Shengliver’s Note: The teen writer has a benevolent dad, whose beautiful heart is worn on a muddy car.

 

That Saturday, it was sunny and warm. I was standing by the roadside, waiting for Dad to pick me up for a spin together. A few minutes later, the familiar blue Nissan pulled by. I hopped in and fastened the safety belt.

“Hey, man! Long time no see. So you have just decked her with mud. Is this the latest in style?” I asked.

“Long time no see,” Dad replied, smiling broadly at me from the rear-view mirror. “Don’t you think she looks much cooler in the new style?” He seemed to be proud of the bedraggled car.

“Um … To be frank, not at all,” I blurted out.

The window was splashed with mud and soil. The dirt was so much that an attempt to look out rewarded me with little more than a fuzzy view of the sky.

Vice president of a road construction company, Dad regularly tours the sites where new roads are being paved for inspection. Those places are all gravel, sand and mud everywhere. Before he comes back home every day, he has to get the vehicle scrubbed nice and clean. All our family love to be neat and tidy. Strangely enough, these days, he has left the car unwashed, reason unknown.

I was wondering why Dad had been so lazy when the car pulled over at a newly built bridge. By the roadside stood a worker, toolkit in hand, hitching a ride. I opened the door and beckoned the guy to get in. I budged up on the back seat to make room for him. After we were settled, Dad started.

Tears here and there in his uniform, our passenger was covered in dirt from head to toe. “What a job!” I said to myself. When he became aware of my attention, the man got uneasy and fidgeted a bit. He said apologetically, “Sorry to get your beautiful car dirty, Miss. I think I should get out.”

“Oh no. Never mind, mate. You see,” Dad said warmly, “she is already very dirty. It has been a long time since the last wash. Take it easy.” His words put our passenger at ease.

“That’s it,” I said to myself. I have never whined about the dirt again ever since.

We are not rich; neither do we have power. Despite that, it is in our family genes that we do our best bit to make things easier for those in need. One of Dad’s tactful ways to reach out to the needy is to have his blue Nissan splashed with mud.

That is why Dad drives a dirty car.