as the sun sets

he grabbed his iced tea and walked out onto the porch.  sitting down in the fading sun, he heard the voices of crickets in the fields around him.  the rocking chair creaked as he started to sway.  he had surely seen his fair share of sunsets.  grey now, his hair had receded back from it's once youthful abundance.  his face and hands were seasoned and wrinkled from a life spent living and working like anybody else.  he took a sip of his drink as kids rode by his rancher on the dirt road that his house sat next to.  he waved and smiled into the sky.

oh, to be young again he thought to himself.  to be able to do it all over again!  how he wished for those days again when he could carry maggie lee's books home from school.  he remembered his first car and taking it downtown the first chance he could to show it off to his friends.  he was so athletic back then.  picturing himself running down the field during high school football games and hearing the crowd scream as he crossed the goal line  he closed his eyes and relished in the memories.  he opened his eyes and looked all around him.

and there was nothing around him.  his house was out in the middle of nowhere with about a mile in between houses.  his wife, nicole, passed away from cancer about four years earlier and he was now just waiting for his time.  he thought of his time left on earth as a precursor to his time to come in heaven.  he questioned the lord for a time about why he took his beloved first, but that time had come and gone now.  he knew that the things in life happened for a reason and he would just relax his soul in his final days of life.

yes, he took a sip from his perspiring glass and brushed the drops off his shirt that fell from the bottom of the glass.  he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand and let out a sigh.  the sun was coming down the sky now at a good pace and he anticipated the color show to pick up at any moment as the ball of fire made it's way toward the tree line in the distance.

it reminded him of his days as a truck driver.  he would take his loads across the entire nation and he sat back in his chair and rocked away while thinking of all the magnificent sunsets he had witnessed.  all the colors he had seen painted across the most beautiful canvas ever created.  the pinks and oranges mixing with purples and blues set his mind into utter awe as he kept his motor cruising down the highway into the unknown.  driving was a time of peace for him when he was out on the open road with nobody around.  he was fine being by himself for long stretches of time.  he remembered how he used to sing out loud in his cab while the sounds of the day filtered through his ears.  oh, how that brought a smile to his face.

he remembered that feeling he had as he walked back through the door, of the very home he sat in front of now, to see nicole turn from prepping dinner in the kitchen and how she would run to him and kiss his lips.  it was the best reward for a job well done he could ever had asked for and she gave that gift to him every time he came back home to her.  she was all that he could ever had hoped for in life.  she had a smile that only god could have provided him.  she was a dedication from god to him.  how he missed her.  he kept her voice running in his head all day long now.  he longed to hear her yell to him that dinner would be ready soon and could he set the table.  one day soon it would be again he thought.

he gazed off into the distance.  he practically was looking through the distance now and into what was to be.  he was content with his life.  he didn't do much to improve the world, but the people around him improved his life and he liked to think that he helped the people he knew as much as he could.  he raised a good family and his children were parents now themselves doing the best they could for their own.  this put a smile on his face.  what more could he have asked for?  by no means was he rich monetarily, but his life had been a landslide of royalties that made him the richest man in the world.

he had loved.  he was loved.  he appreciated.  he was appreciated. 

now, as the sun set underneath the horizon, he got up slowly from his chair out on the porch and stretched his back and arms.  he turned towards the door and made his way.  he turned the knob and pushed it open.  he heard his kids scream daddy with huge smiles on their faces as they ran to him.  he picked them up.  one in each arm and kissed them on their heads as the dog barked and wagged his tail frantically beside them.  his wife peeked around the corner and walked up to him with a smirk on her face.  he set the kids down and took his best friend in the whole world into his arms as she welcomed him home.