14
Abraham Lincoln Panim kept his scarf on for the first few
weeks of classes, and when asked why he continued to wear his scarf, he said
that he had a cold, or that he was cold, or he gave any other excuse he could
provide so that the inquirer was at least somewhat satisfied with the answer.
He pretty much kept to himself, so the inquiries weren’t
that many, and that made it easier for him to wear his scarf during classes.
He was also doing very well in his classes, getting mainly
A’s on all of his work.
In between classes, Abraham Lincoln Panim went where most
of his fellow students went, to the cafeteria to take a break and to maybe have
a cup of coffee or eat a sandwich.
As was his norm, Abraham Lincoln Panim went to the
cafeteria, ordered a cup of coffee, and sat alone at a table in the back of the
massive room. He took out his books and studied them, and there generally was
no one around him, as most students on their break sat with others further up
in the room.
One day, Abraham Lincoln Panim followed the same protocol,
but for the first time, he saw a group of fellow students, both male and
female, pulling up some chairs to a nearby table and sitting directly opposite
him.
“Hey, Abie, why don’t you sit with us?” one boy yelled out
to him.
Not ever remembering when he was ever called “Abie”—and not
liking it one bit--Abraham Lincoln Panim briefly looked up from his book.
“Well … I am into studying for that test we have in English
tomorrow … I would like to, but I need to bone up on a few things,” he replied.
“We’ll give you a couple of things to bone up on!” the boy
replied, pointing to a girl who was sitting with him at the table, who Abraham
Lincoln Panim recognized as being the blind girl who spoke with him while he
waited on line during his first day at school. “You can bone up on her!”
The girl pushed the boy away, but he continued what he had
to say.
“Hey Abie, why do you wear that scarf all the time? You
cannot possibly be sick anymore. I am sure you are a very handsome guy, and I
am sure the girls will love you if you just get rid of the scarf.”
Abraham Lincoln Panim briefly looked up, but he did not
respond.
Then the boy asking all the questions came over to him, and
directly addressed him.
“C’mon, Abie, let everyone look at you and see what you
look like!”
Before Abraham Lincoln Panim could do anything, the boy
grabbed his scarf, and began to pull it. Abraham Lincoln Panim tried to hold
back the pulling, but in a few seconds, the scarf was off, and all eyes in the
cafeteria were on him.
“Ha! ‘Eddie Munster’ is back!” the boy yelled, as everyone
saw Abraham Lincoln Panim without his scarf, with his rat face in view.
“Remember me, Abie?”
In horror and trying to cover his face, Abraham Lincoln
Panim looked up at the boy, and who he was came into clear focus to him—it was
the same boy who taunted him in school years earlier, Brandon Hartung, the boy
who years earlier had poured Cheez Whiz all over him to make fun of his rat
face. And he still wore a glove on his right hand.
As seemingly everyone in the cafeteria was laughing at him,
Brandon Hartung ran back to his table, took a slice of pizza with his left hand,
and rubbed it--including both the sauce and cheese--all over Abraham Lincoln
Panim’s head.
Abraham Lincoln Panim, with laughs cascading from one end
of the cafeteria to another, got his things, picked up his scarf from the
floor, and ran out of the cafeteria as quickly as he could. He ran all the way
home.
Abraham Lincoln Panim never attended college again in
person.