Seated near a table in the law school atrium, Professor Dash gingerly took hold of the piglet that Yassir handed him.

The previous two weeks, the table had held thirty plastic piggy banks, each labeled with the name of a professor, as students from the Public Interest Law Society sat by a sign saying WHO WILL KISS THE PIG?

Each night Yassir compiled a running total of the money law students placed in the various piggy banks and emailed it to ALLSTU and ALLSTAFF.

Professor Dash, known as "D+ Dash" for his notoriously low grades in Civil Procedure, did not seem to be in the running at first, but on the second Wednesday someone had placed a twenty-dollar bill in his piggy bank, and after that, his lead only increased. Yassir, a third-year student, heard that essays answering a practice final exam question on personal jurisdiction had been returned that Tuesday.

Yassir had borrowed the pig from the admissions director's mother and had passed on the woman's warning that Beth-Ann sometimes got startled when humans made abrupt moves. As about forty law students, staff members and the school's director of facilities looked on, Yassir said it was time to proceed with the kiss. It didn't have to be on the pig's moist snout.

Slowly Professor Dash lowered his head and touched his lips to Beth-Ann's forehead.

It reminded him of an impulsive gesture he'd once made following an encounter with a Boston boy with heavily moussed hair.