Have you seen a manatee yet?
My friend said to me, “Isn’t the mime your student too?” I said, “No, just the gorilla. But his friend is actually my student.” Figuring out the complexities of our costumed clientele was hard work. I should mention that neither mime-sighting nor gorilla-spotting occurred on Halloween. These were just students who roamed the halls, took some classes, and sometimes showed up in costume.
At around the same time, I taught in a room where a shoe was left behind. Just one shoe. How is this possible? While I’ve been known to wear two shoes of different styles at the same time, I have never walked around in only one shoe. Perhaps, I thought, he was (for it was a man’s shoe) missing a leg and only wore the shoe on his prosthetic leg as decoration. Thus he did not need the shoe. It fell off without his knowing.
Then there were the glasses. These were left behind a week or two after the shoe conundrum. Surely someone would have noticed their missing glasses. Or maybe he bumped into a wall, knocked himself out, and lost all memory of ever having glasses. All is probable on a campus where mimes dwell.
Ultimately I concluded that our students put on their costumes in such a hurry that they forgot the mere mortal paraphernalia left behind. Like Clark Kent they must change quickly…..or the world will stop spinning.
