“Jim, get up.”
Jim was finally able to get to sleep the night before, but only around 4:30 in the morning. It was now six o’clock, and Pam was shaking his shoulder. Jim groaned. She leaned down and kissed his forehead gently, then ripped the covers off of him. His eyes remained closed.
“Jim, c’mon. It’s six o’clock. You have work and I need to get going.”
Jim finally sat up and stretched his arms out. He let out a yawn and leaned against the headboard, trying to stay awake. Pam noticed the bags under his eyes.
“Hey, did you sleep okay?”
Jim was going to tell her he slept fine, but then he remembered what made him get so little sleep the night before. He looked up at Pam, wide-eyed. “Pam?”
“Yes Jim?”
His eyes suddenly turned sad. “Our baby girl is growing up.”
Pam gave Jim a small smile and sat down on the bed next to him.
“Peter told you?”
Jim nodded his head. Pam took in a big breath then said, “Jim, she’s growing up, and that’s okay… But you need to let go. And besides, it’s just one dance.” Pam laughed. “It’s not like she’s going to be walking down the aisle with the guy.”
“Pam, you were engaged to the guy you went to the dance with in high school.”
Jim wanted to take it back the second the words left his mouth. Pam simply pressed her lips together, forming a taut line.
“We never got married, Jim. And we’re not talking about that, we’re talking about our daughter.”
“Okay, I’m sorry.” Jim sighed. “It’s just that she’s only 16!”
“Jim…”
“No dating until age fifty. I thought that we made the rule pretty clear, like, two weeks after she was born.”
Pam looked back on the memory.
Jim was sitting on the couch, Mary asleep in his arms. Pam had just woken up from a nap, and when she didn’t see Mary in her crib, Pam had scurried outside. When she approached the entrance to the living room, she saw Jim. He was holding Mary, looking down at her lovingly. Pam smiled as she walked into the room and sat down next to Jim.
“Isn’t she beautiful?” Jim asked, completely intrigued with how his daughter was cooing and laughing.
“The boy’s are gonna go crazy when she gets older,” Pam joked, gently touching her daughter’s soft cheek.
Jim’s head snapped up, eyes wide. “She’s not allowed to date until she’s 50.”
Pam pulled back from the short flashback and gave Jim a sweet kiss on the cheek. “I don’t think that she can wait until 50.”
“Yes… she definitely can.”
“Let her be a teenager, Jim! Besides, Peter told me that the boy is really nice. And Mary only went to one dance with in her entire life, and that was with a group. Don’t be so overprotective.”
“But I…”
“Nope, I don’t want to hear it. Now get ready for work.”
Pam got up from the bed and headed to the kitchen. “I’ll make you some breakfast and coffee.”
And with that, Jim got out of bed and started getting ready for work. He showered, dressed and made the bed. After he was completely finished, he headed into the kitchen. Mary and Peter were sitting down the table already, eating pancakes. Pam was just putting some pancakes on Jim’s plate.
Jim sat down, thanked Pam and started eating. Pam sat down a few moments later and started eating as well. Breakfast was probably the most awkward ordeal that morning. Mary kept her eyes on her food. Peter was thinking about ways to lighten up the situation. Pam wasn’t sure what to do, and Jim tried not to think about the Mary-Harry situation.
After everyone was done with breakfast, they cleaned their dishes and got their things ready for work and school. Peter kissed Pam on the cheek and waved to Jim as he was heading out the door. Mary was about to follow Peter but Jim stopped her.
“Mary?”
Mary turned around. She was playing with the hem of her t-shirt nervously. “Yeah, dad?”
Jim looked down at his shoes. He was nervous as well, and didn’t really know what he was supposed to say. “Peter told me about how you have a date to the dance.”
Mary looked at her feet. She had a double-load of dorky awkwardness; some from her mom, some from her dad. “Yeah, he told me.” Mary took a short pause, “Are you, um, okay with it?”
“Well…” Jim hesitated. “I’ll have to meet this Harry kid first. And if he doesn’t have any gang tattoos or nose rings… then I guess it’s okay.”
Mary finally looked up and smiled. When the news finally sunk it, she threw her arms around her father. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!”
He squeezed her back tightly. He tried to untangle himself from her grasp, but she just wouldn’t let go. “Um, Mary,” he said, “you’re going to be late for school.”
“Oh, right! Thank you!”
With that, Mary ran out of the house to catch up with her brother.
Jim looked over to the clock: 11:36. His lunch break was in a few minutes, and he had an hour. He was already getting his things together impatiently. He was planning on getting a bite to eat with a few friends originally, but there was something that was bothering him, and he felt that he wouldn’t be able to make it through the rest of the day if he didn’t figure it out.
Steven and Matt, his two friends from work, were waiting by the door for him.
Jim walked up to them and said, “Sorry guys, but I just have some things I have to take care of at home. We’ll have lunch some other time, okay?”
“Yeah sure,” Steven agreed.
“See you later, man,” Matt added.
Jim quickly rushed out the door to his car. He fumbled with the keys for a few seconds. Finally, he was able to get into the car and get the car to start. He drove as fast as the New York speed limit would allow him back to his building.
Approximately nine minutes later, he pulled up to the building. He found a parking spot on the street and parked the car awkwardly. He ran into the building, barely looking back.
The doorman greeted him with a simple, “Hello, Jim.”
“CAN’T TALK NOW!” Jim called back, running for the elevator.
Jim slammed the elevator button. The slam didn’t hurt his hand, but it made a loud noise. Everyone in the lobby turned to look at him; he ignored them. Soon, the elevator came and Jim ran into it. He ran so fast that he almost knocked over an old lady carrying groceries.
“Sorry, Mrs. Higgenbaum!”
His neighbor gave Jim a questioning look and walked out of the elevator extremely slowly. As soon as she was out, the doors closed, and Jim pressed the button to take him to his floor. He pressed it a few times, hoping that it would go faster.
After a few more seconds the elevator stopped at his floor. He ran out of the elevator to his door. He took the keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door. He threw the keys somewhere in the house and let the door slam behind him.
He walked fast, not running because it wasn’t a huge apartment and he didn’t want to run into a wall. He walked into Mary’s room and immediately went to the bookshelf. After thoroughly searching the shelves, he found what he needed: Mary’s high school yearbook.
He quickly brought the book over to Mary’s desk, sitting down on her beat-up desk chair. He flipped through the pages quickly, smiling at his daughter’s yearbook photo. It distracted him slightly, but he soon shook himself out of it. He started searching the pages more thoroughly. He was looking for one name and one name only.
Harry.
Finally, he found one picture, labeled Harry Smit. The boy had geeky glasses and was also in the chess team picture. He looked sort of like a younger version of Dwight.
“Please don’t let this be the Harry she’s talking about.” Jim thought to himself.
A few pages down, he saw another caption that read a Harry Berminghams. He looked at the picture. There was a boy making out with a girl, leaning against a wall. Jim looked to the left of the picture. It was of the same boy making out with yet another girl. He looked below that picture. Another girl.
“Oh my God. What if my daughter’s dating a man-whore?” Jim thought to himself.
About ten minutes later he had found 11 Harry’s, and two Harry’s that changed their names to Frank and Jimmy respectively. None of these boys met his standards for his daughter.
Jim sighed and looked over to the clock; it was 12:40. His lunch break was now over and he was running late.
“Shit,” he mumbled to himself. He put the yearbook back in its place and headed back to his car. He spent the rest of the day distracted
Growing Up by Morine
Author's Chapter Notes:
Chapter 2
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.
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.
