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Story Notes:
A love story, as narrated by Jim and Pam and the many unusual characters who occupy their every day lives, and who may also have a version or two to share.

I was inspired to write this story, somewhat out of nowhere, and so here I am. Writing this story. I hope that you will enjoy it.

Following is the necessary disclaimer that disclaims things (like the idea that any of these characters belong to me, because they don't, unfortunately, but as explained below, they do belong to someone, or some people, and goodness gracious has this sentence offensively abused the necessary use of the comma). Anyhow, a disclaimer:

Necessary disclaimer:

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters are the property of the author. I am not associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

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Author's Chapter Notes:
This chapter very much follows a David Foster Wallace style in that the questions are omitted, leaving only for you to read the answers.

So, can we start with a preface? Because I feel as though this story requires some sort of preface- a historical background if you will so that you can understand what this story is about, the story of when Jim met Pam and the story of when Larissa Halpert's son fell in love.


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A preface:

Larrissa Halpert provides a brief, historical background on her youngest son and his many failed attempts at love (summer 2009)

Q.
A. Some would say that I got lucky. My husband, Jim’s father, is the perfect mate for me. We have never spent a day apart, we always eat together three times a day, and in over 45 years, I have not once felt tired of him.

Q.
A. My son used to say that his father and I were the least analytical people he had ever met. His father and I went on a blind date for dinner on a Sunday night, a movie on Monday night, and two weeks later, we moved in together.

Q.
A. Well, I say he used to say that because back then, back before he met my future daughter-in-law, he just couldn’t understand it. He couldn’t understand how two people could meet and fall in love, and knew that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together, and got married all within a matter of weeks. His father and I married only three months from the day we met.

Q.
A. I knew that he was a very capable person. At the time, of course we thought of ourselves as being very grown up, but now- God- I look back and I think that we were so stupid and young. But they always say that finding love is like finding the right pair of shoes, and my husband, Jim’s father. He was the right fit.

Q.
A. Well, of course you wish the same for your children, and with my sons, I hoped for them to find a bright, successful woman and that they would never have to endure heartbreak, and of course that wasn’t the case. But I wished and I hoped, and eventually Tom found Marci and Pete found Heather and Jim found Pam and as the saying goes, love conquered all in the end.

Q.
A. It’s a funny thing, actually. Watching the boys grow up, I’ve come to realize that male bonding involves this sort of love-hate relationship. The three of them couldn’t be more different from one another. There was Tom, our oldest, always so wiry and high-strung, and next in line was Pete, who was athletic and masculine and handsomely rugged, although never quite artistic or intellectual, and finally, there was Jim. Jim has always had this quiet, gentle presence about him, and he admired his older brothers and he seemed to always look for their approval.

And eventually Tom and Pete got older and Jim would always want to tag along, and his brothers would tell him, “We only play with boys who are taller and who are old enough to curse and swear,” but at the same time they were very protective of Jim, even though they tried to hide it at times. Of course, you expect to go through that, having three boys- the sibling rivalry and the fights- and I would always tell Tom and Pete, “Look out for your brother,” and there was jealousy because the oldest siblings always think that the youngest has the easiest life. But my husband and I, we did the best that we could, and we loved all three of our children equally, and we hoped for the best for each one of them, and of course we weren’t perfect, but I like to think that we managed alright.

Q.
A. I wouldn’t say that any of them were particularly ‘momma’s boys’, or whatever the meaning of that phrase holds these days, but out of the three I would say that Jim was certainly the ladies man, although he detested it. I guess that’s something you deal with, being the youngest child. As the other children get older, the youngest is seen as being all new and shiny, and the girls at school and who lived in our neighborhood- oh how they fell in love with him, and they would show up on our doorstep with notes for Jim, and cookies for Jim, and baked bread for Jim, and Jim would always run and hide somewhere off in the house, hating all of the attention, and even as he got older, he never really grew into it, the idea that the girls wanted him because he was the youngest and he was the tallest and he had that same full head of hair with the bangs that fell over his eyes, and all of the girls adored him.

Q.
A. I wouldn’t say that there were many women, although there were several, and no, this isn’t a segue that ultimately leads to an entire list of all of the women whom Jim has dated, but sure, I remember each and every one of them and the reasons why those particular relationships were doomed to fail. It’s the same with all three of my sons. You always remember the girl who broke their heart. You always remember that loss and those mistakes and the loss of all expectations; and you try to protect them from the idea that they’ll never meet someone as smart or as wonderful again, and it’s hard for a mother, to watch your son go through that, but you try to be there as much as they’ll let you and you give them their space to get it all worked out. And you try to rebuild their confidence, and you tell them they are good, and that eventually they will find someone again. Even in their darkest days, you try to get them to see the lighter side of the situation.

Q.
A. I remember the first woman to secure Jim’s heart and the first woman to tear it to pieces, and both were the same. You all should be familiar with her. She is Jim’s fiancé, and she works here, in this office. Her name is Pam Beesly.

Q.
A. Well of course, I will always remember the day as if it were yesterday. Dunder Mifflin was the first job that Jim applied for. He was straight out of college, almost eight years ago now, and going into the interview Jim was- well, he was nervous. He was dressed in his father’s old clothes which were three sizes too big and his palms were sweating, and he went over his power pitch all morning during breakfast, and he practiced shaking hands with his father and me on his way out the door and he went into the interview and he took his father and me out to lunch right after, and during lunch he received a call from Michael Scott who offered him the job, and he started the very next day.

He called me not even thirty minutes into his first day. He hated his job. He didn't get along with his co-workers. The man at the desk next to him looked at him funny and accused him of stealing his scythe, and Jim is telling me, “Mom, I didn’t steal his scythe. And besides, why would anyone bring a scythe into an office building?” and I ask him, “What kind of place is this where you are working? Where employees are permitted to bring scythes to work? It sounds awfully dangerous,” and he says he is considering that maybe he will quit and look for something else tomorrow, and I told him, “Just make it through the day and then we’ll see.”

Later that evening, he came home from work, a little after 5:30, and so I asked him, “How did the rest of your day go? Should we begin to look for something else?” And he said, “Actually, Dunder Mifflin isn’t too bad,” and he had this smile on his face, and I knew that something must have happened. So I asked him, and he said he had gone out to lunch with the office receptionist. They went to Cugino’s, this lovely Italian restaurant close to the office, and he said that she was really nice and she was really funny, and at that moment, I knew. I knew that Jim was in serious trouble.

Q.
A. I think as a mother, you simply pick up on those type of things; you have your instincts and you see things, often before your own children notice these things, and I could see over the next couple of days, when Jim would come home from work and he would smile and his face would light up, and I just knew. I knew that he had fallen for that girl, and when he did he fell with everything that he had, and I knew that he was falling in love with her.

Q.
A. He told me that she was engaged- she was with some boy who worked in the warehouse downstairs, and I figured, well maybe that will be the end of it, but it wasn’t, because when Jim fell it wasn’t head first; he wasn’t thinking with his head at all, it was with all of his heart. And it was painful to watch that, because it wasn’t just some crush or some fleeting feeling that would eventual run its course and go away. And with children, when you see that they are in danger, you try to warn them, and of course they never listen, and then ultimately something happens, something that permanently damages them or wrecks them, and as a parent, you try to be there and you try to help mend them as long as they will let you.

And so it got to the point where Jim realized that Pam was in love with this Roy, and that she wasn’t going to leave him, and so I tried, I tried to find the words to rebuild his confidence, and to tell him that he is good and decent, and that eventually he would find someone, someone that was meant for him, and I tried to find a way to get him to see the lighter side of things.

But then I looked back over the five years that Jim had loved her, and I remembered all of the smiles after days with her, and I remembered all of the relationships that failed because his heart belonged to someone else, and I realized. I realized why I found it so impossible, to get him to see that this was okay, that he would find someone else, that there was an opportunity to be optimistic, to look forward toward the future.

What Jim felt for Pam, it was more than friendship and it was far greater than romance and devotion or infatuation- it was all of those things, and he was connected to her. He was connected to her in this way, this passionate way, this way where all of his weekends were miserable because it was time he didn’t get to spend with her; this way where he got up early every morning and stopped by our house for breakfast, because he looked forward to going to work, and this way where when he finally realized that she wasn’t his, that she wasn’t his and that she never would be, that she belonged to someone else, his first instinct was to run away. To run away, and wish that it never happened because that was the only way he could try to forget her, pretend that she never happened.

Only he couldn’t forget her. And so he went back. And sure, there was someone else for awhile and sure, he was confused for awhile, and he sort of had to find himself again after losing himself to that battle for awhile, and eventually he did. Eventually, he became Jim again and eventually he found his way back and when he did, he found his way back to her.

And that is the story of when Jim met Pam and when my youngest son finally found true love, albeit brief as it is and... Well, I could get into the whole thing, and I could explain to you every important detail, but for this story, this story is... Well, it's complicated, and it would require a lot of time to tell, and, well... Well, how much time do you have, exactly?

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Chapter End Notes:
The story of Jim and his brothers is inspired by William and Henry James, also known as the infamous James boys!

Next up: Jim, Pam and Michael, and other employees of the offices of Dunder Mifflin Scranton, give an assessment of Jim's first day. Not every chapter will follow this same format but will instead be told from several different points of view.

Thank you so much for reading. Reviews are always wonderful motivators. :)


Nightswept is the author of 12 other stories.
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