Pam lay awake in the dark listening to Jim's steady breathing, her face turned toward her bedroom window. The beams of a full moon streamed in and filled the room with a dark bluish glow. Unable to sleep, she got up to go fix herself a cup of tea. She stopped at the window on her way into the kitchen, and peeked outside. There had been fresh snowfall in Scranton that afternoon, and under the light of the full moon, she could see the snowy landscape twinkling.

Many of her neighbors still had their Christmas lights on, and the bright colors reflected off the blanket of fresh snow. On nights like this, Pam often took a walk around her apartment complex, her artist's eye wanting to drink in all of the different colors and lighting and textures.

Forgetting the tea, she quietly grabbed her jeans off the chair and headed out to her living room to get dressed. Before she walked out of her room, she turned back toward the sound of her softly snoring boyfriend. Jim's sleeping face was bathed in the soft light. He looked so boyish when he slept, which made Pam forgive his tendency to be a noisy sleeper. She smiled, and tiptoed out of the room, not wanting to disturb his sleep.

Pam pulled her jeans on over her flannel sleeping pants figuring they would add insulation from the winter cold and put on her long pink coat over the sweatshirt she had "borrowed" from Jim earlier (like he'll ever get that back) and closed the front door softly behind her.

Standing on her doorstep, she took a bracing, deep breath of the icy cold winter air. Pam liked the way she could feel the cold go all the way down to the bottom of her lungs. She jammed her hands into her pockets and started walking. It was late so there wasn't much activity going on at her apartment complex. She could hear a few cars going down the main road. In between those cars, there was no other noise except for the steady crunch of her footsteps walking through the snow.

Rounding the corner of the building, she saw Andy Miller, the on-site security officer walking toward her. Officer Miller worked with Pam's father at the Scranton Police Department before he retired. He took the job at the apartment complex, because out of habit he found himself patrolling Scranton in the evenings anyway. He figured he might as well get paid for it.

"You're out a bit late, aren't you Pammy?" Officer Miller said with a smile. He'd known Pam since she was in diapers, and couldn't help but use the childhood nickname she'd long outgrown.

"Hi Andy. Just taking a walk." Pam grimaced, but could never stay mad at anyone. "How's Esperanza?"

"She's a pain in my ass, that's how she is." Andy grumbled. "At home, I put a television in every room, and when she gets on my nerves, I just keep moving."

Pam chuckled and could swear she saw the faintest traces of a smile on Andy's lips.

"Listen, don't stay out too long. It's fixing to get even colder."

"Okay, Andy. I'm just going around the corner, and then I'll head back."

"All right. Tell your folks I said hey."

"Will do. Give my best to Esperanza." Pam turned and continued her walk. As she was heading to the end of the sidewalk, she could still hear Andy muttering in the background.

"That woman is making me crazy, and I swear if I come home one more time and she hasn't..."

Pam smiled to herself and kept walking until she reached the end of the sidewalk. Between two apartment buildings, there was a clearing with tall pines and maple trees. She continued walking until she reached the edge of the lawn. The full moon light streamed down through the tree branches making them appear as large dark blue silhouettes against the night sky.

Jim turned over in bed and sleepily reached out, his arm landing on the empty bed. That got his attention right away. He quickly sat up in bed, looked around, and rubbed his eyes trying to get them to focus. He sat still a moment longer, straining his ears to hear anything, but the apartment was silent. He glanced under the door -- no light. He whipped the covers off, and jumped out of bed, pausing just long enough to grab his coat and step into his boots before he pulled the front door closed behind him.

Jim's breath caught on the cold air, and he let out a low whistle as he quickly put his coat on and headed out to the parking lot. He glanced over to Pam's parking space and saw her Yaris, so he continued walking on toward the laundry room. He could not think of any other reason why Pam would be gone.

No other reason that is until he got to the end of the building. Jim turned the corner and pulled up short. He spotted Pam standing at the edge of the clearing, her face turned up toward the sky. He was quite literally stunned by the sight.

When Jim was much younger, his grandfather used to tell him a family story that his grandfather used to tell him when he was younger. Jim never believed it, because it just seemed impossible. It was a tale about Jakob Halpert, the last of the Mennonites in his family tree.

Jakob met and fell in love with the former Marike Penner during the great depression. Well, that's not entirely true. Jakob and Marike had known each other since they were small children. Jakob's family ran a dairy farm, and going back to when he was a young boy he would drive the milk cart every day to the farm co-operative Marike's family owned.

Week after week, year after year, Jakob would drive the milk cart into town, and Marike would sometimes help him unload the cart. When Marike's mother died in the influenza epidemic of 1918, she had to stay back on the farm to help raise her younger siblings. Jakob didn't see her again until she finished up her schooling and had returned to work in the farm co-op. It was love at first sight -- but separated by eight years.

Their families approved of the match, and in the spring of 1926 they were married. Mennonites are very community oriented people, so the whole town turned up for the Halpert/Penner nuptials. After the ceremony, the wedding party celebrated outdoors with a simple potluck dinner. A large tent was erected, and long tables were set up with small oil lamps to provide light.

Marike was sitting with Jakob's family, as well wishers from the town came over to the table to wish them joy and happiness. Jakob was sitting a few tables away with his fellow farmers who were planning when the group would come out to Jakob's family's farm to help build an addition to the Halpert's barn. Jakob's best friend Peter came over with a huge plate of food and sat down.

"Look at Marike, she's so pretty she glows in the dark!" Peter said, chewing on a chicken wing.

Jakob looked over at Marike sitting with his parents, smiling and talking. She had a bright smile for everyone she spoke to. It was one of the many things that made Jakob love her. He looked closer, catching Marike’s eye, and she beamed at him, her eyes bright and filled with love. There appeared to be a faint light glowing all around her.

"Don't be silly, Peter it's just the oil lamp."

"There's no oil lamp on that table, my friend."

Jakob looked. The nearest oil lamp was at the table next to Marike’s. He smiled and helped himself to a piece of chicken from Peter’s plate. As he chewed, he thought about how long he had waited for Marike, and now looking at her, he could see his whole future shining in front of him. He felt like the luckiest man in world.

Jim always dismissed this story as exaggerated family folklore. But standing on the edge of the sidewalk, looking at Pam in the moonlight, he now understood that every single word of that story was true.

Pam stood in the clearing, hands in her pockets looking up into the night sky. She could see the closest stars and there were still a few small clouds visible that moved lazily along. They would cover the moon briefly like curtains before they parted. As the clouds rolled over the moon, they gave off a glowing dark grey light, and when they rolled past, the bright clear white light would beam down highlighting the snow on the slender tree branches.

The air was icy cold, and it began to snow. Pam closed her eyes and listened to the soft whisper of the cornflake-sized snowflakes as they fluttered down around her. She loved the cold and the stillness. She stood there with her face tilted up toward the moon, snowflakes dotting her cheeks.

"Pam?” Jim said softly. “Is everything all right?"

Pam turned to find Jim standing there in the moonlight, his jacket unbuttoned, hastily pulled on over his shirt, his hair a clumpy mess. He had never looked as handsome to her as he did in that moment.

"Oh yeah. Hey, I'm sorry. Everything is fine. I didn't want to wake you."

"Well, I was sleeping pretty good, but then you were gone, and then the sleeping was less good."

"What?"

"I'm sleepy, what can I tell you?"

"Okay, well let's go back then."

"Wait a second. I'm all dressed up now", Jim gestured toward his half-tucked shirt and his unlaced boots. He smiled his goofy Jim grin. “You’re not going to howl at the moon now, are you?”

“You just missed it.”

“Darn.”

Jim took Pam into his arms and held her close. He kissed her forehead, which was still damp from the snowflakes, and they stood together in silence for a while, looking up at the moon and stars.

“When I was a kid,” Pam said quietly. “I used to think that the moon followed me. Wherever I went, the moon was always right there with me. When I look at the moon now, I can’t help but think about all the other people who are looking at the moon too. That’s pretty weird, isn’t it?”

“Nope, not at all.” Jim said. “There have been times when I’ve felt sad or lonely and I would just go out outside and look at the moon. I don’t know why, but just the idea that there was someone out there looking at the moon too made me feel a little better.” He didn’t say specifically why he had felt sad, but the meaning was pretty clear to Pam.

“Well, I hope you won’t feel the need to do that any time soon.” Pam gave him a squeeze.

Pam looked up at Jim, his face lit up by the moonlight. She reached her hands up around his neck and pulled him to her, giving him several short sweet kisses.

Jim looked straight up into the sky and howled. “Aaahhwwwwoooooo…”

Pam joined in. “Aaaahhwwwwoooo...”

Officer Miller was patrolling the complex in his golf cart, and he pulled up next to the curb.

“You two better hightail it before I call animal control.” He tried to sound convincingly gruff, but the smile in his voice was unmistakable.

“Sorry, Andy!” Pam tried not to laugh. She turned to Jim, who was not doing a very good job of not laughing.

“Ready, troublemaker?” Pam teased.

“Yeah.” Jim smiled, holding out his hand. “Let’s go home.”

They walked back to the apartment hand in hand, barking and howling. Pam couldn’t stop giggling and Jim felt like he was the luckiest man in the world.