Welcome To The Family: Dads Rockin' Out!

“Happy birthday, Dad!” came the happy cries of Bluey as we all sat in the living room giving Bandit his birthday presents. It was the greatest, most exciting day of his life - besides Father’s Day of course. He had got a lot of presents - a football shirt, a shower kit, a mug with ‘World’s Best Dad’ on it and a small statue of an elephant and its baby, with ‘I Love You, Dad’ on it. “What about my birthday? Can’t forget about old Mike!” said Mr Watson. “It’s Bandit’s birthday, darling,” said Mrs Watson, “Let him open his presents.” Uncle Stripe gave him a guitar shaped present. Bandit tore off the wrapping paper, and saw it was a real electric guitar, with a shiny red coat of paint! We all gasped and ooh-ed in excitement. “Yeah! Rock out, babe!” cried Bandit. Uncle Stripe screamed in excitement as Bandit began to play some awesome notes from his guitar. All of us kids got up and danced, but the parents just covered their ears.

And that was it. From this day on, Bandit couldn’t stop playing the guitar. He played it when we were having breakfast, he played it while us kids were at school, he even played it while he was on the toilet. When he was driving us to school he would sing loud rock songs which we enjoyed, occasionally stopping to phone Chilli. The guitar was an expensive buy, but it was so awesome! Sometimes, Uncle Stripe would get out our toy drum kit and play they’re in a rock band, crashing and screeching all day much to Aunt Trixie and Chilli’s annoyance. Then, came the biggest problem of all.

Bandit liked to play music at night. When he did that, we would cover our heads with pillows and get 3% of a good night’s sleep. Bandit would wake up tired, and refuse to drop us off at school, so he just lay down on the sofa and had a good long nap. Chilli had enough, and one day, she and Aunt Trixie decided to take revenge on Bandit. While Bandit was taking a nap, and while we were at school, Chilli took his guitar and went outside with it, putting it in the rubbish. When Bandit woke up, he saw that the guitar wasn’t there. “Pearly? Pearly!” he cried. Pearly was the name of his guitar. He looked all around the house, but he couldn’t find Pearly anywhere. Upset with himself, he slumped upstairs and lay on his and Chilli’s bed with bloodshot eyes and bags right under them. We all slept well the following night, but Bandit lay awake, thinking about Pearly.

Later the following evening while we were having dinner, we were listening to Radio 5, which was playing nice, gentle selections of classical music for the modern family. Bandit felt sneaky and turned over to Radio 2, which played loud rock n roll music. He began to use the fork he was holding as a drumstick, and bashed on his plate and the radio in time with the music. We all looked up from our food and began to make music too, laughing as we joined in with our Aussie maestro Bandit. Chilli facepalmed. “I give in, you win,” she said, digging into the rest of her sausages and chips.

At bedtime that night, Bandit was just about to go downstairs and join Chilli for some me time, when suddenly he heard Bingo groaning from inside our room. He went back in and saw his daughter struggling to get to sleep. Bandit crept up to her and knelt down by her bed. She leant closer towards her and began to whisper a lullaby into her ear:

“Lullaby and goodnight,

Bandit’s here through the night,

Never fear, Bingo dear,

To Dreamland you go…”

As he sang, we all yawned and snuggled into bed too, for we might as well get a peaceful night now that Bandit has resorted to lullabies. Chilli was watching from outside our room, the light from the hallway shining into our room. She smiled, and a tear came into her eye. Bandit sung it to Bingo for every night onwards, until she was old enough to go to college.

At college, Bingo found a cassette tape in her box of things. She placed it into the cassette player and heard Bandit’s lullaby once again. She felt her heartstrings being tugged by the soothing vocals, and she was moved to tears. “Thanks, dad,” she said. Suddenly, her roommate Lila came crashing in. “Hey, what are we waiting for? Art class is already starting!” Bingo wiped away her tears and took Lila’s paw. Both ran out of the door as the lullaby trailed out of the room and through the hallways, delighting every college student who came past.

THE END.