At age 5, I always sat with my Dad in his study every night. When he came home from the office, I’d watch as he _______ his personal items: his watch, wallet, and comb. They would always take up the same spot on the table as if he could see imaginary lines drawn _______ for these things, not a centimeter more or less.

What brought _______ to me then was cleaning the comb for him. I would _______ the tap excitedly and brushed it as hard as I could. _______ I’d done a good job, I would proudly return the comb to Dad, who rewarded me with a bright smile.

Two years later, Dad _______ his sales job and started his own business, but it was not doing well and started shaking our steady life. He always came home very late and _______ the usual evening stay with me. Why did he _______ his old job? Why take the risk and place the whole family in trouble? Over the years I refused to wait for him to come home.

Today, everything is better, yet the _______ silence between us remained until two days before. I was about to ________ after carrying his bag into his study when he asked, “Hey, would you like to clean my comb?” After a long ________ I said yes. Later, with the comb clean, Dad ________ placed it on top of his wallet and smiled back as usual. I ________ that he has wrinkles as he smiles, yet his smile is still ________, the smile of a father who wants a good ________ for his family.

My father’s only child, I was an obvious candidate to be his fishing companion.

My most vivid _________ of our fishing outings are those at Lily Lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. By the age of 6, I’d _________ my first lesson in fish behavior: fish like an _________ breakfast, which means crawling from our sleeping bags _________. We climbed the winding road to the lake, _________ the wooden footbridge, built above a dam. A path led us to the _________ tied up at the water edge.

My father rowed us through the dark green channels. We spoke _________, and the only other sounds were the liquid dipping of the oars（橹）and an occasional bird cry. _________ a promising-looking spot, we baited our hooks, _________ our lines, and waited. For those few hours, the lake was ours.

My father and I had an uneasy __________. His behavior had too often embarrassed me. But on those fishing mornings, he could __________ me the lessons of fishing---not only how to fish, but also other lessons:

We wouldn’t always get what we __________.

With patience, though, we might.

The wait could be as __________ as the reward.

Much could be heard in the quiet of the dawn.

________ between two people don’t need to be filled.

I don’t remember how old I was the last time I went fishing with my father at Lily Lake. But those times __________ fishing were the closest moment I __________ with my father as a child.

My father is gone now, but I __________ recently to Lily Lake. I crossed the wooden footbridge and stood on the shore. A silver flash __________ the water’s surface, spreading littering rings. I was there again with my father, __________ through islands of lily pads, and I whispered a thank-you for __________ he taught me.