Chapter 11

Myron climbed on top of his desk. "Look around, folks! There's no teacher! We're doing all this work for nothing!"

"Get down!" whispered Allison. "Do you want to get us all in trouble?"

Myron jumped on top of Allison's desk. "Hi, Allison!" he said. Then he hopped over to Deedee's desk, then Ron's, then Maurecia's.

"Please, Myron," said Maurecia.

"This is fun!" said Myron. He made a great leap and landed on top of the teacher's desk.

Mrs. Jewls had always kept a coffee can full of Tootsie Roll Pops on her desk. It was still there.

"Hey, anyone want a Tootsie Roll Pop?" asked Myron.

Everyone stared at him.

Myron took one for himself. He sat in the teacher's chair, with his feet up on the teacher's desk, and sucked on it.

"Please stop, Myron!" begged Jenny. "What if he's hiding in the closet?"

"Get real!" said Myron. "Why would he hide in the closet?"

"What if Mr. Gorf was married to Mrs. Gorf?" asked Allison.

Myron laughed. "Who would ever want to marry Mrs. Gorf?" he asked.

"Somebody had to marry her," said Rondi. "Or else she wouldn't have been a Mrs."

"What if he loved her very much?" asked Allison. "And then one day she didn't come home from work. And he never saw her again. And he didn't know what happened to her. But he knew she used to teach this class! So he might be hiding in the closet to try to find out if we're the ones who got rid of her."

"If I was married to Mrs. Gorf," said Jason, "I'd be glad she never came home. He should thank us."

"Nice going, Jason!" said Jenny. "If he is hiding in the closet, you just told him we're the ones who got rid of his wife."

"Well, if I didn't you just did," said Jason.

"It doesn't matter!" shouted Myron. "Because Mr. Gorf is not hiding in the closet!"

Myron went to the back of the room and opened the closet door.

A man stepped out. "Thank you," he said. "I accidentally locked myself in here this morning, and I've been waiting for someone to open the door."

Myron swallowed his Tootsie Roll Pop, stick and all.
59
"My name is Mr. Gorf," said the man who stepped out of the closet.

And, surprising as it may seem, the children weren't afraid.

It was his voice. His voice was full of comfort and wisdom, like an old leather chair in a dusty library. It didn't matter what he said. It felt good just to listen to him.

He was a handsome man, with neatly combed brown hair and clean fingernails. He carried a brown briefcase.

Nobody even noticed that his nose had three

nostrils.

"Since I am going to be your teacher for the next few months, let me tell you a bit about myself. I was born in the Himalayan Mountains in a town called Katmandu."

"Cat Man Do," said Terrence. "Cool."

Everyone laughed. They weren't laughing at Terrence. There was just something about the name of that city and the way Terrence said it.

Terrence's voice was like a rusty drainpipe.

"Have you ever been married?" asked Allison. Allison's voice was like a cat walking across a piano.

"No, I'm a bachelor," said Mr. Gorf.

Allison smiled, greatly relieved.

"Well, that's enough about me," said Mr. Gorf. "How about some of you telling me about yourselves?"

"My name is Mac," said Mac, without raising his hand. Mac's voice was like a freight train. "I built the biggest snowman you ever saw. Man, it was huge. I had to stand on a ladder to put the hat on his head. It was a stovepipe hat, like Abraham Lincoln wore, but I don't know why they call it that. We have a microwave oven. Have you ever put a bag of marshmallows in a microwave oven? Man, it's like-"