Chapter 11

11

Abraham Lincoln Panim and Mrs. Stottle became an exceptional learning team, with the boy speeding ahead from his contemporaries and finishing his public school education at 16 years of age, or two years ahead of his peers.

But Abraham Lincoln Panim was not up to his peers in other areas, such as in social situations. And with no father at home, he had many questions about life, but he felt ill at ease talking about them with Mrs. Stottle or even with his mother.

During one of their late night strolls, Abraham Lincoln Panim asked his mother, “How did you and daddy meet, and how did you end up having me?”

Mrs. Panim stopped in her tracks, and did not know what to say.

“Well, we met … “ she hesitated. “We met on the street one day. It was around holiday time, and we were both rushing around at night, and I guess we didn’t see each other … we bumped into each other, and we both fell onto the pavement. He was so bundled up with his heavy jacket and scarf, and I could barely hear him talk, but we kind of fell in love right then and there.”

“When did you get married?” Abraham Lincoln Panim asked.

“Oh, it wasn’t for several months later,” Mrs. Panim told her son. “Daddy always told me over the phone that he had to get things done first before he could see me again, and I guess that I just fell in love with his voice, and that he actually paid attention to me. We talked every day on the phone, but he did not want to see me in person just yet.

“He kept on telling me that he had to get things done so I would be proud of him, and then one day, he did what he said. He had done whatever he wanted to do, we met, had a few dates, and finally, we married.”

“And how did you have me, mom?” Alexander Lincoln Panim asked his mother, and again, she hesitated in her reply.

“For the birds and the bees, you did well in biology, so I am sure you know how you came about,” she told her son.

“No, I know all about that, but how did you have ME?” meaning, how did you have a son with a rat face that hated cheese.

It took Mrs. Panim a few moments to come up with an answer, which became her stock answer whenever the subject would be broached. “We had you because we loved each other,” and the subject was ended right then and there until it came up again during one of the mother and son’s night time walks.