Chapter 26

26

Mrs. Panim and her son arrived at school that morning, and as usual, the two entered the main office together. The principal sifted through her usual papers that she received each morning.

“Oh, I see that they want me at the district headquarters today,” she said to a woman behind the front desk and to her son. “I guess I better be going there now, it looks like an all-day thing. Claire, can you call them and tell them I will be there right away?”

The woman nodded in agreement, and sat down at her desk and made the call as “Mr. Abraham” signed in and went directly to his class.

He opened the door of the room, went directly to the desk, sat down, and thought for a moment.

“Do I take off my scarf right away and show how things have changed, or do I give these kids the shock of their lives by putting that off a bit?” he thought.

Abraham Lincoln Panim decided to keep the scarf on for now, and went through some work on his desk as the bell rung to begin the day. His class soon filed into the room, led, as usual, by Melissa, who did a double-take when she came into the room.

“Mr. … Mr. … umm—“

“Yes, I’m here,” “Mr. Abraham” said to her and the other students who all couldn’t believe their eyes that “Mr. Abraham” was still their teacher.

“But … I thought—“

“Well, I guess you thought wrong. Now how about sitting down and let’s get the work out that I gave you the other day.”

The class sat down, but all had looks on their faces of not believing that “Mr. Abraham” had returned.

Abraham Lincoln Panim, still with the scarf around his face, took note of this.

“Well, how about paying attention to the work we need to do rather than to my rat face?” he said. “Now you know my secret, but let’s delve into something way more important.”

The class finally got out their work, still with signs of disbelief on their faces.

“You never know what other surprises there might be during the day, so let’s get to what we need to do!” “Mr. Abraham” told them, almost with an impish twang to it.

The morning progressed as it should have, with the students doing their work as instructed by their teacher.

It was getting near lunch time, and Abraham Lincoln Panim was in the middle of conducting a spelling test with the class.

“I hope all of you studied your words, and I hope all of you can pass this test. I mean, even a rat-faced teacher like me thinks that if you study hard enough, you shouldn’t have any trouble with this test, or for that matter, any other that I give you.”

The students began to move unevenly at their desks, as they felt that “Mr. Abraham” was reminding them of the horrid day when they exposed him as a rat face.

“OK, here is the first word. The word is ‘referendum,’ and today, I will give you a sentence with the word in it, used properly. ‘The conference approved a move for a referendum next year.’ The word is ‘referendum.’”

Some of the students quickly wrote down the word, others seemed to be having trouble, including Melissa. “Mr. Abraham” saw that she was having a problem, and walked over to her at her desk.

“What’s the problem, Melissa?” he asked. “Are you having a problem spelling the word ‘referendum’ or do you just want to pull off my scarf again?”

Melissa fussed at her desk. “Well, I really didn’t think you would be here again—“

“So you didn’t study,” “Mr. Abraham replied. “Because I was the rat-faced sub, you didn’t think I would be coming back here, is that it?”

Melissa hesitated, by finally said, “Yes, and why are you still wearing your scarf if we know that you have a rat face?” she asked.

“You are right, Melissa, I really should take the scarf off,” and with that, Abraham Lincoln Panim virtually ripped the scarf right off his face, to show the class his new features.

Melissa nearly fell out of her seat when she saw “Mr. Abraham’s” new countenance, and as she was doing this, the other students craned their necks to see what all the commotion was about, with some doing their own double takes when they saw what their teacher now looked like.

“He is soooooo handsome now,” one female student said after seeing “Mr. Abraham’s” new face for the first time. “Maybe he was wearing a mask the other day.”

“Maybe he had plastic surgery,” another one said.

“It was Melissa who hatched this whole thing with you the other day. It’s Melissa’s fault,” another student sitting near Melissa told “Mr. Abraham.”

“No, come on, let’s not get into that here,” “Mr. Abraham” said. “But it looks like Melissa didn’t study for her spelling test. I am sure she knows what she did and didn’t do, and we will leave it at that.”

Melissa sunk in her chair at what had happened.

“OK, let’s get back to the spelling test,” “Mr. Abraham said, and even though the class did get back to the test, most of the students weren’t paying much attention as the words were read out to them.

“He is so handsome,” one female student said to Melissa, who was sitting in front of her. “What is the matter with you anyway? What did you get us all into? You made us look really bad!”

Melissa sunk further into her chair as the test went on, and she counted the minutes until the lunch bell rung, running out of the class at full speed.