Chapter 6

Thursday, 6.15 p.m.

"And now thanks to Hannibal, we all go to the Green Dragon Chinese restaurant downtown to have a meal that hopefully can be paid by a teacher's salary," the principal joked and concluded the teacher's conference.

"That was about time," Marcus, the PE teacher complained. "It's been over two hours."

Not all teachers could stay for the common dinner, but Hannibal had made sure that at least the teachers from their suburb were coming. That included Theresa whom he had offered to give a lift from home to school so that she wouldn't have to go by bike to the parking lot where Marcus used to pick her up. He had mentioned to her that in case she fancied him, he would of course understand if she denied his offer. She had not even smiled but replied that in the beginning, Marcus had tried to flirt with her but quickly given up. Maybe she did indeed feel more comfortable with a much older, married gay man giving her a ride.

"Is it all vegetarian?", Mr. Townsend complained.

"It's the best Taiwanese cuisine you will find in town," Hannibal said. "Despite being vegetarian."

"I am glad we are hosting another neighbors' BBQ on the weekend," Mrs. Fowler said. "Not only is the weather prognosis saying that it will be the last nice weekend of the year, but also because Mr. Leuchtenberg and his husband have promised to provide all the meat."

"We like to go out for fishing during the weekends and during one of our trips we have found a really good butcher. He sells all kind of specialties, rabbit, crane, turtle, and so on. Since we don't want any rumors about us being Vegetarian being spread, we thought we might provide the meat instead of the salads this time."

"That is very nice of you," Mrs. Fowler said. "And even Mr. Carrington has said that he doesn't mind. He is our local butcher, and he said that if he likes what he eats, he might pay this special butcher of yours a visit."

"Of course," Hannibal said and smiled politely. Not to mention that Mr. Carrington had already met the special butcher.

"Even Mr. Greyson and Mr. Kale are looking forward to the BBQ and they are the pickiest about their meat."

"Well, being hunters, they must of course have eaten all kinds of different meats after their hunting trips. They will well know what is what," Hannibal answered.

"Could we please stop talking about meat at a vegetarian restaurant?", Mr. Townsend complained. "I'm trying to get into the mood for greens."