Good Friday, March 25, 2016

"Jim Halpert, Halpert Interior Design. Pink is our specialty, princess rooms our pride!"

Jim had thought about letting the call go to voice mail when he saw who was calling his cell phone, but he couldn't resist the urge to mess with Dwight. And even though Jim's current job was similar to his Dunder Mifflin job, but for more money and with more normal coworkers, Dwight might not know that. He might be just gullible enough to believe that Jim now had a career in interior design. The silence on the other end of the line indicated success; Dwight had been rendered speechless, until finally --

"Girl. I should have known."

"Who is this?" said Jim. "Were you looking for a girl? I assure you that all our girls are discreet and very clean. Some of them have gone on to marry beet farmers -- not the best of the girls, of course, but beet farmers can't afford to be choosy."

Jim heard sputtering on the other end of the line, and then a whispered conversation he couldn't quite make out. He could tell Dwight was talking to another man, though, and after thirty seconds or so, he heard Dwight say, "All right. All right. I'll ask him. All right. Shut up."

"Jim, this is Dwight Schrute."

"I'm sorry?" said Jim, smiling as he did so. Messing with Dwight had gotten him through many mundane days at Dunder Mifflin, and at one time had been a safe excuse to spend time with Pam. He missed it -- not so much needing an excuse to spend time with Pam, but the pranking. With a wife and two kids to think about now, he took his current job much more seriously than he had ever taken his sales job at Dunder Mifflin. The chance to take a few moments to play with Dwight's brain was a rare and welcome diversion.

"Dwight. Schrute." The words were louder and over-enunciated this time.

"Oh, yes, I heard you -- I'm just sorry it's you." Jim heard a huge sigh from Dwight, and then,"Ask him, ask him," in the background from the other voice.

"I'm calling" Dwight continued, sounding resigned, "because Mose wants you and Pam to come over to Schrute Farms on Sunday to hunt for eggs."

"This Sunday? Easter?"

"Of course, Easter. Angela will be at the sunrise Easter service, so that's when we'll hunt for the eggs," Dwight said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Won't Angela want to see the egg hunt?" asked Jim. Pam had been talking for a while about how she wanted to have an Easter egg hunt for the kids and take a lot of pictures. It was hard for Jim to imagine that Angela wouldn't want to watch her children finding their Easter eggs, but then again, Angela wasn't the easiest person to understand.

"Angela is not to know about this," corrected Dwight. "This is important, Jim. Do not confirm my belief that Mose's faith in you is horribly misplaced."

Jim shook his head. If nothing else, it would be interesting to see Schrute Farms again. It had been a long time since he and Pam had stayed there in Dwight's brief agrotourism phase. "Okay, we'll be there. I'm sure Laura will be glad to see your daughter Heike -- they're in kindergarten together."

"You're going to bring the children? Your girl's rather young to be able to help, and don't you have a baby? He's going to be useless."

"Yeah, I think we'll bring the kids for the Easter egg hunt," Jim replied. He had forgotten that there was no sense trying to understand Dwight. "I'm sure they'll do their best."

Dwight exhaled loudly. "Fine. Bring them along. Just be there at 6:30 A.M. sharp, ready to hunt eggs. I only hope that your powers of observation have improved since the last time I saw you."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Jim arrived home and found Pam sketching in the study, five-year-old Laura drawing at her desk nearby. He kissed both his girls hello and learned from Pam that their son Joey was having a late nap. After catching up a bit on the day, he broached the topic of a visit to the land of beets.

"Pam, you know how you wanted to find an Easter egg hunt for the kids?" he asked.

Pam's eyes lit up, but she didn't have a chance to answer as Laura squealed in delight and ran to hug her father. "When, Daddy, today? Can I go wake up Joey?"

"No, not today, Laura. Sunday."

"Is it a good one?" Pam asked. "With some of them you have to pay a lot of money to do it, and then only the bigger kids end up with more than a couple of eggs."

"Well, Pam, it's at Schrute Farms, so..." Pam's bark of laughter made Jim laugh as well. When he could talk again, he explained the odd conversation he had had with Dwight.

"At the very least," Pam said, "it should be unique. I wonder why Mose wants us there so much."

"You mean I get to meet Mose?" said Laura, jumping up and down and clapping. "Heike talks about Mose all the time, and her barn, and her sisters, and her outhouse. I really want to go to Heike's house! Yay!"

Jim and Pam exchanged a grin. "Maybe Mose will show you his trampoline moves," said Jim.

"Ooh, fun!" said Pam teasingly. "So do you suppose there are other kids coming, or is it just our two kids, their girls, and Mose?"

"No idea. But it's weird that Angela's not going to be there for the egg hunt, right?" asked Jim.

Pam shrugged one shoulder and hesitated before answering. "Maybe...it's not religious enough, or something? Like, it's just for fun?"

"Yeah, fun and Angela don't really mix," said Jim. "Which is probably why she and Dwight get along so well, because he's also no fun."

"Daddy, Heike's mom and dad have to be fun," Laura insisted.

"Nope, they're not," replied Jim. Pam shook her head ‘no,' as well.

"But Heike's a lot of fun -- we laugh all the time in school."

"That's probably why your teacher told me she has to separate you all the time," answered Pam.

"Yeah. But how can Heike be so much fun if her mom and dad aren't fun?" asked Laura.

Jim hugged his daughter and laughed. "Mutation?"