Chapter 14

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.