Its about 5 pm, the sun is setting in the west and Chris is just getting home from feeding his cattle. He walks into his house and goes straight to the refrigerator to grab a beer. Once he has the beer, he goes outside and sits in a rocking chair on his porch that overlooks the sunset. He has a perfect view of the sunset from his house due to a large pasture between chris and the sun. Chris continues to sit in the chair all night, listening to the coyotes howl, hearing the occasional critter running around in his front yard and then silence.

Chris wakes up that next morning in the chair, and goes into the kitchen to make cereal and grab a beer. Once he is done eating, Chris packs a bag consisting of water,a couple beers, a sandwich and a knife. Chris drives out to his farm, where he starts his tractor and lets it run for a couple minutes, to let it warm up, and then jumps in it to start his planting. Chris is planting corn this year, because the price is high due to it being in high demand. Once Chris is done planting, he heads back to his house. He gets there just in time for sunset again; and of course, he goes straight to the refrigerator, grabs himself a beer, and heads straight out to his rocking chair. This has been Chrises routine for several years now, chris did not use to drink, but his parents were in a bad car accident and did not make it out. Every since then Chris has found himself falling back on beer.

Chris wakes up the next morning, and starts his day like the day before. Today he has plans to go hunting. Chris eats his cereal, grabs his pack, and sets out to kill himself a deer. Chris drives out to a field that he has been seeing a big buck at and sits there until about thirty minutes till dark. He seen some deer but nothing that he wanted to spend the time of cleaning. He leaves 30 minutes early, so that he is able to get back to his house before the sunset went away. And of course, He goes straight to his refrigerator, grabs himself a beer, and goes out to his chair.

This night was different. After dark, he hears something approaching the house, normally thats nothing different, but this time it sounded like a human. Chris is startled as he sees a little girl come out of the darkness. Chris asks the girl what she is doing at his house in the middle of the night. The girl replies with “ I have been walking out here every night for the last two years, and every night I see you sitting in that chair with a beer in your hand.” Chris asked the girl why he doesn't just stay off his property and mind her own business. The girl didn't really have an answer to the question, she just proceeded to ask the guy why he is so alone and why that sunset is so important to him. Chris told the girl that he did not deserve anything more, and that he thinks he does just as good sitting by himself as he would doing anything else. The girl just looked at him with a puzzled face, and told the man that just a little bit of good would be better than none at all.

Chris woke up without remembering exactly how the conversation ended, but deeply remembered what the boy had told him. He made a trip into town that day to go to the grocery store, after getting his groceries, he went to the local firehouse and asked if he could start going to the classes that they held for people that thought they would be interested in being a fireman. He signed up and started going to the classes and found that he enjoyed them and the idea of being able to help people in the future.

After 2 months of training, Chris became a certified fireman. He found himself a little circle of friends and soon started hanging out with them on his nights. One night, chris came home from the firehouse and walked inside to get his beer, and as he was watching the sun go down, told himself that this was the last night that he just sat on the porch feeling sad for himself. Chris's life changed for the best, he was helping people, had friends, and could go a full night without a beer. One day chris went in to a restaurant to get himself something to eat before going to the firehouse. As he looked for a place to sit down, he seen the little girl, from that night on his porch, sitting at a corner table. Chris went over and sat with the girl, because he was curious who the little girl was. The girl asked chris about his life, and if he had changed anything. Chris explained to the girl that he had joined the fire department and told him stories about things that had happened since he did. The girl told chris that she was happy to hear that, and asked chris the real story behind the sunset. Chris told the little girl that he had once met a girl that he loved and wanted to spend the rest of his life with. They had gotten married, but not long afterwards she was in a bad car wreck and died. He believed that in the sunset, she was there watching and smiling at him. But he now knew that she would want him to move on with his life, and start doing more than just moping around about her. The little girl looked at him over the table and said that she is sure that his wife is looking down on him, smiling and wanting nothing but the best for him. Chris looked across the restaurant for a moment and when he looked back at the girl she was gone. He looked around for her but she was no where in sight. Chris soon noticed a piece of paper on the table, and upon looking at it noticed that written on the paper said “You may not be able to see me, but I will forever be in the sunset watching over you. I will always love you no matter what.”

Its now 5 years later, Chris is now head chief of the fire department and loves his job. He has not had a drop of liquor in 3 years and has no problem being around it. Chris has moved that old chair that he used to sit in into his living room and has the name of his wife engraved into the arm of the chair with a sunset carved under it.