Posted by Chris Herdt on April 18, 2004 at 14:17:27:
In Reply to: Chapter Three: My Clever Disguise posted by Ben on April 18, 2004 at 14:13:04:
I really wanted that hat back. I had a deep nostalgia for that hat. It was a cream-color baseball-style cap with a brown leather brim. There was a silhouette of a bear walking in front of a full moon embroidered on the front. In that hat I'd caught my first fish. I'd caught my first kiss. I'd even caught my first--and only--V.D. in that hat, which was lucky because it was only chlamydia, nothing worse. The right brim was worn, as I was used to tip my cap to passersby as a way of saying hello.
I knew that whereever I found my hat I might also find out what had happened to Professor Vortmann.
I decided to go to Ashley's, one of my favorite watering holes, to see if my hat would turn up there. I cozied up to the bar and ordered an Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. The TV was on over the bar, and they were showing a breaking news story about a fire on campus. Was that--was that the Chem Building? Where I'd been acting the part of a coat rack only minutes before?
I only hoped the altered gradebook would somehow survive the blaze.