Jim stood frozen in place. Unable to move or think or breathe as Pam headed towards them.  He tried to speak as she walked past, but only managed to stick his hand out to lightly brush across her elbow.  Her head shot up and she looked at him with an expression that dropped his heart into his stomach.  There was nothing there.  No recollection. No familiarity at all.  The entire time that Ed had been explaining to him that he had never been born, he had still been holding onto the thought that this was some kind of sick joke and that if he could see Pam surely she would give it away.  Before, when they had played a prank she was really good at keeping a straight face, but Jim always saw something that gave it away.  There would be a small smile or a revealing spark in her eyes.  But now, as he looked down at her beautiful face, there was nothing.  No light, no smile…nothing.  Her eyes left his almost immediately and quickly glancing at Ed and Dwight muttered, “Excuse me.” before moving behind her desk and sitting down in her chair.

“You need to leave.” Dwight’s forceful voice broke Jim out of his daze, but he couldn’t take his eyes from the girl with the curly hair that was sitting meekly behind the reception desk. 

Something had changed about her.  Her hair was the same, reddish-brown curls pulled back with a barrette.  The outfit was the same; sensible skirt and blouse covered with a cardigan.  He even recognized the white Snoopy mug that she had placed gingerly on her desk.  She glanced up at him again, quickly, eyes not quite meeting his.  Her brow furrowed ever so slightly before she looked back to her computer.  It was in that fleeting moment that he saw it.  She looked…empty .  He had seen many looks from her over years.  Bored, annoyed, amused, happy, sad, disappointed. It was her eyes that gave her away.  The way that when she put on the tight-lipped smile for Roy when he asked if he could skip their date to go out with guys, he could still see the hurt and sadness in her eyes.  When Michael was being Michael and he could tell she was annoyed there was still also sympathy in her eyes.  When they were pranking Dwight and she was trying to hard to be expressionless, her eyes always gave her away.  And when he had told her that he loved her, in the middle of a dark parking lot and she had said “I can’t”, her eyes had plainly said, “But I want to.”

Now, there was nothing.  The sight of it was too much for him to take.  He cast one more glance in her direction and then quickly turned and walked out of the office.

“Authoritativeness . Just another perk of being a volunteer sheriff…” he heard Dwight shout as the door slammed shut behind him.  He slouched against the wall in the elevator, hands jammed into his pockets.  His heart was pounding and his mind was racing.  The reality of the situation was finally starting to sink in.  He was leaning up against the car when Ed tentatively approached him.

“You okay?” he asked folding his arms and moving to stand next to Jim.

“What happened to them?” Jim finally managed to get out, vaguely aware of the shaking in his voice.

“To who?” Ed asked.

“Them…” Jim said, gesturing towards the building.  “What happened to them?  Dwight…Michael.  Where’s Michael? He‘d never leave Dunder Mifflin…even in they did try to fire him.”  He wanted to ask about Pam, but the memory of her blank expression was still too much for him to process.

“Come on…” Ed said opening the car door. “I’ll explain on the way.”

“On the way to where?” Jim asked, staying rooted in place.

“Just come on.” Ed urged, climbing into the driver's seat.

Jim didn’t know how much  more of this he could take, but he did as Ed asked and climbed into the car.

“Dwight is still pretty much the same, wouldn’t you think?” Ed asked as he drove.

“Uh…yeah I guess.” Jim said.  “I mean he still has a tendency to over exaggerate his authority.  But, if Michael’s gone, why isn’t Dwight the regional manager?  I mean that was his main goal in life.”

“Well, that’s a main thing that changed without you there. Believe it or not, you gave Dwight some real competition in sales.  In some weird way you motivated him to be better.  I mean sure, it was more of a way for him to try to prove that you were a slacker, but still…it motivated him to be better.”

“But he’s still the same Dwight.  It didn’t seem like that much had changed…except for him hating Michael.  What was that about?”

“He is still the same Dwight in a lot of aspects.  He’s abrasive and weird and power hungry.  Without you there, he still has all his same tendencies. What changed is how he's used them.  For example…your pranks and jokes drove him crazy, but deep down it also changed him a bit.  I mean Dwight lives an…interesting life, to put it mildly, but you helped him to see that there could be humor in things.  Did you know that he went home and put his cousin Mose’s favorite wood carving in jell-o after you did the same thing to his stapler?  He told Mose stories about you.  Your alliance…his silver medal from the Office Olympics.  He might not know how to show it…but he liked you and believe it or not you changed a lot about his life.”

Jim was silent.  He couldn’t believe that to one of the most difficult people in the world, he might of mattered.  He looked out the window, confused at their current location.

“Why are we at the Wal-mart in Dickson City?”

“Let’s go…” Ed said.

Jim sighed, but followed Ed inside.  He trailed behind Ed looking around, wondering what possible connection to ‘life with Jim’ would be in Wal-mart. 

“Ow…” a voice shouted out causing Jim to stop abruptly.

“Oh…hey…I am sorry.  I wasn’t…” Jim’s voice cut off when he saw whose foot he had just stepped on.  “Michael?”

“How did you know my…” Michael started and then his face lit up like a light bulb.  “Ah…indeedy.  The name tag.”

Jim’s tore his eyes away from the familiar face and followed Michael's gaze to the white, plastic name tag that read, ‘Michael. How can I help you today?' and was accompanied by a bright green smiley face sticker.

“Do you work here?” Jim asked, taking a small step back.

“Yeppers.” Michael said.  “There are many perks.  Lots of people, tons of hot chicks…mostly looking for successful employees to date, it’s close to my mom’s house and I’m just a stoners throw away from all the sausage, egg and cheese biscuits I could want.”  ‘A stoners throw?’ Jim thought before realizing what he had meant. ‘Typical Michael.’ he smiled and then turned to see that Michael was pointing at the in-store McDonalds.  “Well…as long as I want them from 6 to 10:30 AM.” Michael laughed and said, “So, can I help you find something?”

“Um…no…I just…Wait…do you live at your mom’s?”

“Well I had to move in there after I got fired from my other job.”

“What about your condo?”

“Were you one of the people that bid for it on EBay?”

“No…“ Jim chuckled.  “Hey, I’m sorry about your job.”

“Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin Scranton.  Best job I ever had.  Stupid downsizing.”

“Michael…” a voice called out.

Michael turned around hurriedly.  “Yes?”

“I need you to go cover register four.”

“Right away, boss.” Michael said cheerily.  “Your wish is my command.”

The man gave Michael a weird look and then walked away.

“Well, duty calls.  It’s time to go be professional.  Nice to meet you…?”

“Jim…” Jim said sticking out his hand. 

“Jim.” Michael said, shaking his hand. “Well catch ya later Jim-bag.” And with that Michael turned and walked away.

“He’s something else, isn’t he?” Ed said, appearing next to Jim.

“Yeah,” Jim said in astonishment.  “Hey, did they really downsize another branch?”

“No…that’s just what Michael thought when they let him go.”

“What happened there exactly?”

“Well…you know Michael was always doing something…abnormal.” Ed said.

“Yeah…that’s an understatement.” Jim laughed softly.

“Well, believe it or not you were always kind of like…a buffer, if you will, when it came to Michael.  I mean everyone, including you, has been extremely irritated by his behavior, at one point or another…but you always seemed to be able to calm him down slightly…or at least divert his attention.  People kept calling to complain about his antics and I guess enough was enough.”

“Wow…I didn’t even…I had no idea.” Jim whispered.  “When was he fired?”

“Right after his birthday excursion to the skating rink.  Jan said he wasn’t responsible enough to be left in charge, if that was how he chose to use company time.  It was really just the straw that broke the camel's back.”

Jim nodded, but he wasn’t really listening.  The words ‘skating rink’ had triggered his memory yet again.  A small, glove-covered hand clasped tightly in his.  The sound of laughter ringing in his ears.

“Pam…” he said softly.

“What?” Ed asked.

“What happened to Pam?  She looked…different.”

“Let’s go.  We still have one more stop first.” Ed said, ignoring Jim’s question all together.

“But…”

“All in due time Jim.  All in due time.” Ed said calmly.

Before Jim could really comprehend what was happening, they were back in the car heading towards Scranton.  Neither Jim nor Ed spoke until Ed parked the car by a spot that Jim knew all to well.

“What are we doing here?” he asked looking out the window.

“You know this place right?”

“Of course…” Jim said pushing open the door and stepping out of the car. 

He looked out over the snow covered football field of Dunmore High School.  He had many, many memories of this field.  The track that encircled it, was almost like a second home to him.  He had run many, many laps around that track  Some were for fun, some for competition, some to impress girls and even more were run, to forget one. 

 The field was also home to the annual Halpert Family Pre-Christmas Snow Football game, a tradition started by his dad and Uncle Brian that was a part of Jim’s Christmas memories as far back as he could remember.  There were pictures of him in family photo albums wrapped in blankets sitting on his mother's lap and others of him bundled up chasing his older brothers around the field.  Sometimes friends joined in and a couple of times, girlfriends came to cheer them on, but most of the time it was just his family and it was always one of his favorite times of the year. 
   He could see his brother Tom fall to the ground in an attempt to wrestle the ball away from his cousin Matt.  His mom and aunts were sitting on the sidelines, wrapped from head to toe in blankets cheering loudly.  The image that played out in front of him, made Jim’s eyes begin to sting.  He quickly wiped at them as he pulled his coat tighter.

“They seem fine.” he said, completely aware of the bitterness in his voice.  “Good to see my absence didn’t change any of them.”

“It did though, Jim.  I mean granted no one died because you weren’t there to save them or anything drastic like that, but you have a special affect on people.  It makes them want to be better.  For example…your brother Tom.  Tell me about him?”

“He’s a lawyer. Lives in New Jersey with his wife Marci and little girl Vanessa.”

“Close.” Ed said.  “He is a lawyer…but in New York…and he is single.  There is no Marci and there is no Vanessa.”

“What? Why?” Jim asked, confused.

“Do you remember how Tom met Marci?”

“Yeah…it was the summer I was ten.  Pete, Tom and I were at Camp Lohikan.  Pete and Tom recruited me to help them prank this girl's cabin.  I was so excited because they never let me in on their pranks with them.  I was running and tripped over a rock.  Tom came to help me up and Marci… 

“Marci was walking by and stopped to help because you were crying.”

“Yeah…thanks for letting me relive that.” Jim said with a smile.

Ed grinned and continued, “Tom never met Marci…they never kept in touch…they never fell in love and got married.”

“Wow.  All that because I couldn’t keep control of my big feet?”

“Surprising, huh?”

“Yeah…I guess.” he glanced out at the field once more. “Wait…I don’t see…where’s Pete?”

“He hasn‘t been to a family get-together in years,” Ed said matter-of-factly

“What?” Jim asked, surprised.

“Remember the huge fight that he and your dad had when he wanted to change majors?”

“Yeah?  What about it?  They made up.”

“Only because you asked him too.”

“Come on…” Jim said skeptically.  “There’s no way that anything I said changed that.”

“It did though.  You told him that your dad just wanted what was best for him and that they should try and talk it out.  You were always the family mediator.  Don’t you see Jim?  Just by being you…you made a difference.  You didn’t have to do anything big to have an effect.”

Jim stood there for a few minutes, watching his family as a wave of guilt washed over him.  All they had wanted to do was help him.  They loved him and they wanted to help and he had pushed them away.  He missed them.  All he wanted to do at that moment was get a big hug from his mom and be teased mercilessly by his brothers.  Anything to have life make sense to him again.

“You ready?” Ed asked softly, rubbing his hands together.  It was turning dark and a cold wind was blowing snow up from the ground.

“Yeah…” Jim said, glancing back once more at his family. 

“You hungry?” Ed asked as he started the car.

Jim just shrugged, not really feeling hungry or cold. In fact he didn’t really feel anything. 

“Of course…” Jim muttered under his breath, as Ed pulled into the parking lot of yet another familiar location.  A bright, red sign that read Cugino’s, stared back at him outside the window of the car. 

“You think you’re really funny don’t you?” He grumbled to Ed as he slammed the car door behind him.

“Maybe just a little.” Ed smiled, clapping Jim on the back.

“Just when I thought I was getting to like you a bit…” Jim said, as he followed Ed inside.

They were seated immediately and Jim recognized the small table as being right next to the booth that he and Pam had shared.  Jim gazed at his menu, but the words blurred in front of him. 

“What can I get you to drink?” the waiter asked, pulling out his pad.

“Lemonade for me…and for you Jim? Jim?” Ed said.

But Jim wasn’t paying attention. Instead his eyes were glued to the front door.  There stood Roy Anderson and another guy that Jim could identify as his equally obnoxious brother Kenny and standing next to Roy, looking almost crushed under the weight of his arm thrown across her shoulder, was Pam.