As they slid into their bed's Jackson asked, "Where did you and mom go last night?"

     "We went down town to watch the sunset," I told him.

     "Why?"

     "It's kind of a long story."

     "That's okay," Ginny interjected, suddenly interested.

     "I don't know... It's getting pretty la-"

     "Tell us!!" they demanded in unison.

     "Fine fine fine. But it's eyes shut once the story's over though, okay?"

     Simultaneously, "okay."

     "Well, in the middle of my last semester of college, everything started slipping away from me. Or I guess I started slipping away. In search of, I suppose, reason, I lost myself and created a vast distance between myself and the world around me. It didn't even feel like I was alive sometimes. It felt like the world existed around me, without me. Like I was trapped in a foggy bubble while my life was happening outside of it."

     "Around that time, I had been getting in the habit of taking the 6:07 train into the city every day after class and doing... well... things I probably shouldn't have been doing with people I shouldn't have been hanging out with. My 18 minute ride was usually spent talking to Mickey, a homeless guy who always called me kid." 

     "Mickey chose to be homeless and was a consultant of not only mine, but many of my peers. He was basically famous around these parts. He was respected, well liked, and his wise words and intellectual insights made him seem more than out of place on the floor of that train. Ask anyone of my college buddies who the smartest man they ever met was, they'd say Mickey."

     "It was Mickey that introduced me to the skyscraper one spring evening. At this time it was still being built. All the framework was done, but the inside of the building wasn't yet operational, so Mickey stayed there quite often. I remember he said to me as we rode into the city that evening, 'you see that building their? The one on its tippy toes, reaching for the clouds? You ever get the chance, you climb up to the roof of that building. You bring yourself a girl, some wine, you get up there by, ohh, about 7 o'clock, and boy, lemme tell you, you ain't ever seen a sunset til you seen it kiss the horizon from up on top of that building. A sight like that'll give you reason to wake up every morning.' And that's what it became. My reason."

     "That evening, when I left the station, instead of doing those things I shouldn't have been doing, I decided to go watch the sunset from this skyscraper. As usual, Mickey was right. It was incredible."

     "There wasn't a single day throughout the two months leading up to graduation - other than two evenings when thunderstorms threatened to uproot the city - that I didn't watch the sun sneak behind the earth, or the light of an overcast evening turn to blackness from that rooftop. Those beams and girders became just as much my brothers and sisters as the nuisances sharing my bedroom. I'd dance with them. I'd sit with them. I'd ask them every question I had. They never answered. I'd tease them and myself by hanging from them off the edge of the building, putting my life in their hands. They never let go. And believe me, there were days I wanted them to. Days I thought to myself, 'this time is the time.' Days that I said to Mickey, 'today is the day, Mick.' But I always found them waiting at the edge to talk me out of it. I hated them for it. Now, I love them for it." 

     "The first time I went up on the roof of that building I had hopes of being mesmerized by the evening sky. The last evening I will ever spend on that rooftop was last night. This time I took your mother and a bottle of wine, just like Mickey told me to. The building is fully operational now, but I made it a point over the last few years to become friends with the maintenance crew, and they were nice enough to let me revisit the roof."

     "I don't know what it was about it, but I have never seen a sky like the one I saw last night. It was painted with shades of red and pink that reside only on God's pallet. And let me tell you, the way the sun was lighting up the world didn't even compare to the way it lit up your mother's face. And you know what? That's why I want to wake up tomorrow. That's my reason now. And so are you guys."

     "Those cold, metal girders were my siblings. That rooftop was my home. Those sunsets were my reason. I genuinely believe that Mickey sending me there that one evening saved my life. He and that rooftop are the reason I am here right now, so really, they are the reason you two are he-" I turned to find that I hadn't even realized they'd fallen asleep. I kissed them both on the forehead, pulled their covers to their chins, and told their unconscious ears that I loved them. I walked down the hall to find my beautiful wife fast asleep as well. She is now the rooftop that I stand on. Those gorgeous children down the hall are my sunset. This family is my reason.