Chapter 23

23

“Mom, I can never, ever go back there,” Abraham Lincoln Panim told his mother that evening. “How can I face the kids, now that they know I have a rat face? How can I go back?

“Abraham Lincoln Panim, I just don’t know,” said Mrs. Panim. “Maybe it will be better that they know what you really look like and who you really are. You won’t have to disguise yourself anymore. It is all out in the open now.”

“But mom, the shame … the shame of it all. They will constantly make fun of me. And Melissa Hartung … I will never hear the end of it from that girl, never. And I won’t ever hear the end of it from Brandon Hartung, either. We seem to always meet up, one way or the other. Having his sister in the class—“

“Look, the regular teacher of that class has pneumonia. We just found out about it today. We have no one else to cover for that class for as long as he will be out. We have you. We have so few substitute teachers with all the budget cuts we have been through.

“You are competent, you know what you are doing. We haven’t had one single complaint from either the kids or the parents about you.

“Son, we really need you to continue teaching that class, at least until their regular teacher returns. I mean, I cannot imagine what you went through, but we absolutely need you to cover that class.”

“But mom—“

“Please give it some thought. You are doing so well that maybe, just maybe, you can even become a regular teacher.”

“With my rat face, I can’t do anything right.”

Abraham Lincoln Panim grabbed his coat and his scarf and abruptly left the house, slamming the door on the way out. He needed to think, and since it was nearing the evening, he decided to take his usual walk, this time alone.

“I just don’t know what to do,” he thought to himself as he neared the usual area where he would take his evening walk.

He sat down at his usual bench, and the moonlight framed him as he sat, and sat some more, more sitting than most times when he ventured out of the house during the evening.

He closed his eyes, not to sleep but to think.

After a long while, with his eyes still closed, he heard some footsteps approaching him, and after opening his eyes, he saw that it was the blind girl that he had met at school with her dog. She sat down on the bench, and she and Abraham Lincoln Panim began talking.

“What’s your name? Funny, all the times that we have met here to chat, and seen each other in school, well, I never got your name.”

“Oh, sorry, it’s Ariel.”

“That’s a pretty name. My name is—“

“And my dog’s name is Snuff.”

“Oh, that is nice. I … my name is—“

And just then, Abraham Lincoln Panim could see in the moonlight a figure coming toward them, a male figure, who was walking and then started to run as he got closer to them.

“Hey Ariel, who is this guy? Is he bothering you?” screamed the man as he approached the bench, not seeing clearly who it was.

“Is this the guy who has been hitting on you for the past couple of weeks?” the man said, as he got closer and saw that it was Abraham Lincoln Panim.

“So, it is old Abie, the rat-faced boy,” the man said, and Abraham Lincoln Panim could now see clearly who it was.

“My sister told me all about you in school, when she pulled off that idiotic scarf you had on, and that the entire class knows that you have a rat face.”

Abraham Lincoln Panim could now clearly see that it was Brandon Hartung—along with his right gloved hand--in the moonlight.

“Well, stay away from my girl,” Brandon said, as he pulled up Ariel from the bench with his left hand, and as Snuff scowled.

“No, Brandon, no … he isn’t bothering me … stop, you’re hurting me!” Ariel protested.

“Sorry, ‘Eddie Munster,’ you aren’t getting my girl. Stay away and stay away for good or your rat face will meet my fist!” Brandon yelled as he dragged Ariel away from the bench. “Maybe once my fist hits your face it will be an improvement!”

Abraham Lincoln Panim watched Brandon and Ariel and Snuff move on into the distance, moving further away from him as he watched them fade into the mist.

He shook his head as they faded into the distance, and once again, he saw the older woman sitting down a few benches down from where he was. He saw her, and then when he got up-from the bench, and he looked again, she was gone.