"Hobbes?"
The tiger looked beside him to see his six-year-old buddy Calvin gazing up at him with a look of puzzlement.
"Yes?" came the reply.
"Why are we here?"
Now it was Hobbes's turn to be puzzled. The textbook loaded question.
The tiger repeated the question in his mind. Re-repeated it, even.
"Tigers, or people?" Hobbes asked, hoping for clarification on the question.
"Us," Calvin replied. "Why is it that we come from middle-class, modest income backgrounds, when in other places there is widespread, crippling poverty?"
Hobbes turned his gaze from the boy to the shimmering horizon in front of the two. The silence seemed to last for a lifetime.
Calvin looked at Hobbes, growing impatient with each passing second. Hobbes's face was creased with thought.
"I guess we're just lucky", Hobbes said at last. Calvin looked at his friend, sighed and looked at the horizon.
"I guess you're right," Calvin replied.
"Tigers are always right," Hobbes grinned.
"Shut up, you."