Friday December 14th, 2007

 “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose…”

As she sucked on a peppermint candy cane, Pam Beesly surveyed her living room with an overwhelming sense of glee.  Christmas decorations were festooned about the room in a glorious, chaotic mass of seasonal cheer. Her tree, a pleasant five-footer, sitting graciously in a corner of the room, was an array of mis-matched decorations hanging from every branch. It was an explosion of colour and warmth that rolled through her apartment. Complemented by the smell of gingerbread cookies nearly ready to come out of the oven, and the sound of Nat King Cole playing from her stereo, it was all wonderful.

One of the best parts of her apartment was the brick fireplace that had come with it. In the spring and summer months it sat untouched, but winter in Pennsylvania could be bitter, and the fire was a real boon. The first winter in her apartment had mostly been spent sitting on her sofa, staring into the flames in despair with a large glass of wine whilst Pam rebuilt her life and watched helplessly as the man she’d finally realised she loved seemingly built a life with someone else. Many tears had been shed in front of that fire and it knew all her secrets. Lucky for her, it was the strong and silent type and an excellent confidante.

There was one thing missing from the idyll in front of her. That something, or rather someone, was outside trying to put up the Christmas lights on her small balcony. She smiled as she looked over to the tall, shadowy figure moving outside. Although the next thing she heard was a loud curse and all the power going off in her apartment, plunging everything into darkness, other than the flicker of the flames sending muted light and shadow across the living room.

“Babe, are you OK?” she rushed over to the door to check on her companion’s welfare.

“Yep. I think I overloaded the fuse with that last string. These old apartments don’t like too much current,” he chuckled. “Do you have a spare?”

“Yeah, somewhere in a drawer in the kitchen. I’ll get a torch.” The figure followed her back inside and took his coat off, brushing the snow off at the balcony door and removing his shoes to leave him in suitably festive socks, a Black Friday gift exchange after a Thanksgiving where Pam was very grateful about lots of things and made sure that the subject of her affections was very aware of that. Luckily for her, he seemed to be pretty grateful too, especially as once the mandatory parental visits were over, they’d ended up spending the rest of the extended weekend in front of the same fire with leftovers from two houses, increasingly little clothing and gaining an alarming amount of rug burns that strangely neither of them were terribly bothered about.

As Pam returned to the living room a minute later with the spare fuse, the scene lit by the fire took her breath away. There he was, sat on the floor with his back against the sofa and his long legs stretched out on the fluffy rug she’d bought shortly after moving in. His cashmere sweater accentuated his lean form. His hair was its usual tousled self and the smile he wore when she walked back into the living room was bright enough to light the whole room, however dark.

“Did you find it, Beesly?” he looked at her in expectation.

“Yeah.” Pam was spellbound. She held the replacement fuse in her hand but it might have well have evaporated into thin air, everything else forgotten at the sight in front of her.

“What is it? You OK?” Pam nodded mutely and sat down, right next to him. The fuse fell out of her hand onto the floor. He pulled her onto his lap. She couldn’t help herself and kissed him tenderly.

“You just looked so…” She trailed off before she could say the word perfect. Gazing at him in the dim light, she stroked his cheek. “Jim…” she murmured as they kissed again. It all escalated pretty quickly from there. It wasn’t the first night they’d ended up making love on the rug in front of the fire, but this time was probably the most reverent and intense to date. The fuse could wait until the morning.

***

Tuesday 25th December 2007

A couple of weeks later, in the dim morning twilight of Scranton on Christmas morning, Jim and Pam were still on the verges of sleep, wrapped in each other as they tended to do, the scramble of arms and legs that would have looked uncomfortable to the outside world, but didn’t seem to bother them one iota. There was a pile of presents under Pam’s tree, awaiting the day to begin, and Pam’s teapot sat ready for the first drink of the day to be poured into it. The original contents had been safely put away in a shoebox of happy memories and although it had spent time at the office when Pam was still finding her way in her new world, the teapot now mainly lived at her apartment.

“Hi,” a dozy but very happy Jim whispered into his girlfriend’s ear. “Merry Christmas.” He followed that with a kiss and pulled her closer so she could feel just how happy he was.

“Merry Christmas,” she mumbled, still quite sleepy but with a smirk appearing that maybe she wasn’t that sleepy. Not really a morning person, Jim had discovered soon after they’d started  sleeping together. On weekends and public holidays, she was particularly fond of her bed, especially, as it turned out, with Jim in that bed. It was something else very cute about her. Along with the fact they were both very much naked. He was ready for this to be the best Christmas morning in history…

On this Christmas Day though, the gentle sound of contented murmurs was broken by a rapping on the door. At first the lovers ignored it, too busy with each other to notice. But the knock on the door continued and became more persistent.

“Hmmm” Jim’s voice rumbled as he pressed a kiss onto Pam’s bare shoulder. “Were you expecting anyone?”

“Uh-uh.” Pam barely stirred and seemed to actually try and bury herself further into Jim. However, the knocking failed to stop. After a few more seconds, Jim decided he needed to investigate whoever was not taking being ignored for an answer, so he pulled on some underwear and tracksuit pants and stooped down to grab a t-shirt from the floor as he ambled out of the room.

When Jim opened the front door, he was shocked to see Dwight standing in front of him.

“Finally!”

“Dwight? What are you doing here?”

“This is a matter of significant importance.” Jim wracked his brains. Was this a prank he’d forgotten about? Was it possible that Dwight was pranking them?

“I’m sorry, but you’ve lost me. Why are you here today? You know what day it is, right?”

“Yes, of course Jim, it’s Weihnachten. Belsnickel has been testing the children to see if they are impish or admirable! That’s in part why I’m here!” 

“I’m sorry, but wei-what?” Jim’s confusion was just absorbed into the early morning air as Dwight was already pushing past him into Pam’s apartment with the air of a mad professor. 

“Jim, who’s there so early on Christmas?” came a voice from down the hall. Pam had put on a t-shirt, panties, and a robe. Still sleepy, she wandered out of her bedroom at the mild commotion. She was not expecting to see Dwight standing in her hall with a discombobulated Jim, although the latter was now also looking at her very admiringly whilst still looking adorably confused at Dwight. Pam was impressed at Jim’s ability to multitask, even in this situation. 

“Dwight, er… Merry Christmas? Not that we’re not pleased to see you, but why are you here? And how do you even know where I live?” 

“Jim asked me that already. You are both extremely predictable. Of course I have the details of every member of the Scranton Dunder Mifflin employee roster in the event of a federal emergency.  Anyway, to the purpose of my visit. Mose has run away, and I can’t find him. He has developed somewhat of a fondness for you, Pam, since your recent stay, so I wondered if he might have been here.”

Dwight started rifling around the apartment in what appeared to be some level of almost panic.

"I’m sorry Dwight, but he’s not been here.”

“You haven’t had any unusual events, unexpected activity overnight?” Jim and Pam exchanged a small smirk but both knew that wasn’t what Dwight was referring to. “Mose is actually a master of ingenuity; you’d be surprised at how small a space he can fit into.”

“Okay Dwight. Well, that’s potentially alarming.” Pam nudged Jim and mouthed be nice at him out of Dwight's eye-line.

"I really don’t think Mose is here. Why did he run away?” Pam felt some sympathy for her co-worker, especially after his break-up with Angela a few months before. “Maybe we can help. Would you like some tea?”

“Coffee please.”

A few minutes later Dwight was sitting on the sofa with a large cup of Folgers. This had not featured on Jim or Pam’s top five Christmas morning activities bingo card.

“So what happened” asked Pam kindly.

“Mose got spooked when I dressed up as Belsnickel this year. Usually he loves him, dances around him like a small child, but I upgraded my costume, added more twigs and dirt. My best ever. But when Mose saw me, he took one look at me, screamed like a schreiende Todesfee and bolted.”

Jim and Pam were not aware of the myth of Belsnickel, the raggedy man of sticks and dirt who was popular in Dutch- and German- Pennsylvanian culture. Jim surreptitiously googled Belsnickel on Pam’s laptop after excusing himself to brush his teeth, and after several attempts to get the spelling right, was shocked to find that it really was a thing and not something in Dwight’s sometimes impressive imagination. This was certainly surprising.

“So you think Mose came here?”

“Well, he likes you Pam, sees you as some sort of mother figure.”

“But I’m only three years older than-"

“Pam, Mose has simpler needs than most. He’s quite special. Anyway, I need to get him back. He doesn’t do well without supervision and despite the day, there is still work to do on the farm.”

“But I’m pretty sure he’s not here, so where would he be? The office, maybe?” 

“Maybe.” Dwight considered for a moment. “Or he may have gone to look at the Electric Building sign. He likes looking it since they renovated it a few years ago. He finds it soothing. Maybe I’ll head there next.”

“He walked from Shrute Farm into central Scranton? Isn’t that like twelve miles away?”

“No, no, he’ll have his bike. It’s small, but he has short legs, so it’s fine.”

There was a pause as Dwight drank his coffee and Pam processed just how random the last twenty minutes had been.

“Is there anything else we can do to help you?” Dwight shook his head.

“No, thank you; I’ll keep looking.”

“Please let us know if you find him.”

With a curt nod, Dwight left.

After the unexpected appearance of Dwight, that had taken any sexual impulse out of their morning.  Jim and Pam decided that they may as well start their day. Presents were opened and eventually they got showered and dressed. Video games were played and films were watched.

Some time later that evening, they heard a rustle by Pam’s front door. When they went to check, there was no one there, but there was a Beet-infused chocolate Yule log and a polaroid photo of Dwight and Mose under the Scranton Electric sign with the word ‘Thanks.’