Sinister. Forget the Ambi-

"Forgive me, Child. I have always been ambisinister."

He looked it too.

Gregory retrieved the pen the new schoolmaster had dropped. Naturally it had rolled obediently to the toe of his own shoe. He prayed the ink would not drip where it shouldn't as he stretched out his hand to return it.

"Sir..." was all he could think of to say. That's okay sounded too familiar. Think nothing of it sounded way too mature. What exactly does all-over sinister have to do with dropping a pen? would just highlight his ignorance.

It was easy to not concentrate on the pen. The man was like a train wreck. Gregory couldn't take his eyes off of him, but the man was not exactly easy to look at. He wore the closest thing to a stovepipe hat Gregory had ever seen. It was lopsided, and his clothing was completely dark, long. If he just had a long face and a beard he could have passed for Abraham Lincoln. But his face was more oval, and not up-and-down oval but side-to-side oval as though he had a permanent case of the mumps. And his eyes were beady green, like marbles that might just shoot out of his head and put lumps on his.

"I imagine a young man like yourself tends to be ambidextrous instead."

Gregory squirmed. What was the man trying to do?

"I wouldn't know, Sir."

"Truly? Do you write with your right hand or your left?"

"My right, Sir."

"Then if you teach yourself to use your left hand just as proficiently and you'd be ambidextrous."

"I see." Then what exactly did ambisinister mean? Gregory was beginning to think it had nothing to do with the man's ability to slide into a villian's role without a thought.

"Now, let's get on with this form so that I can get your first day started off right."

Too late.

------------------------
This flat attempt doesn't do justice to the 8/21/08 AWAD offering:
ambisinister
PRONUNCIATION:(am-bi-SIN-uh-stuhr)
MEANING:adjective: Clumsy with both hands. (Literally, with two left hands.)
ETYMOLOGY:From Latin ambi- (both) + sinister (on the left side).