118- Please remember

get the call at about 11 AM that morning and it immediately throws me into a frenzy of anger. “What?”
The Douglas County sheriff sighs heavily into the phone. “He was spotted walking downtown. He had a hip flask in one hand and his shotgun in another. Then he stopped at the park near the Cherry Creek School and fired a couple of shots into the trees.”
I immediately rise and grab my keys. In no time and with the phone pressed to my ear, I’m reversing out of my driveway. “He’s detained now?”
“Yes, he is,” the sheriff replies. “We know him around here so to an extent, we have been lenient in letting him get away with a few misdemeanors but the parents from that school are coming for my job. Especially with that Walmart shooting in Cali last week. The kids all thought that he was going to attack them.”
My heart grows heavier at his report. “He said he was chasing a raccoon?”
“Yeah, that’s his story. He said he found the creature messing around in his trash can and got his shotgun to chase after it. Then it ended up in the tree. We’ve still not sighted it though.”
“I’ll be there in thirty minutes, Mark,” I say and end the call. I step on the gas pedal and speed my way towards Aurora.
The moment I arrive at the police station, I can hear my father all the way from his cell at the back.
The sheriff, Mark Liu greets me with a handshake and I listen to the man that I have known for almost twenty years.
“He’s a respected veteran in our community,” he says as he escorts me. “So, we’ve constantly tried to be as lenient with him as possible but things are getting out of hand. Especially with the drinking. If this happens again, we’re going to have to charge him.”

“I understand,” I reply and turn away from the sheriff to watch my father.
He takes off his boots and slams them against the iron bars of the holding cell in annoyance. “I know my fucking rights,” he slurs in his deep cowboy drawl, rubbed off from his earliest days growing up on a ranch between Fairplay and Jefferson. “How you gonna lock me up for holding a fucking gun? I’ve been handling guns since before you fuckers could walk.”
My head lowers as I wish it would be possible to turn a blind eye to all of this, and to him, to just walk away. Especially since, he isn’t going to welcome me let alone, listen to me.
The sheriff proceeds in releasing him while I head over to wait as he’s processed.
He gets out cursing and hollering at the men to return his gun to him and when none of them budges, he throws his boots at one of the officers.
“What the fuck!” the officer yells.
I rise to my feet to keep him from getting into a fight that his raggedy old bones cannot take. “Dad,” I call.
At the sound of my voice, he stills. Then he turns around to meet my gaze.
I haven’t seen him in seven months and in that seven months he’s lost so much weight and it pains me to see it. His back is hunched, the faded t-shirt he has on plastered to his body like a saggy second skin, his jeans are dirty and in tatters. His balding head still has some sparse density of white while the thick mustache under his nose is immensely stained with yellow.
“What the hell are you doing here?” He asks as he sees me. “It’s nice to see you too, Dad.”
He immediately starts to limp away, his hands waving in the air. “I don’t want you here. I didn’t call for you. Mark, you did this? You called this son of a bitch over?”
“Hey! Gary! That’s no way to talk to your son. You should be damn proud of him”
“I've got nothing to be proud of. I thought I raised a man but then he turns out to be a pretty weak ass metrosexual. I want nothing to do with him.”
I roll my eyes at him and ten minutes of aggravation later, he is strapped into the front seat of my SUV.
For more than half of the ride home, he remains fairly quiet. He of course, doesn’t miss the chance to let out grunts of disdain and disapproval on what I suspect is my driving, but I ignore it all. All I want to do is to ensure that he is home safe and sound and be on my way back.

He however, cannot help himself. ”Cars like this… is why you rejected the army?”
I inhale deeply, and do my utmost best to reign in my irritation. In the past, he was an incredibly loving father, but after the years and following the death of my mother, he has just degenerated into someone so bitter that I barely recognize him.
We are all aware that it has to do with a past trauma suffered during his time as a Navy Seal, but as to the details of the incident that nearly took his life, but most definitely claimed his soul, we are not aware.
So, I have grown to accept this version of him that he has agreed to share, but the deterioration almost into a killer, is getting out of hand. ‘“Your plan is to go out massacring middle school kids?” I shoot back. “That’s how you want to be remembered?”
This stuns him silent, and reveals to me that his mental state is still cognizant despite the alcohol still in his system. His voice once again becomes calm and controlled, and it allows me a glimpse into the indestructible man that I once nearly worshipped, “‘I served for forty-five years,” he says. “Gave my life and soul to protect this country... little kids? How dare you say that to me, you bastard?”