Once a month, Roosevelt High’s top student misses school, though she tells people that she’s sick or has an appointment, the truth is that her grandmother takes her to the bus station, where she takes the 7:20 am bus from her hometown of Charleston, South Carolina to Atlanta, Georgia, from there she hops in Cab 2743, which is always waiting for her, and the cab driver Steve takes her exactly 37 minutes out of town to the Georgia State Penitentiary, where she checks in at the security desk, goes through a metal detector and is escorted to a room with a table, two chairs, and a small 2 feet by 3 feet window, there she waits until two armed guards bring in prisoner 641928, but she just calls him “Dad”, once he is sat down in his chair and secured, the guards retreat to the corners of the room to offer them a false form of privacy, he asks her how school is going and she replies that it is going fine, and as they make small talk she can’t help thinking about how he will never see her in her prom dress, how he will never walk her down the aisle, how he probably won’t be able to hold his grandchildren, these thoughts make her eyes fill up and every tear that falls down her cheek feels like a dagger in her father’s heart, and he tries not to think about how his one, horrible mistake is ruining his daughter’s life, and after their polite conversation, there are long, awkward silences, interrupted by failing attempts at more small talk, after two hours, the guards tell them that time is up, he is escorted back to his cell and she leaves through the front door, where Steve the cab driver is waiting for her, Steve doesn’t say anything because he knows by now that she likes to be left alone, and as she gets into the back seat of the old, yellow car, she cries until she reaches the bus station, then takes the 5:30 pm bus back to Charleston, where her grandmother is waiting for her, but she knows not to ask how it went, because it’s obvious that she’ll never want to talk about it, they go home and have a late night snack of chocolate-covered popcorn, which was her mom’s favorite, and then she goes to bed, emotionally exhausted, with a melancholy feeling about the next month when she’ll board the 7:20 am bus to Atlanta, where Steve will drive her to the Georgia State Penitentiary to see the father she both loves and hates at the same time.