Hope is a Thing with Wings
He was in the office, although it was late and most of the building was empty. His tie was off and hanging on the coat rack next to the door, his shirt unbuttoned, his desk scattered with papers and only a single desk light lit the room. The radio was playing in the background softly, a local station with national news reports, but mostly just soft classical or jazz otherwise. Danny was used to nights like this when his daughter was at her mom's. He'd stay at work as late as he could stand it, going over depositions, reports and transcripts, making notes for future cases and preparing for the weekends when his daughter was with him so he wouldn't have to work through their time together. Plus his apartment was lonely without the sound of the little girl playing and talking. At least at the office he had his work to distract him.
The song on the radio ended and the news report started. They were discussing more nuclear plants that had shut down and Danny reached over to turn up the volume. Peace seemed to be the theme of the report. More and more people were putting down arms and moving away from creating more weapons, declaring that they'd rather lead difference lives, more facilities were being shut down. Danny scoffed slightly at the news, looking at the ever growing pile of work on his desk. Peace seemed unreasonable given the amount of scum that still needed to be dealt with. For whatever reason they wanted all the wars in the world could be stopped, but no one was bothering to help stop the wars on the home front, and those attempting to protect the weak, the innocent and victims here at home were more overworked than before.
There was hope, the newscaster said. For the first time in a long time, people had a feeling of hope. Danny considered this and compared it to his own feeling of dread. Glancing down at his papers he realized that the mob families he specialized in building successful cases against wouldn't put down their arms. They would continue to fight. No matter how much hope the general public found, the more the criminals of the world would try to quell it. His job was never done. The report was over and the next song was a happy, lighter tune, in response to the good news. Annoyed Danny turned the radio off, leaving his office silent but for his own breathing.
He carefully stared at the two pictures on his desk in front of him. One of his daughter and her mother, just after she was born, when he and her mother were still trying to work out living arrangements and they spent so much time together. The two were smiling up at him from where they were seated on the couch, both mother and daughter looking full of that hope that the news had been talking about about. One full of of an innocent hope, only found in a child's eyes, hope that this huge new world would have all the answers and be full of good new things. The other was hope of a new parent, that one's life could be more than just a self serving day to day ordeal.
The other photo was of just his daughter, from behind and more recent. Her golden hair was blowing in the wind along the ocean shoreline. It was a shot from a rare vacation to the beach that he'd been able to attend. The little girl was lost in the wonder of the vast ocean. Danny remembered her asking him how far it went, if it went on forever. There it was again, that hope, that concept that forever was a good thing and not a prison sentence. He wondered what it was that made such a feeling so difficult for grown ups. Or perhaps just for him. Reaching out he touched the back of her head in the picture, wishing he had more time to spend with her. Sighing loudly he realized he was shot for the night and any additional work certainly wouldn't be of worth. He shut out the light on his desk, and waited while his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room before moving towards the door.