Chapter 37

37

Neither Mrs. Panim nor Abraham Lincoln Panim heard about Mr. Panim for many weeks.

The monthly checks still came, again directly from the bank without Mr. Panim’s home address.

A few times, Mrs. Panim retrieved the letter that Mr. Panim had written to them some time before, copied the return address onto a new envelope, and wrote her husband a new letter, but she never received a return letter from him.

Abraham Lincoln Panim suggested to his mother on more than one occasion that the two should go over to his home again, but she would not do so.

“He wanted us over there the one time, and we obliged him,” she would tell her son over and over again. “If he wanted us to come over another time, he would have written me back.

“He never did, or at least, he hasn’t yet, so until he does, I think we should stay away from him, at least for now.”

In the ensuing weeks, and with the weather warming up, Abraham Lincoln Panim continued to take walks in the early evening, but he did not enjoy the walks as he once had.

People did not stare at him when he would walk to the park, and into it, as they once did, and he found that he was staring more at them than they were staring at him.

Each time he had his walk, he would sit down on the same bench where he met Ariel and Snuff, but he never saw either one of them again.

And again, he found that he was staring at people more than they were staring at him.

He also would periodically look down the row of park benches to look for the older woman who seemed to be always sitting on one of the far-off benches, but she also was nowhere to be found, even though Abraham Lincoln Panim still looked for her.

With little to keep his interest, his time in the park became shorter as the weather became warmer, and he spent less and less time in the park during the ensuing weeks.

But he still made the walks, almost out of habit, and he did not give up hope that he would see Ariel and Snuff, and the older woman in the distance, once again.

One evening, he dutifully made one of his walks, and once again, he went unnoticed by others, him staring at them more than they were staring at him.

He sat down on the same bench, looked for Ariel and Snuff, but they were nowhere to be found.

Abraham Lincoln Panim sat for a few minutes, and then felt it was time to leave. As he had continued to do, he looked down the row of benches, but this time, he saw what looked like the older woman sitting a few benches away, like she had done before.

He got up, and ran towards where she was, and stopped at the bench where he had seen her sitting.

But as he ran over to where he thought she was, seemingly in a blink of an eye, she wasn’t there anymore. He briefly looked around, but she was gone.

“I thought I saw her,” he thought to himself. “I know I saw her. She was here, I just know it.”

As he walked back to his house from the park that night, he didn’t see anyone pass him, which he found very unusual. And when he got to his house and took out the key to open the front door, he found his mother sitting on the couch, holding a letter and weeping. There was also a medium-sized box on the couch which appeared to be unopened.

“Mom, what’s the matter?”

Mrs. Panim tried to get out the words, but her tears washed away any hope that she could say something. Instead, she handed over the letter she was holding to her son, who read the letter to himself:

“Mrs. Panim:

I regret to inform you that your husband, Mr. Marcus Panim, passed away after a long illness.

Adhering to his wishes, he was cremated, with his ashes in the enclosed urn. He had no worldly possessions, but I am sending you this last, final check, which amounts to all the money he had in the bank.

He wanted you and your son to have it. He had nothing else to give you but this money. I have already taken out my final pay from his account, and I have also paid off any outstanding debts that he had.

Again, I am sorry to have had to tell you this way, but it might be for the better.

Be Well,

Nurse Stottlemeyer”

Abraham Lincoln Panim dropped the note on the floor, and he sat down next to his mother, who continued to cry. He put his arms around his mother, but no tears came out of his eyes.

“What did I become?,” he thought to himself. “Dad, you left us before you could finish your sentence … how could you do that to me?

“Dad, what did I become?”

Chapter 36

36

Abraham Lincoln Panim read the plaque over and over to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. After a few minutes of doing this, he heard a door open, and saw his mother come out of the room.

The nurse went over to her, as Mrs. Panim looked clearly distressed, crying and shaking as the nurse led her to the couch to sit down.

“Can I get you something, m’am, maybe some water to calm you down?” said the nurse to Mrs. Panim.

“No, no,” Mrs. Panim said through tears. “I will be OK.”

“I pretty much expected your reaction. Mr. Panim is pretty sick, and he has been that way for awhile,” the nurse replied. “If you need anything, let me know.”

Abraham Lincoln Panim rushed over to his mother, but the nurse stood between him and his mother.

“It is your time to see your father. Are you ready to see him now?” the nurse asked.

“Yes, yes,” Abraham Lincoln Panim said, as he put his hands through his hair again.

“Do you have a mirror? I need to make sure—“

“This is not a beauty pageant,” the nurse replied. “Go in like you are.”

Abraham Lincoln Panim followed the nurse to the door, and as he did, he instinctively pushed up his scarf over his face, exactly as he had worn it when he had a rat face.

The nurse opened the door, and Abraham Lincoln Panim entered. He looked to the left, and his father was lying on what looked like a large hospital bed, with tubes and nozzles coming out of seemingly every part of his body.

With all the machinery covering his father, he could barely see his father’s face, and barely could see his eyes.

“Abraham Lincoln Panim, please come closer to me so I can see you,” his father said, and his son moved closer to him so he could see him better.

“How are you doing dad?” Abraham Lincoln Panim asked.

“I can barely hear you,” Mr. Panim said in a very breathy voice. “Why do you have that scarf over your face?”

“Well—“

“Please take it off. Your mother told me all about it, and I know all about what you look like now.”

“Abraham Lincoln Panim almost ripped the scarf off his face, and it dropped to floor, exposing his full face to his father to see.

“So dad, what do you think?”

“What do I think about what?”

“What do you think about how I look? Aren’t I—“

“That is not important now,” his father said, followed by numerous coughs. Abraham Lincoln Panim was ready to go out to get the nurse, but the coughing stopped.

“I’m doing as good as I possibly could be, with all of these things coming out of me,” his father said. “Now tell me about you.”

“Dad, you still haven’t told me how I look.”

“Well, I will answer that when you tell me how I look.”

His father then started coughing again.

When the coughing stopped, Abraham Lincoln Panim asked his father, “Why did you leave--”

“I was a coward,” his father said through more coughing. “I saw you as me, going through a good part of your life with a rat face. I remember what I went through … I just could not do it again.”

“So you just left us? I never knew you, but do you know what you did to mom?”

“Yes, I do. I really do. And I was sorry, I told her so today. You don’t know how many times I wanted to come back to the two of you, but I just couldn’t. I was scared, I was a coward. I thought that the money I sent each month made up for me not being there, but I was a fool. I missed out on so much.”

“And we missed out, especially mom. Do you know we used to walk in the park when I was a kid, and I always thought she was looking for you when we were there. You said in your letter to us that you often saw us from afar in the park. Why didn’t you ever come up to us, contact us … I mean, you were so close.”

“Yet so far,” his father said, followed by more coughs. “In my mind, I was thousands of miles away from you, even though there were times I was just a few feet from the two of you. I am just so sorry for what I have done to both of you.”

There was a pause in talking, and then Abraham Lincoln Panim said, “Now dad, what do you think about me … your are ‘impressed,’ aren’t you--?”

“Look, I know that you became a teacher. Mom says that you are a good teacher. That is really what I am concerned about. You became a—“

Before his father could finish his sentence, he began to cough uncontrollably, and the nurse came into the room, walking over to Abraham Lincoln Panim.

“I am sorry, but his health is very bad,” she said in a whisper. “I can only give you a few minutes with him. He is weak. I can’t give you any more. Please say your goodbyes and meet your mother in the foyer.”

Abraham Lincoln watched the nurse go back out the door, and when she left, he said to his father, “Dad, what did I become? Please let me know, what did I become?”

The nurse peaked her head through the door. “Young man, you have to leave now.”

“But dad did not finish what he was saying—what did I become dad, what did I become?”

The nurse came over to Abraham Lincoln Panm, put her hand firmly and forcefully on his shoulder, and tried to lead him out of the room. He resisted.

“I just want to know what my father said I had become. That is all I want to know.”

“Look, I am sorry, you must leave now,” the nurse said. Mrs. Panim, much more composed than before, came into the room, and she had to lead her son out.

As they left the room and the nurse closed the door, Mr. Panim, still thinking his son was in the room, said in almost a whisper,

“A success.”

Mr. Panim coughed some more, and then closed his eyes.

Abraham Lincoln Panim and his mother never heard what Mr. Panim said, as the door had closed behind them when he answered his son’s question.

“What was I, what was I?” Abraham Lincoln Panim continued to scream out as his mother put her hand on his shoulder.

“Keep that thought. Maybe the next time we visit, your father will answer you,” she said to her son.

The nurse turned to them as she showed them out the door.

“If there is a next time,” she said, as Mrs. Panim and Abraham Lincoln Panim walked out the door and walked home.

They didn’t say a word between them.

Chapter 35

35

Mrs. Panim and her son got to the door of Mr. Panim’s home, and Abraham Lincoln Panim saw the doorbell and pushed its button, which produced a loud ring.

There was an intercom on the door. After a few seconds, a voice came through the intercom.

“Who is there?” the voice said.

“It is Mrs. Panim and my son.”

“We were expecting you. OK, I am going to buzz you in.”

The buzz came, and Mrs. Panim turned the doorknob and the door opened. Both stepped into a small foyer, and they almost immediately saw a woman with her back turned. The woman was poring over some papers, and Abraham Lincoln Panim noted that she appeared to be an older woman, short in stature, with her hair tied up in a bun.

In an instant, the woman put down the papers and turned toward the mother and son.

“Hello, I am Nurse Stottlemeyer, and I have been taking care of Mr. Panim for a few years. He has been very, very sick.”

Mrs. Panim gulped, and Abraham Lincoln Panim looked at her and said in a whisper, “It’s Mrs. Stottle!”

“No, it can’t be,” his mother replied. “She died several years ago. She just looks like her. Her last name is different.”

“She said Stottlemeyer. Didn’t she tell you that she was ‘Miss Meyer’ before she got married?”

“Hrrumph!” said the nurse, trying to get the full attention of Mrs. Panim and her son. “Are you ready to see Mr. Panim now?”

The mother and son quieted down, both shaking their heads affirmatively.

“Mr. Panim has requested to see you each individually. He can only see you each for a few minutes. He simply does not have the strength for any time more. Mrs. Panim, would you like to go in first?”

“Yes,” Mrs. Panim said, still kind of staring at the nurse as she was led to a room by her. The nurse, who had something of a limp, opened the door and let her in to speak with her husband alone.

Abraham Lincoln Panim sat down on a couch in a corner of the foyer, nervously put his hand in his hair, pushing it up in place, and when the nurse came back into the room, he continued to stare at her.

“Can I help you with anything?” the nurse asked, aware that she was being stared at.

“No … no … you just look like someone that my mom and I used to know,” Abraham Lincoln Panim said, staring at the woman’s thick legs. “No, it can’t be.”

“What can’t be?” the nurse asked.

“Umm … nothing … umm … how do I look?

The nurse hesitated, then said, “You look like an average person your age,” as she went back looking at her papers.

“No, how do I really look?” Abraham Lincoln Panim asked again, a little more forceful this time.

The nurse looked up from her papers. “Look, you appear to be fine to me. You look good enough to see your father, if that is what you are asking me.”

Abraham Lincoln Panim, looking for a different answer than he was getting, sat back on the couch, and continued to play with his hair. He looked around the small room, which was pretty barely furnished, but across the room, he saw a plaque on the wall. It appeared to have some writing on it, and not being able to clearly see what the plaque said, he got up from his seat and walked over to wall where the plaque was.

The nurse looked up from her papers, saw that Abraham Lincoln Panim had become interested in the plaque, and said, “Yes, I put that up a year or so ago. It is something I believe in fully, and I hope that everyone believes in it, to tell you the truth.”

Abraham Lincoln Panim got to the plaque, and read its inscription to himself:

“Do unto others as you would have the do unto you … treat other people the way you would like to be treated yourself.”

Chapter 34

34

The day came quickly.

Abraham Lincoln Panim woke up, looked in the bathroom mirror several times before he went into the shower. When he was done, he shaved, and put on a special aftershave that Mrs. Stottle bought him years ago that he had never used.

He then got dressed, and decided to really get dressed to the hilt, picking out his best suit and tie to wear to meet his father for the first time.

“My real ‘Sunday Best’ to make me look even better than I already do,” he thought to himself, admiring himself in his hand mirror numerous times before he was done.

He finally emerged from his room, and went into the living room, waiting for his mother to be ready to go.

In a few minutes time, she was done, and she was dressed in business attire, but nothing out of the ordinary.

“Abraham Lincoln Panim, why are you dressed like that?” his mother asked him. “You are dressed like you are going out on a big date. And that smell … why did you dunk yourself in aftershave like that?

“We are going to see your father. We aren’t going to a wedding, or a bar mitzvah—“

“I wanted to dress my best to ‘impress.’ I want my father to see how good I look.”

“Don’t you think it is more important for your father to find out who you are, your accomplishments, how you have matured, rather than what you look like?”

“It is all in the wrapping. If the outside wrapping is so attractive, it just makes everything else … well, not second best … but it helps to have a good wrapping. First impressions are very important—“

“Your father said he is dying. Your father just wants to meet you. He doesn’t care if you looked like you once did. He doesn’t care at all. He just wants you to be there—“

“Yes, but I want him to see what he has missed when he skipped out of here. He missed you and he missed me—“

“No, Abraham Lincoln Panim, he missed the old you, the boy who did what he had to do to get by, who wasn’t so stuck up with his appearance that nothing else mattered.”

“Mom, I was stuck up on my appearance back then, but just the opposite way. I hated the way I looked, with that rat face. People made fun of me, I couldn’t even barely go outside without people looking at me.

“Now, I can go outside and do whatever I want because people admire me. They look at me and think, ‘That is the way I want to look.’ But they know they can’t look this good. I give them hope … and don’t forget, I always wear my scarf to remind me where I was, and where I am now.”

“You have become … I don’t know … you have become more vain about your looks then you were before. What would Mrs. Stottle say about all of this?”

“Mrs. Stottle … Mrs. Stottle would admire me too.”

After that remark, Mrs. Panim gave her son a long glare. Her son saw her eyes, and they seemed to be red and tearing.

“Enough about that,” she said through the tears. “Let’s go and see your father. And please, for me, please just act like you really are, not like you are acting today or during the last several weeks.

“Please, if not for yourself, please do it for me.”

Abraham Lincoln Panim got his jacket and wrapped his scarf around his neck. He then helped his mother on with her coat.

“Son,” Mrs. Panim said as the looked at the envelope of the letter her husband sent her, “I think we will walk there, It doesn’t seem to be too far away.”

The mother and son left their home to take a walk together, something they had not done in a while. She thought that the walk would do them good, clear out both of their heads and make them focus on what they were going to be doing.

Abraham Lincoln Panim had other thoughts.

“OK, so we are going to walk. That is great. It is a nice day out, people will be around, and I know that they will look at me … and think I look great!”

Chapter 33

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Abraham Lincoln Panim quickly took out his keys from his pocket, and opened the front door to his house. He immediately saw his mother sitting on the couch, which was unusual in itself as in the evening, she rarely sat on the couch, usually going into her bedroom to prepare for the evening.

And not only was she sitting on the couch, but an envelope was on the floor, and his mother was holding a letter in her hands. She also appeared to be staring out into space.

“Mom, what’s going on?” asked Abraham Lincoln Panim.

Mrs. Panim broke out of her stupor, but still stared into space as she said, “Son, you rushed out of the house today so quick. I wanted to tell you that we received in the mail a letter from—“

“From who?”

“From … from your father.”

Abraham Lincoln Panim stopped in his tracks, and ended up sitting on the couch with his mother.

“I wanted to open the letter with you here. He never writes letters to us, never. I thought that this was something that you needed to hear, to read along with me when I read it, but I guess you had more important things to do.”

“Mom, if I would have known—“

“It doesn’t really matter now. I read the letter myself, and maybe it was better off that I read it myself first. It was the first letter we have gotten from him, ever.”

“What did the letter say? Is he doing OK? Is he finally going to be coming home?”

Mrs. Panim did not answer her son right away, and started to shake her head, almost to herself.

“Mom, what did dad say in that letter?”

“Abraham Lincoln Panim, your father isn’t coming home. You’re father is … he is not doing too well.”

Mrs. Panim handed Abraham Lincoln Panim the letter for him to read to himself. The letter said, in Mr. Panim’s own handwriting:

“Dear Diana:

I know that you must be startled to get this letter in the mail completely out of the blue. I am not a good letter writer, so please, just bear with me. I will try to explain the best that I can.

I admit that I am a coward. You were in the hospital all those years ago, and when you gave birth, I was happy and proud, and then I saw our son. I felt bad for him. I know he has gone through a lot, because what you don’t know is that I went through the same thing when I was a child.

I had the same features that I saw in our son when I was a child. I put up with a lot of ridicule from everyone. Even when I started to shed some of those characteristics as I got older, I was still pointed out as “the rat-faced boy.”

And what is worse, and the worst thing about all of this, is that I passed on that gene—or whatever it is--to our son.

I looked at him in the hospital, and my mind raced back to when I was a kid myself, all the stuff that I had to put up with. I simply could not do it again, so I became a coward, and I ran. I simply could not go through again what I had gone through myself as a child, so I ran away from it all.

I was scared, and yes, I was nothing but a coward. What I should have done and what I did were two different things. I was wrong, and I admit it. I left you and our son hanging there without me.

I know it doesn’t mean anything now, but I apologize for my behavior. Diana, I hope that the monthly checks have come in handy, and yes, I was selfish in what I did, but I felt the checks would help our son to grow into the man I knew he could be.”

“Checks?” Abraham Lincoln Panim asked his mother as he stopped reading the letter.

“Yes, your father has sent checks to you each and every month since you were born,” Mrs. Panim said. “They were sent directly from a bank outside our area, from another state, and there was never a return address on either the checks or the envelope they came in.

“Several years ago I tried to find out where they came from, but the president of the bank told me that he could not reveal any further information about the checks and where they came from to me. I thought that maybe your father would finally come home, but he never did. I guess the monthly checks gave me hope, but he never came home,”

Abraham Lincoln Panim again started to read the letter.

“Yes, I had the same problem that our son had. I had it through my early years, and I had it during my teen years, although much of it left me by the time I was in my mid teens. By the time I was in my early 20s, I just had the problem with my face, and when I met you, Diana, I still had the problem.

A little while after, I woke up one day, and I looked like every other man around. The problem left me! I could not believe it, and it came at just the right time, because it gave me a chance to know you, and that is when our relationship really blossomed.

Anyway, you know the rest. But let me bring you up to date with the reason I am writing this letter to you.

Seeing our son grow up from afar—“

Abraham Lincoln Panim looked up from the letter.

“What is he talking about, seeing me ”growing up from afar? What is he talking about?”

Mrs. Panim looked up and turned to her son. “Keep on reading, please keep on reading.”

Abraham Lincoln Panim turned back to the letter, and once again began to read to himself.

“Seeing my son grow up from afar has not been fun. As you can tell by the envelope that the letter came in, I actually don’t live very far away from where your house is. I live on the other side of the park. I have seen you, Diana, and our son from his earliest days. I saw you from afar, and I saw him, all covered up with his scarf as I was when I was a kid.

“I hope he has outgrown his affliction like I did, as I haven’t seen either of you walking around the neighborhood together in some time.”

“Dad hasn’t seen me because I haven’t taken walks with you for a while,” Abraham Lincoln Panim said to his mother. “So he has no idea how much I have changed, because without seeing you with me, he would have never recognized me.”

“Son, please read on.”

“Diana, I am sick, I mean really sick. I have been in and out of the hospital for the past few months, and the doctors don’t give me long to live. They actually, at least initially, didn’t know why I am so sick, ruling out cancer and a lot of other things.

I wasn’t willing, at first, to tell them my background, you know, about the characteristics I had when I was younger. But I ended up telling them, and they believe that my failing health has something to do with something called ‘zoomorphism’, a very rare disease where animal characteristics are found in humans. The doctors told me that they have discovered that many more people have this than first believed, but most people outgrow the problem as they get older.

They feel that while I did outgrow it, it had some lingering effects on my body, and since they have no other explanation for my current situation, they believe that those effects are greatly impacting my health.

Me, I know that I am dying … dying of a broken heart.”

“Dad … dad is sick?” Abraham Lincoln Panim said to his mother.

“Yes, son, but please read on.”

“I am a sick man. I am not asking for forgiveness. I don’t have long to go. Just writing this letter is taking a lot out of me.

Now that you know where I live, would it be possible, would it be something that you could arrange, Diana, for me to meet our son and to speak with you?

I am hoping he is doing well, and there is nothing that I would like more than to speak with him, even if for a few seconds, a few minutes.

I know that I don’t have much more to go. I just want to meet him, in person, and tell him how sorry I was for my behavior, and really, to tell both of you how sorry I am for what I did and what I put both of you through.

Please do not call me. Simply come to the address on the envelope, and please do it soon.

I hope that I have not upset you too much with this letter. Again, I am not asking for forgiveness, but I need to see both of you, and I want to meet my son and tell him how much I love him.

Thanks. I understand if you decide that a meeting with the two of you is not the right thing to do.”

Sincerely,

Marcus Panim”

“So Mom, are we going to see him?”

His mother looked up again at him as he gave the letter to her.

“Remember what Mrs. Stottle used to say all the time … ‘Do unto others as you would have the do unto you … treat other people the way you would like to be treated yourself.’”

“So that means we are going to see him?”

“I think if Mrs. Stottle were still with us, she would recite that saying and leave it up to us to decide. So what do you think?”

“I—“

“I think that we should get there sooner rather than later.”

“How about—“

“Yes, I think we will go on Sunday morning to see your father.”

With that, Abraham Lincoln Panim got up from the couch and went into his bedroom. He sat on his bed, then laid down in it, and picked up his hand mirror, which he had left on the bed when he went to see Ariel.

He looked in the mirror.

“My father … I am finally going to meet him,” he thought while he gazed into the mirror. “Why did he have to leave like he did? He really hurt mom …

“I am sure that he will find me as good looking as everyone else does. Ariel doesn’t want me, I don’t care at this point. My father wants me, and I just know that when he sees me, he will be … “

He stopped his thought, trying to think of a word that would fit.

“Impressed. Yes, impressed. He will be so impressed at how I look.”

Abraham Lincoln Panim put down the mirror, and closed his eyes.

He fell asleep quickly.

Chapter 32

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After a few minutes of talking and getting to know one another, Abraham Lincoln Panim and Ariel were approached by Charley, who brought them their order.

“Here is the coffee and the cheese Danishes, just like you like them, Ariel, and here is something for Snuff,” Charley said as he bent down and gave the dog a biscuit. “Nothing is too good for my friend Ariel and her new boyfriend.”

“He is not my boyfriend!” Ariel exclaimed, but she did it with a smile on her face that Abraham Lincoln Panim noticed right away while he continued to primp himself.

Ariel reached out, found the bowl with the individual creams in it, opened one up, and poured it into her coffee. Abraham Lincoln Panim drank his coffee black as he took the first bite into his cheese Danish. It had absolutely no effect on him, and he even kind of liked what he was eating.

“I have to tell you, Ariel, that when I was younger, I was very allergic to cheese,” he said, as he bit into the Danish, “but now, I guess I am over it. I kind of like cheese!”

The two continued to talk, and one conversation dovetailed into another.

“I know that you teach at the school … tell me something about yourself.”

Abraham Lincoln Panim took his hands out of his hair, took a long drink of coffee, and said, “Well, there really isn’t that much to tell. I grew up right here, have really never been anywhere out of this area … I was pretty much home schooled by an older lady as my mother went to work as the principal of the school that I teach at.”

“What about your father? What happened to him?”

Abraham Lincoln Panim tensed up a bit. “I really don’t know what happened to him. It’s one of those things … I really don’t want to talk about it.”

“I understand, sorry I brought it up.”

“No, that’s all right. My mom and that older lady, Mrs. Stottle … I had a nice childhood,” he replied, kind of gritting his teeth when he said “a nice childhood.”

“I mean, it was as good as it could be … I would rather look forward, not back, to tell you the honest truth. The best is still ahead of me, I really feel that.”

“I am so sorry I brought up your father … I did not know that he wasn’t in the picture for you.”

“No, don’t worry about it. What happened happened. It’s not important.”

Ariel and Abraham Lincoln Panim continued to converse and get to know each other, but they, and everyone else in the diner, were interrupted by a commotion up front between Charley and someone who had just entered the restaurant.

“Charley, is Ariel here? Is she here with that rat face?” yelled the man who had just entered the diner.

“You have to keep your voice down. You are scaring everyone here,” Charley replied.

“I don’t care. Where is she?” he yelled, and as he looked out at the rows of tables and chairs and the diners in the restaurant, he saw way to the back, and skirted all the tables and chairs and people to get to his destination.

As he got closer, Abraham Lincoln Panim could see that it was Brandon Hartung.

“What are you two doing here?” snapped Brandon as he approached the table where Ariel and Abraham Lincoln Panim were sitting.

“We are having a nice chat.” Ariel said, “This has nothing to do with you.”

Abraham Lincoln Panim saw that all eyes of the diners were on what was happening between the three of them, and not solely on him anymore. Even Snuff stopped eating his biscuit, and started to snarl.

He stood up, and looked right at Brandon.

“Look, Ariel and I were just talking,” Abraham Lincoln Panim said. “Nothing more. This does not include you. This has nothing to do with you.

“It has everything to do with me. Ariel and I—“

“Look, I would suggest that you move on. All you are doing is causing a commotion here.”

“And what are you going to do if I don’t move on?” Brandon asked as he moved closer to Abraham Lincoln Panim.

People began to move from their tables as the two got closer to each other. Snuff tried to pull Ariel away from the table as his growling got louder.

“I am asking you for the last time to leave us alone,” Abraham Lincoln Panm said as Charley ran to the table.

“You two, you want to settle this, go outside and do it,” Charley said. “You don’t do it in my diner.”

“And what are you going to do if I don’t go away, rat-face boy?” Brandon asked as he cocked his right arm, the hand of which Abraham Lincoln Panim saw was covered with some type of crude glove, as if to prepare for a punch.

Almost instinctively, Abraham Lincoln Panim punched Brandon right into his jaw, knocking him on the floor. Brandon fell so hard that the covering came off of his right hand, to reveal that Brandon had a claw like a lobster instead of his hand.

Ariel bent down to Brandon as Snuff turned the attention of his snarling directly to Abraham Lincoln Panim.

“My glove, my glove!” Brandon screamed, and Snuff brought him the glove as he lay on the floor. He quickly put the glove on, still smarting from the punch.

“How could you do this? How could you cause such a scene?” Ariel screamed out to Abraham Lincoln Panim.

“I was just … I was just protecting myself. He was ready to throw a punch at me with his hand … his claw, whatever you want to call it.”

Charley put his hand on Abraham Lincoln Panim’s shoulder.

“Young man, I never want to see you again,” he said to Abraham Lincoln Panim. “The door is over there. Use it right now, and never come into this diner again!”

“But I was only—“

“Abraham Lincoln Panim, I never want to see you again,” Ariel shrieked as she continued to attend to the fallen Brandon. “You have embarrassed me, you are not my type of person. Get away from me right now.”

As Snuff continued to growl at Abraham Lincoln Panim, he weaved his way to the front of the diner as people stared at him, but not in the way he had been accustomed to.

He left the diner, walking home quickly through the park.

Chapter 31

31

The day leading up to Abraham Lincoln Panim’s meeting with Ariel went quickly.

As was the norm now, he chose to walk to school rather than ride in the car with his mother. Not only was the walk good exercise, physically, but also was good exercise for his ego, as people continued to stare at him and his new good looks.

He didn’t stare back, but he knew what people were staring at.

Abraham Lincoln Panim arrived at school, was still being stared at by teachers and students alike, taught his class, was mooned over by several of his fellow teachers during lunch, and got through the day without a hitch.

He did not see his mother at the school that day, and he thought that maybe he was better off not seeing her, because of what had happened before.

“If she can’t handle my handsomeness, I guess that is her problem,” he thought to himself.

After his workday ended, Abraham Lincoln Panim walked home again, and prepared for his meeting with Ariel. As he lay on his bed, he continued to admire himself in the mirror when his mother came home in the early evening.

“Abraham Lincoln Panim, I’m home!” she said as she opened the door and it closed behind her.

“I’m in my room, mom,” he said. “But not for long, I have somewhere to go soon.”

“Abraham Lincoln Panim, I have something to tell you. That’s why I came home later than I normally do.”

“Sorry mom, I have to go,” he said, as he hurriedly moved past her and moved toward the door.

“We can speak later, I don’t have time now,” he said, as he rushed out the door, leaving his mother standing and shaking her head as the door closed behind him.

Abraham Lincoln Panim went to the park and to the very spot on the bench that he said he would be when he and Ariel last got together. He was a little early, but it gave him extra time to reflect on what he hoped would be a great time with her.

It also gave him extra time to preen and let people look at him, and people did just what he expected them to do.

Finally, after some time, he saw a figure in the distance, and as she came closer, he saw it was Ariel and Snuff.

She sat down next to Abraham Lincoln Panim, with her dog dutifully at her feet.

“Hi! I hope you didn’t wait too long for me?” she said.

“No, I have only been here a few minutes,” Abraham Lincoln Panim said, clenching his teeth at the white lie he just made. “Where might you like to go tonight?”

“I usually go to the corner diner on my street, right outside the park,” she replied. “The food is good there and not expensive, and they are very pet friendly with Snuff. I’ve gone there since I was a little kid, and they know what Snuff is there for. We can go there if you like.”

Abraham Lincoln Panim didn’t know where the diner was, but he said, “OK, just let me know where it is—“

“How about you follow me. I’m not that great on directions, anyway, so it would just be easier for you to follow me.”

“Sounds good to me—“

“I will take you there as part of my daily run. Do you jog yourself?”

“Well … I … don’t worry, I am sure I can keep up with you.”

“OK, you want to go now?”

“Why not?”

Abraham Lincoln Panim and Ariel got up from the bench, and Snuff also sat up on the ground, and Ariel began to run.

“Just follow me,” she said, as Abraham Lincoln Panim started to follow her. He realized that she meant what she said—she was running—and that he would have to run, too, to keep up with her.

He was not used to running, but he kept up with her, somewhat, as he moved into the near distance from him. As he followed her lead, he was running in the direction of the older woman who he had seen many times sitting on one of the benches. He saw her again in the distance, but as he approached, once again, she vanished from sight.

“Maybe I’ve been seeing things,” he thought to himself as he passed the bench where he thought he saw the older woman.

The run continued. Not only did he feel a bit fatigued, but the running was making him perspire, and it moved his hair out of place, so he kept moving his hair back where it should have been, which slowed him down as compared to Ariel and Snuff, who were way ahead of him, but still in sight.

After a few minutes, Ariel and Snuff reached the end of the park, and stopped on the pavement.

“Where are you?” she yelled, and Snuff turned around, pointing in the direction of Abraham Lincoln Panim, who finally caught up with her.

“I thought you said you could run?” she asked, laughing as she asked the question.

“Well, I can run, but I guess I can’t run as well as you can,” he replied, as he fixed his clothes and pushed his hair back to where it should be through huffs and puffs.

“I don’t look my best. I am sweaty and my hair is probably a mess. I won’t get too many looks looking like this,” he thought to himself.

The diner was across the street from the park, and he and Ariel and Snuff proceeded to prepare to cross the street.

“Do you need help crossing the street?” he asked Ariel, extending his arm before he answered.

“No, not me,” she replied. “Snuff takes real good care of me,” and as she said this, Abraham Lincoln Panim pulled his arm back to his side, and then used his hand to push his hair up on his head as he, Ariel and Snuff crossed the busy street and walked into the diner.

“Hi Ariel. How are you doing?” said a man at the front of the diner by the cash register.

“Charley, I am doing fine, and Snuff is doing fine too,” she said. “Oh, and I want you to meet Abraham Lincoln Panim. This is Charley, the owner of the diner. I have known him since I was a little kid.”

“Nice to meet you Charley,” Abraham Lincoln Panim said, extending his hand, the one that had been pushing back his hair after the run, to the man, who was about 70 and had white, balding hair.

The two shook hands, and Charley led them and Snuff to a table near the back of the full diner. As they walked to the table, Abraham Lincoln Panim could see out of the corner of his eyes that people were stopping their eating and their conversations and were staring at him as he walked to his destination.

“Even though I’m a mess, they still stare at me. Man, even the way I look, people still think I am so handsome … I love it!” he thought to himself.

“Here is your usual table, Ariel,” Charley said, as he pulled out the chair where Ariel was going to sit, with Snuff at her feet and Abraham Lincoln Panim sitting in the other chair.

“My, what a nice-looking boy your new boy friend is,” Charley said to Ariel as the two were seated. This made Abraham Lincoln Panim smile, and he primped a bit more as

“No, he is not my boyfriend,” Ariel replied.

“What happened to that other guy, what was his name, Brandon? What happened to him?

Ariel did not reply, and she hurriedly picked up the menu from behind the napkin holder. Abraham Lincoln Panim thought this was kind of odd, since Ariel could not see what was on the menu.

“Charley, let me have a cup of coffee, and Abraham Lincoln Panim, would I be able to get a cheese Danish too?

“You can get whatever you want,” Abraham Lincoln Panim said as he quickly looked over the menu, realizing that Ariel had asked for a cheese Danish and almost defiantly said, “The same for me too.”

“OK, and the usual for Snuff, I presume,” Charley said. Abraham Lincoln Panim looked up, not knowing what that meant as Charley walked away after the two placed their order.

“Listen, I’m sorry that what’s his name … Charley … brought up Brandon,” Abraham Lincoln Panim said to Ariel.

“No need to be sorry,” Ariel replied, fidgeting with the salt shaker as she spoke. “Charley has known me for ages. He was almost like a second father to me. He kind of took me under my wing, even more so than my parents did.

“He told me that I could do whatever I wanted to do in life, that blindness could allow me to see things in a different way than most people. I know he really cares for me, and I guess he wondered about Brandon, because we came here so often for a good amount of time. Forget it.”

Abraham Lincoln Panim heard what she said, but even being in the back of the diner did not stop people from looking up from what they were doing and staring at him. He knew he was being stared at, and while Ariel was talking, he continued to primp himself up.

“Abraham Lincoln Panim,” did you hear what I said?”

“Uh … yes … I did,” he replied as he had his fingers in his hair, continuing to put it back into place as people turned around and stared at him.

“I still can’t believe that people think I am so handsome, even when I don’t look my best,” he thought to himself. “Wow, if only they knew that just a few days ago, I was the boy with the rat face. Now, I am the most handsome man on the planet!”