Impressions

He woke up before the alarm could go off. Today was an important day. He was slightly anxious but mostly excited. He had to bring his best game. 

Shaving once, shaving twice and then a third time, he knew he would have a shadow before long and that it made him look..unreliable.

He mulled over what to wear for a while, would it do to pull on his much worn pair of jeans, they had familiarity in their favor. He eventually decided to dress a little more appropriately for the occasion.

He had almost reached the bus stop when he realized he had forgotten to carry along the present he had bought her. He rushed back, almost jogged, upto his one bedroom shared apartment and picked up the carefully wrapped brown paper package. He hoped she would like it.Hope. The only thing he had left. Hope of being able to have more than such hurried controlled visits, hope of being able to be enough of a father in these two court-allocated hours per week. Hope his once-a-week daughter would allow herself to forget his once irresponsible ways and accept his remorse-filled battered and lonely heart.