A trip to the cinema with my dad gets awkward.

At the cinema with Dad:

My dad is a complex man so something a normal as going to the cinema is not so straightforward as one would think.  My brother Jonathan at the fragile age of 14 was about to find out the hard way that no situation is normal in my family...

Only he wasn't joking...

Now, with any other family, that would be the end of this story. The unintentional joke would of been realized and everyone would laugh at this for years to come....

But NOOooo my dad was confused and when my dad doesn't understand something, he goes to some galaxy far, far away to gather his thoughts, think deep and alleviate his bewilderment.

This moment can be identified by the stare:

The stare should be avoided, as it is not a good place for my dad (or anyone) to be. It is a mix of confusion and frustration and can be agonizing for anyone in the immediate area. I've known the man 28 years and it can still make me uncomfortable. I don't know what goes on in his head when he stares but I imagine it's something like this:

I imagine it to be a thought process that starts and ends with the question that created the initial confusion. I think this because on a bad day he will ask all these questions repeatedly.

Luckily for Jonathan today was a good day so instead my dad just stood there staring, the questions continuing to swirl around his head getting faster and faster never getting asked and never getting answered..

 

Until there is nothing left but a swirling vortex of words that don't make sense to anyone but him

Eventually he will come back to the rest of us who are waiting an eternity to hear from him..

When he does come back to the land of the sane it won't be with a full sentence, just words. I'm assuming some of the more prominent words that were swirling around the vortex of his brain.