Scranton, PA – mid June 1995
Pam Beesly was not looking forward to moving 2 hours away from her life. Her dad found a better job though, so they had to move. Scranton wasn’t too bad, she had visited as a child more than once. Her grandmother lived there and some of her cousin’s too. Her older brother was in his freshmen year of college so she really feels like she is going ino this thing alone. Pam lived in Philadelphia her whole life and her friends were there. She cried as they merged onto the highway, on the way to her new life. It was around 9 in the morning and they wanted to get there and get everything in the house at a decent hour. Pam just watched the city shrink behind them.
She was scared that she wouldn’t be able to make any new friends easily, teenage years were so confusing and teen girls were always so catty, she could see it now, starting her sophomore year with no friends to talk to or hang with on the weekends, at least she had the summer to try and find some kind of ally. At least she thought, ‘I’ll get to see more of Nana’. Her parents bought a house just down the street, when they started to look for a new house Nana told them about her neighbors selling their house and moving to New Jersey. So Pam’s parents went to see it one day and made an offer. They looked forward to living close to Nana, as she was getting older.
After about an hour and a half they stopped for gas and to have a bathroom break, Pam remembered this rest stop from the last time she came up to visit her Grandma, or Nana as Pam called her. It was at least 5 years ago, since that summer Nana always came down to Philly for holidays and visits. As they pulled back onto the road, she thought back to that summer, she came up to Scranton and stayed with Nana for 2 weeks, her parents went away on a second honeymoon for their wedding anniversary and her brother went camping with their uncle. Pam decided to stay at Nana’s since she didn’t want to go on the camping trip. She had a great 2 weeks in fact, now looking back, she remembered the quick friends she had made at that time in Scranton. 10 years old was so different from 15, her current age. She was sitting out on her nana’s lawn in the grass, she was in her painting outfit which had a lot of paint stains on her denim overalls and she had on a plain green t-shirt underneath, her hair was in braided pig tails. She was painting a picture, when 2 boys around her age were riding by on their bikes, they noticed her as they passed and so they turned around and stopped on the side walk, they came over and asked who she was.
“I’m Pam, this is my Nana’s house.”
“Oh! We know Mrs. Beesly!” the taller boy said.
“Oh cool, um…I’m staying here for the next 2 weeks, my mom and dad went to Hawaii.” Pam replied.
“Well, do you wanna come over to my house with us? We’re gonna play tag or something” the taller boy asked while he shrugged his shoulders and glanced at his friend who was standing to the right.
The other boy turned to Pam; “yeah, because most girls wear pink and all that girly stuff like skirts, but you don’t seem too bad. And you need friends if you’ll be around for a few weeks.”
“Um….ok, I’ll have to ask.” At the same time Nana came out to the lawn and smiled a greeting at the boys. “Hi Steven, Jimmy!” she said, then looking at Pam “these two are my little helpers, always help me carry in my groceries.”
“Can I go play tag at his house” she asked while pointing at the taller boy, now known as Steven.
“Sure, it’s right down the street so; the boys can walk you home before supper at 5, ok boys?”
“Yes ma’am” they both answered. So Pam took her painting and supplies inside to the table and then ran out the door. Steven and Jimmy walked their bikes and Pam followed them, it was just the next block down. They went into the back yard which was pretty big compared to the one she had at home. There was a garden and a big tree, which she noticed had a tree house about 15 feet off the ground. “You guys go up there?” Pam asked as she pointed up mouth slightly open. “Of course, it’s our fort!” Jimmy said to her, “wanna check it out?” Pam shrugged, “sure”.
Pam climbed up first, she climbed in and looked around while she waited for Jimmy and Steven, she looked around, they had a window, there was a rope with a bucket on the end, it was tied to a tree branch, it sat right under the window. They had a wooden crate on it’s side, there were two piles of comic books in there. They had some action figures thrown in the corner, they also had a pair of walkie talkies, a sling shot and some water guns. There were pictures on the walls, ninja turtles, thundercats, and transformers. All good cartoons in Pam’s mind, she thought had a lot in common with these 2. When all 3 were in the tree house, the boys told Pam that she could be an official club member on some conditions, they had a secret handshake too, but they had to trust her.
Steven explained that she had to tell them a big secret no one else knew. She had told them that her big brother still did not know that she was the one that kept on rigging his Nintendo so that it would not work when he was home, he would get mad and go out and then she could use it herself. She really just disconnected it when he wasn’t in the room. And how she was the one that stole his glasses and he had to buy a new pair with his allowance. A lesson for life their dad called the punishment. She loved messing with her brother. The best part was her parents never suspected their sweet little girl. Jimmy and Steven were impressed. She was “evil” for keeping her brothers Nintendo from him, Jimmy’s big brother Jonathan had a Nintendo and it was very cool, not being able to play it whenever they wanted was a sore spot for the boys. Jimmy and Steven also decided that they would need her to show them how to disconnect the one Jonathan was always chasing them away from. They ended up sneaking over to Jimmy’s house a little later, which was right behind Steven’s house, and Pam showed them how to disconnect the wires and reconnect them with ease.
They went back outside and played for a while longer, before they knew it, they had to walk Pam back to her Nana’s house for supper time.
For the next 2 weeks Pam spent a lot of time with the boys, it was great to make some friends so quickly, they were lots of fun these boys, she was really bummed to say goodbye at the end of those two weeks. She knew it would be a long time from then if she ever did see them again. Still, those memories would last her a lifetime.
Back to the present, still driving, she kind of hoped that Steven and Jimmy still lived there, she knew she was going to be close to their houses, because she was moving right in the same area. 5 years had passed, maybe if the boys were still around, they wouldn’t remember her, or maybe they were different now at 15. But she started to feel a little better the closer they got to Scranton and she smiled at her memories. Maybe she’d be lucky and her old friends would still be there.
After another hour, they arrived in Scranton, the scenes were a bit more familiar, it had not changed much from her last time after all. When they got to the familiar street and the car slowed down, she started to get excited. She didn’t know which house was theirs, she hadn’t seen it yet, and didn’t care to ask, she did not want to go, she could see Steven’s house though, and their moving van in the driveway. She felt a pang of disappointment. Steven obviously didn’t live here anymore. It was her house now. Just her luck, one of the only friends she thought she might actually have in Scranton was definitely gone.
“Oh well” she thought to herself once the car pulled up and she got out to stretch before starting to help unload their things. After a few hours, and after picking her room out, and getting all of her boxes unpacked, Pam took a shower to cool down got dressed and decided it was time for some relaxation.
Her parents went out to pick up some groceries and other things they would need. She was looking out of her bedroom window and realized that the tree house was still there. She smiled to herself and decided another trip down memory lane was just was she needed. She left a note that she’d be out there, and then she picked up her backpack which contained her sketch pad, pencil’s, some cd’s, and her headphones and headed out to the yard. She noticed some lights on in the house behind hers, she wondered for a moment if she should go and knock to see if Jimmy was there, but she thought better of it, not today at least, ‘he may not remember me or live there anymore anyway.’ She thought glumly.
She climbed up to the tree house, which did not seem as high up anymore. She reached the inside and was surprised to find that it looked very much like it had 5 years ago. No thundercats posters, but there were some posters of bands. Pam noticed many of the bands whose record she had in her backpack. Nirvana, green day, and pearl jam amongst others. There were still some comic books too, in that old crate. There was a radio on top of that, and what she guessed were Christmas lights hanging haphazardly around the ceiling. There was also a guitar case in the corner, which had really intrigued her, she loved music. It then struck her a little odd that he didn’t take these things when he moved, she really just wanted to relax now though, it had been quite the day. “Whatever” she thought, she think about it later.
She smiled again at her memories of this tree house and her old friends and couldn’t believe that Steven apparently still had good taste, previously in cartoons, now in music. She also thought that, as he got older, Steven and (maybe even Jimmy’s) tree house apparently matured, she was impressed, at least she had a cool place to hang. If she had the next 8 weeks of summer to do nothing, no friends and all, she could at least find some kind of familiarity.
She sat down kicked off her sneakers and pulled out her pad and pencil’s, put on her headphones and started to sketch. Pam started working on one she had already done the outline for. The Ben Franklin bridge and some boats on the water. She was going to add some color, she had sketched it just a few days ago. After the last day of school she took the subway downtown and then walked over to Penn’s Landing from South street. She sat on a bench along the river wall with a hot dog a soda and her sketch pad. She worked on that outline for a it and just enjoyed the sun. She was dreading the days ahead, moving away from all of her friends and familiar places. She enjoyed the day though and got a great sketch done. She started listening to nirvana unplugged and to color the picture.
When the light was fading she put down her pad and laid back and just stared at the ceiling for a bit. She now noticed those glow in the dark stickers of the stars and solar system, she just shook her head and smiled. She closed her eyes and just sang along to the music. It reminded her of Philly and hanging with her friend Lisa. She listened to about 6 songs with her eyes closed, and it was over, she popped in the cranberries and lay back down. Closing her eyes again, after about 3 songs, it was starting to get near dark and Pam drifted to sleep, she was tired from the long day.
Pam’s mom heard a knock on the door and went to answer it, she thought it may be a new neighbor welcoming her to the area. She opened the door to reveal a very tall teenage boy with a bit too much messy brown hair and big green eyes. She looked at him a bit skeptically.
“Hi” he said.
“Hello…can I help you with something?”
“Oh, um…I uh…I live in the house at the back, and well, this may sound weird since you don’t know me, but…could I go into your yard and get some things from the tree house?”
Mrs. Beesly regarded him with an awkward glance, “sorry but, I don’t understand.”
“yeah, sorry um… I live in the house behind yours, and my friend Steven lived here, my best friend actually, and we hung out in the tree house a lot and he just moved like 2 weeks ago. I still went up sometimes before you moved in today anyway and well… my guitar is up there and my radio. I was hoping you wouldn’t mind me grabbing it.” Jim stammered out as quickly as he could. He was clearly uncomfortable and did look like he just lost his best friend. As a mother her heart went out to him, especially since her daughter had the same demeanor all day and for the past week.
“Well, I wouldn’t want to hold your stuff hostage” she smiled at him.
He smiled back, clearly relieved, he imagined the new neighbor might not like that he had been squatting in their tree house on occasion.
“Thanks a lot!…and sorry for intruding, I’ll be in and out.”
“That’s fine dear really, take all the time you need. Just don’t move in.” she joked with him.
Then he quipped “Well, if I’m up there too long, you could charge me some kind of rent, I’m great at carrying groceries or cutting the grass.” He shrugged.
Mrs. Beesly was quite taken with this young man’s charm.
“We’ll see, I do have a daughter around your age, and she’s never had to cut grass, so I may have to take you up on that.”
“Sure thing!” he smiled up at her and he had perked up a bit at the thought of a girl his age living so close. He was starting to really appreciate girls a bit. Not up close, but they were nice to look at. Most girls he knew were the cheerleader types, acted kind of ditsy around the other boys in class. He started to turn around and head off the porch.
Then Mrs. Beesly she remembered, Pam was in the tree house.
“Oh, um before you go back there, my daughter may be up there. So just yell up, she’ll probably help you with your stuff.”
“Okay, no problem…thanks again”
“Could you tell her that I have pizza and soda here for her.”
“Will do.”
With that, she turned back inside and Jim went around the back yard and to the bottom of the tree. He looked up, it looked just as deserted as the day before, he started calling out, “Hello” after the 4th time he figured no one was up there, he couldn’t even here anything. He decided to climb on up. When he was a kid it took him bit longer, but he was much taller now. Steven was always the taller one before. He was up the ladder in no time, as soon as he popped his head in, he reached around for a flashlight, it was a bit dark inside. When he turned the flashlight on, he was surprised to see that sure enough his new neighbor’s daughter was in the tree house, laying on her back, ankles crossed and an arm behind her head. She had headphones on which he could hear playing, and she appeared to be asleep. He could not help but stare at her taking in her profile, she was beautiful he thought. She had long curly hair spread around her head. She was wearing faded jeans that and a blue t-shirt, which was riding up slightly, he could see about an inch of her flesh, he swallowed, he noticed her sneakers were off. He chuckled at her socks, they were light green with black stars on them. She looked so relaxed and comfortable. He stared at her for a few more minutes, he heard her music stop and then realized he did not want to scare her. He started to tap on the floor and said “hello?”
Pam was having a dream about being on stage playing a guitar with her friends back in Philly and then suddenly Jimmy and Steven were there too. They were having a good time and the music sounded great. Then suddenly the music stopped and she could feel a weird vibration from under her. She opened her eyes and then she gasped “Oh my god!” and she recoiled back a bit. There was a flash light filling the room with a soft light and a boy no more than 16 halfway in the tree house, he was looking at her with a surprised look on his face like he’d been caught doing something wrong. He held his hands up and said “don’t shoot! I come in peace.”
Shaking his head and holding out a hand palm up, “I’m sorry if I scared you, I was knocking to try and get your attention, um...” he stammered out as if he was nervous.
She was intrigued, this boy just popped into her tree house while she was in the middle of a strange dream. She immediately thought that his messy hair was adorable and that surprised look on his face was priceless. And she could not believe how cute this kid was. She also thought it was totally funny how he was looking at her nervously and seemed to be frozen. She started to relax a bit, he obviously was not trying to scare her, if anything he was scared.
So she started; “Okay…what are you doing up here?”
“Oh! Sorry, right…well my friend Steven used to live here, and he moved a few weeks ago…but I still had some stuff in here, and well, my mom said people moved in today, so I thought I would come up and get it out….”
Pam sat up a bit straighter, this explained why there were still things in the tree house after Steven had moved.
“Oh, well, okay, um…you did scare me, but I guess I’ll live.” She said and then thought about what he had just said about Steven. He was friends with Steven, maybe this kid could be her friend? Worth a shot huh? she thought.
”Sorry again,….I knocked on the front door, your mom said I could get my radio and all, and she told me you were up here. I called up, but didn’t get an answer so…I climbed up.”
Then she smiled at him and told him he could climb up. He smiled back, put down the flash light and pulled himself up.
“Thanks, I won’t stay in your hair long, just have to you know, move out.” He shrugged his shoulders. Pam watched him and started to giggle, he looked at her sheepishly and asked.
“What’s so funny?” as he pulled his long legs up into the tree house and he had to crawl around. He suddenly felt very shy in front of this new girl.
“I’m sorry, it’s just…you’re just so tall, you look silly crawling like that, like a giant baby.” She giggled some more.
He could not believe she was teasing him, kind of like her mom had out on the porch.
He had to reply with his own joke, “like to kick a man when he’s down huh?”
“Sorry.” She smiled at him.
“I’ll live, I’m Jim by the way” he held his hand out to her.
Then she looked at him with a look of recognition, “Jim? You said you live in this house back here?” she was pointing behind her.
“Yup, my whole life!” he replied.
“No way!” she looked at him in shock ”...Jimmy?”
“Well not for like 2 years now, kind of grew out of that one along with all my pants, when you’re pushing 6 feet at 13 Jimmy sounds a bit too silly.”
Then it registered with him that she seemed to know him somehow.
“Wait a minute How do you know they used to call me Jimmy?”
“It’s me, Pam!”
“Pam?.... wait, evil Nintendo stealing Pam?
“YES! We just moved here from Philly, my dad found a new job and Nana told us about this house for sale.”
“Wow” he could not believe it, he had not seen her in years, but he would always remember the coolest girl ever. That’s what Steven and he had deemed her. She helped him drive his brother nuts for two weeks while she was there and then they carried on the tradition the rest of the summer. She also could make them laugh like no other girl they knew.
“This is awesome , I was so disappointed when we pulled up and I realized it was Steven’s house we bought. I was looking forward to knowing someone in Scranton. I wasn’t sure if you would still lived out back!”
Jim considered her for a moment and then he grinned and asked “Hey, do you remember the secret handshake? “
“Oh, what, you think I’m an imposter?”
He shrugged and looked at her and held out his hand, she held out hers and they gave each other five then shook hands and then slapped themselves on the forehead. And both started laughing hard.
“I haven’t done that for like a year.” Jim laughed out. Pam was giggling, “try 5 years!”
Jim started, “I can’t believe how long we spent making that up at 9 years old, it seemed so inventive.” He shook his head and smiled at her again, “Wow, I can’t believe you live here now, it’s funny huh?”
“Well, I am very glad, I was freaking out about moving here from Philly, all my friends are there, but I had hoped that you guys still lived here…I’m really glad you do.” Then she smiled and looked down blushing a little.
Jim could not help how adorable he thought she was. Then he remembered, “Your mom said to tell you she has your pepperoni pizza and soda inside.”
Pam was so happy to see her old friend, especially after the day she had, and actually thinking about how great it would be to see him again. She also felt really lucky that even though he was older, he was still very much the boy she had become friends with so long ago. He seemed to be right in tune with her, she did not want to go in for dinner and have to say goodbye. She looked up at him and he was looking her in the eye, she suddenly felt shy but continued with her train of thought.
“Um… are you hungry? You can come in and have some, unless you don’t like pizza.”
Jim said in a mock serious tone, “Pam, I love pizza, and you should never imply otherwise!”
She smiled at Jim and started towards the hole, she was relieved that he clearly wasn’t ready to say goodbye either.
“Let’s go pizza boy” she said as she started down the ladder. Jim followed her down, when he reached the bottom Pam was standing there waiting for him. When he got down to the ground and was in front of her she had to look up at him to see his face.
“You know, you and I used to be at eye level, what happened?”
“Green beans and broccoli, or so they say” he said while shrugging.
Then she looked up giggling and smiled at him brightly, she had a great smile he thought, and he felt his palms start to get slick and he didn’t know what to say suddenly.
Pam wasn’t sure what came over her suddenly, but she lurched forward and wrapped her arms around him and gave him a squeeze. He was surprised, and she pulled back quickly, he barely managed to hug her back. Then she looked down again with a smile. HE couldn’t see her blushing in the early evening darkness.
“I’m really glad you still live here, it’ll be great to catch up and be friends again.”
“Definitely!” he said brightly. The thought of being friends with Pam again thrilled him.
She looked up again and then turned around; as he followed her toward the house. He thought to himself.
“I’m really glad I live here too.”
Story Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Chapter Notes:
I revamped this chapter, I needed to add a bit more when I started my second chapter, I realized I had not properly set it up.
Chapter End Notes:
the next chapter should be up this weekend, it is brewing and I am looking forward to seeing how it comes out.
