‘Sam…’ I touched her shoulder. ‘Can we talk? I need you to be honest with me… What’s going on?’
She turned to face me, her face tear-stained, and I saw nothing of the indignation that had twisted her face into an angry mask only moments before. Now she was Sam, my child. Daddy’s little girl…
‘The matron couldn’t possibly have had my name on her register. That register is for boarders only, and I haven’t stayed at the dorm since last semester…’
‘But today on the phone, you said–’
‘I lied dad.’
‘Why?’
She paused for a moment, then said: ‘I got an apartment.’
‘Well that’s hardly a crime. Why all the cloak and dagger?’
Her eyes fell to her feet.
‘There’s more Samantha, isn’t it?’
She nodded, then fixed me with doe-eyes cored by an intensity that surprised me. She was struggling.
‘You do love me dad, don’t you?’
Alarms were going off in my head. ‘Yes honey. You know I do.’
‘And you’d love me no matter what, right?’
I cradled her face in my hands, becoming frightened. Worried that my daughter had done something terrible and was way in over her head.
I was going to do anything to protect my child, irrespective of whatever it was she’d done.
‘I know I should have told you about this earlier dad, but I didn’t know how you’d take it. I still don’t know how you’d take it or if I should tell you at all.’
‘Samantha I am your father, the only family you have left in this world, and we shouldn’t keep things from each other.
‘What’s this secret you’ve been hiding…?’
She regarded me coolly for another moment, and then holding me by the hand and leading the way back to Steve’s where my car was packed, said: ‘Come with me. Let me show you…’

How far now. This is your 2nd time of posting this epusode.

Oh I'm sorry. My mistake. I'll upload the next one now. But you can check out the other episodes up to episode 10 on my blog: www.dkstan28390.