Chapter 20

20

Abraham Lincoln Panim got through that first day, and when his mother arrived home an hour later, she had some good news for him.

“Mr. Praeger will be out for at least the rest of the week, so you are going to sub that class through Friday,” she told him.

“Thanks for letting me know, Mom,” he replied. “I know it is a job, but can I actually have fun while working? Is that something that is OK?”

“Yes it is,” she replied. “If you enjoy your job, if you love your job, it is almost not like a job. It is almost as if you are being paid to do something that you really like to do.”

And the next few days went quickly. He would enter the room, the students would be milling about, and he always saw Melissa talking very actively with a few students surrounding her each and every day.

And each and every day she asked “Mr. Abraham” why he wore a scarf so tightly around his face. And Abraham Lincoln Panim had the same answer for her each and every day: “I don’t want to get sick, because then, you would have a sub for a sub.”

The students didn’t laugh as hard as they did the first time that he said this, but his reply always seemed to quiet the class down, including Melissa, who after hearing his reply, went back to her schoolwork.

The days went by quickly for Abraham Lincoln Panim, and the class was getting to know him better as he was getting to know them.

Mr. Praeger had called in a few assignments for the class to do while he was convalescing, and “Mr. Abraham” and the class got through them.

Melissa and the other students would ask at times why “Mr. Abraham” wore his scarf all the time, but other than that, everything went pretty well with the students.

Although Abraham Lincoln Panim had vowed not to go to the teacher’s room ever again after his previous episode with Mr. Sedall, he decided late in the week to give it another try, and at lunch, he lumbered over to the room, opened the door, and sat in the same place on the same couch that he used during his previous time there.

He just planned to sit there quietly, eat his lunch, and go back to his class after lunch.

Again, a group of teachers were chatting amongst themselves, and again, Mr. Sedall broke away from the group and sat next to “Mr. Abraham” as he had done the previous time.

“You know, it is easier to eat your lunch if you take the scarf off your face,” Mr. Sedall said.

“Well … I keep the scarf on because of germs,” Abraham Lincoln Panim said. “I guess I am something of a—“

“Something of a rat-faced guy?” the teacher asked, as the other teachers in the room laughed as Abraham Lincoln Panim pulled his scarf up even tighter over his face.

“We did some snooping around. You are Mrs. Panim’s kid, and we remember that when you were born, you looked just like a rat,” said the teacher. “Do you still look like that? I guess it is good to be the principal’s son. How else would you get this job, or ANY job?”

The other teachers laughed as Abraham Lincoln Panim got up, took his lunch, and proceeded back to his classroom, entering it, closing the door, and sitting at his desk.

He vowed right then and there, once again, to not tell his mother what had happened, but he learned a lesson:

“I will not go into that room with the other teachers ever again,” he said to himself. “I am going to make this work.”

Friday came, and the day began as any other day did, with the class roll being taken, and more and more students were answering that they were present. “Mr. Abraham” was beginning to recognize names, so even if they didn’t answer, he had a good sense of who was there and who was not.

An extra bonus on this particular Friday was that on Monday, there was no school, as it was a day off leading to several other days off during the winter mid-semester break.

The school would be closed a week, and Abraham Lincoln Panim would have a full week to feel good about what he was doing, and a full week to find out where he was needed in the school next.