“Who wants a present?”

“Meeee,” the kids both gleefully responded.

“Well, you are in luck because Pam brought you each one. I told her Santa had brought you enough at Christmas but she insisted.”

Like Matryoshka dolls in reverse, the little smirk on Jim’s face was surpassed by the bigger smile on Pam’s which was overshadowed by the gleeful grins that spread across the kids as she pulled the gifts out from the bag and handed them each to the kids.

After watching the kids opening the presents and receiving the chorus of thank yous that followed, Pam snuck out to change into her own casual yoga pants that she retrieved from the bag when she took out the gifts. Upon emerging from the bathroom now ready for a night of play, the four of them took a tour of Charlie’s room so Pam could meet Mr. Dwigt—despite the fact she already knew his namesake all too well—and the rest of his furry animal friends. 

Charlie demonstrated how he taught all of them to fly – sending every one of his stuffed toys on a trajectory across the room to land near the mesh bucket where they normally lived. But when he announced he too learned to fly, climbing up onto the bed and bouncing a few times before he tried to take flight, Pam sent Jim to grab him before he launched himself into orbit and a surefire accident.

Once Charlie was safe back on solid ground, they all played a few of Charlie’s board games, Pam losing at Chutes and Ladders but winning big at Candy Land by landing on all of the shortcuts helping her to arrive at Candy Castle first.

Whether it was the subliminal effect of the candy on the board tempting them or just it was dinnertime for the kids, Charlie now announced he was hungry.

“Then I guess it’s dinnertime,” Jim proclaimed.

“That’s not fair.  Pam was supposed to come see my room,” Vanessa whined.

“But I’m hungry.”

“You’re always hungry. I want Pam to see my room first.”

“I wanna eat somting.”

“You’ll have to wait you selfish pig.”

The voices that moments ago were soft and sweet were slowly getting louder, meaner and in Charlie’s case, undecipherable, as he began to cry.

Pam and Jim looked at each other for a moment, silently communicating what do we do now before Pam sprang to action. First, she proclaimed that Jim, not Charlie, was in fact the pig, and such he was giving piggyback rides. And right on cue, Jim scooped up Charlie for a ride out of the room and towards the staircase, making a rolling motion with his finger and dipping his head to a small bow, which Pam returned before she turned to appeal to Vanessa.

“How about we eat first and then I’ll come see your room, and I’ll give you an art lesson while the boys set up a fort. And I’ll draw you a whole bunch of Snoopy’s. Deal?”

“Deal,” Vanessa answered as they left Charlie’s room.

When they caught up to the others near the stairs, Charlie was smiling again. Jim set him back to the floor before they all head down, at Pam’s suggestion, on foot.

Pam was surprised how easily they were able to diffuse the situation and how well the entire night was going so far. She had been so nervous and she was slowly realizing it was for nothing. All she had to do was employ the same tactics she used to keep Michael from acting on his impulses or in this case keep Jim and Dwight from killing each other.

They made their way to the combined kitchen/family room which was bursting with toys. The fridge was adorned with primitive artwork, drawings of stick figures with giant heads and four fingered hands and simple snowmen in snow-covered fields, color-coded schedules for practices and school events and a magnet that read, All of my plants are dead. The good news is, the kids are still alive.

Pam put the kids to works setting out their plates and grabbing the juice boxes from the fridge and put Jim to work heating up the chicken nuggets as she grabbed the Gogurt tube from the freezer and baby carrots and guacamole from the fridge.

Per Marcie’s instructions she counted out 5 carrot sticks and set them on Charlie’s plate along with the yogurt tube that she was told not to open until after he’d eaten all the carrots. On Vanessa’s plate she put a handful of carrots and a scoop of the guac.

“Snoopy likes to eat green mush. Eeeww”

“It’s called guacamole, Charlie,” she retorted back at him. “And don’t yuck my yum.”

Pam's ears perked up as Vanessa rebuked her brother.

“What was that you said to him? Don’t yuck my yum? Snoopy...” Pam finally felt comfortable calling her what seemed the more common way to address Jim’s niece, “I love that.”

“Yeah, well my mom says it’s not nice to make people feel bad about foods they like.” She turned to glare at her brother. “But Charlie still does.”

Charlie stuck his tongue out at his sister but she didn’t catch it as she went back to eating her green mush. Jim did however and sent him a warning wave of his finger although Pam caught the half smile on his face. Meeting his eyes with her own Pam added, “I might have to use that line on your uncle. He yucks my yum, too.”

“Uncle Jim you shouldn’t do that. It’s not nice.”

“Yeah,” added Pam.

Once the kids were fed Pam let Vanessa lead her to her room leaving Jim and Charlie to deconstruct the couch and set up their fort. To say Vanessa's room had a Snoopy motif was putting it mildly. Stepping into it Pam felt like she had entered a sacred shrine for Charles M. Schultz. There were at least 6 Snoopy dolls on the bed, a Flying Ace, a Joe Cool, one with a Santa hat and another with a graduation cap, the last few were plain Snoopys that looked worn but very loved.

The bed itself was made up with a Snoopy blanket atop Peanuts gang sheets. On the walls were a variety of framed posters some with Snoopy and Woodstock and some with the whole gang. Pam's immediate favorite was the Charlie Brown and Snoopy on a dock staring out at Van Gogh's Starry Night. At the foot of the bed were a pair of Snoopy slippers while across the room a doghouse topped bookcase was filled with Peanuts puzzles, books and toys. An overabundance of Snoopy already filling the room did not keep Vanessa from wanting Pam to draw a whole bunch more for her on the back of her notebooks and the paper bag wrapped school books.

True to her word, Pam gave Vanessa an art lesson, teaching her a few tricks using combined shapes to construct a rendering of her favorite character and namesake. Vanessa’s attempts were not half bad so Pam, delighted to have possibly found an art student to mentor, taught her some other techniques for shading and hatching when adding more detail to her art. Vanessa listened intently, asking a lot of questions and seeking Pam’s appraisal as she employed the methods Pam showed her.

“You’re a really good teacher. At school, Mrs. Kent just passes out crayons and tells us what to draw. She never shows us stuff like this.”

“That’s really too bad. My 3rd grade art teacher was the one who taught me to love drawing and painting. But you can consider me your substitute teacher. Whenever I see you, I’m happy to give you lessons.”

While she watched her little student draw a snowman amid a landscape of snowy hills, she noticed how much richer the art seemed than the similar picture she’d seen on the fridge. It felt good, to be able to share her knowledge and her love of art with the sweet girl who sat beside her. Pam made a mental note to pick up a set of good art pencils to send to Vanessa the next time she went shopping for supplies.

The art lesson went on for a while as Vanessa asked her to show her more. While enjoying the bonding time with Vanessa she wanted to get back to Jim and see what the boys were up to. Peeking back at the bookcase, she scanned the stack of games for another one they could all play.

“Snoopy, what do you say we take that Twister game you’ve got there downstairs and join the boys.”

When they got downstairs the family room had been renovated to a campground of pillows, couch cushions and blankets, underneath which Charlie and Jim were crawling around stealthily and pretending to be spies. Jim was mostly hanging out at the far side where the blanket that hung over the island’s bar stools afforded him a little more space. When Charlie caught Vanessa coming in on the opposite end, he hollered out at her.

“No girls allowed.”

Jim crawled up behind him. Despite his best attempts to stay low, his long frame pushed against the blanket roof almost taking out the quilt that covered the middle.

“Hey buddy, remember what I told you. When the girls came down we’d have to let them in too or we’d take the whole thing down. Right?”

Charlie nodded in reluctant agreement but allowed the girls into their fortress. Pam got down on all fours and crawled up to where Jim had returned to camp.

“This is pretty cozy.”

“Easy for you to say, you barely have to duck. I’ve been crawling around in here for almost an hour, and it’s starting to take a toll on my back.”

Lowering his voice so the kids wouldn’t hear him he added, “and there are other things I can think of to do in here on all fours other than pretending to be a CIA officer with Charlie.”

“Oh, like what Halpert?”

Jim leaned in to kiss her when both the kids suddenly came upon them. Charlie started ooohing while Vanessa just smiled.

Just then Jim started to roar, startling even Pam as he threw out his arms jumping to his feet, this time really taking out the fort’s rooftop.

“Argghhhhh, I’ve fallen under a magic spell that turned me into an ogre. And ogre that likes to eat little children.”

He started after the kids as they shrieked happily running from him. Pam watched as Jim chased them around the cushions that were now tumbling over forming road blocks around the room.

“The only thing that can turn me back is the kiss of a fair maiden.”

Jim scooped up Charlie.

“You look mighty tasty. I bet you taste like guacamole,” he said as he licked his lips making a real show of it.

Vanessa ran back to where Jim had just seized her brother making a helpless attempt to pull him down from the ogre. Turning back to Pam she called for help just as Jim grabbed her too, now holding both of the kids in each of his arms.

“Aunt Pam. Help us. He’s going to eat us.”

Pam pretended to be hard of hearing and oblivious to the scene in front of her, trying hard not to smile at the crystal ball vision that was playing out in front of her.

She’d always thought he’d make a great father one day having seen him at enough take your daughter to work days to see how great he was with kids but she had never thought about him as the father of her own kids until seeing him now.

Likewise, never did she consider her own insecurity at being around kids could be a product of who she was with and not from any personal shortcomings. Relating to children somehow seemed easier with Jim as her partner. Watching his natural playfulness and true joy around kids, she couldn’t help but feel those same things herself. Knowing Jim would be an active parent when the time came, and not having to worry all the responsibilities would fall on her shoulders as she often did when she was with Roy, made a huge difference in her attitude and allowed her natural instincts to come out. Natural instincts, it turns out that were, as Jim had said, very motherly indeed.

“Pam, hurry up and kiss him before he makes us his dinner.”

Jim growled some more.

“This is one hungry ogre. Hmmm Snoopy or Charlie Brown, who shall I try first?”

Coming to the rescue at last Pam finally made her way to where Jim had both the kids squirming in his arms and planted a chaste but sweet kiss on his lips.

“Huh, wuh, what happened,” he pretended to be confused as he set the still giggling kids back down.

“You were a hungry ogre Uncle Jim. You tried to eat us.”

“Oh well now I’m just a hungry Uncle, he said before turning to Pam and adding quietly, “and tired.”

Pam was actually a little tired and hungry too having only had a few carrot sticks when the kids ate and thought coffee might help them perk up and tie them over until the kids went to sleep and they could eat themselves.

“I think it’s time for a cocoa and coffee break. What do you say Uncle Jim?”