My dad and I were enjoying our vacation in Mount Pleasant Iowa and our hotel room was quite nice. There were two very comfortable beds and a nice tv. There was a very ornate ceiling fan with lights on it and a small round table by the window. My dad went and sat down at the table while I turned on the fan. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. He got up to get it. A man walked in and said "Mr. Obermeyer, I regret to inform you of the death of one of your former employees." My dad asked "Who is it?" and the man replied "Mary Massa." That caught my attention. Miss Massa was my art teacher in 6th and 7th grade. She was very helpful but I was a typical ungrateful middleschooler. I said "Dad, I'd like to go to New York to the funeral." He said that was understandable. My dad then asked "How did she die?" and the messenger said "We think a heroin overdose, but the autopsy may be inaccurate. Her body was very badly decomposed when we found it. That's part of the reason why I'm here. We're not _totally_ sure that it's her. Since you did know her, we would like you to look at these photographs and try to identify the body."

My dad took the photos and began looking through them. One of them, a picture of what was left of her face, caught my eye. My dad said "Yes, that's most definitely her." But in that picture, there was a very clear shot of her teeth. One of the front two was grossly out of line, and I distinctly remembered her teeth not being like that. I spoke up and said "No--that's not Miss Massa!" My dad said "Neal, I know this is hard for you, but it is her. You're going to have to accept that." I agreed just to please him, but I knew that the body that was found was _not_ Miss Massa's. She was still alive--I knew it. And that frightened me, because the agents of the school wanted us to believe that she was dead. What were they hiding?

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