Calvin and Hobbes came crashing down the stairs. "No school! No homework! It's Saturday!"
Calvin ate three bowls of chocolate frosted sugar bombs, got dressed, and he and Hobbes went outside in search of fun. They terrorised Suzie Derkins by invading her tea party with water balloons and then they rode Calvin's wagon into the woods behind Calvin's house. Calvin eventually crashed the wagon, blaming it on Hobbes's steering and they got into a fight, which both claimed to have won, which caused another fight. They walked on through the forest and Calvin started talking about school.
"I don't really get on with the other kids, they don't see my point of view, and that dumb Moe always makes me give him my lunch money."
"Have you discussed the matter with your parents?" said Hobbes.
"They just tell me "Don't play where Moe is playing." As if that'll work." said Calvin, kicking a stone.
"We tigers are the apex predators of the jungle, so bullying is not something we worry about." said Hobbes with an air of pride.
"Some help that is." said Calvin.
He did a double take. "Hey what's that?"
There was a blue box in the middle of the forest. Its presence was incongruous with its surroundings. Calvin and Hobbes walked up to and around it.
"What do you think it is?" said Calvin.
"It says here "Police Public Call Box" so maybe they're cops." said Hobbes.
"Cool!" said Calvin. "Maybe they're hunting criminals or something!"
The door of the box opened and out stepped a young man with wild hair wearing black jeans, boots, red braces, a shirt and tweed blazer and a bow tie.
"Hello!" he said. "I'm the Doctor! Would you mind holding this?"
At this he thrust a glowing sphere into Calvin's hands. The round object was roughly the size of a football and kept changing colour; from green to red to blue to turquoise to white and back to red again.
"This is an alternate universe in which the Roman Empire never fell." said the Doctor.
"I won it in a game of live chess. Bigger on the inside, you see."
Calvin stared up at the Doctor. "Are you…are you an alien?"
"Not so loud!" The Doctor put his hands on Calvin's shoulders.
"To answer your question; yes I am an alien and I'd appreciate it if you kept it quiet. All I want is a bit of a rest and I won't get that if the FBI surround us with cars and helicopters and pointy things that go "fzzzwssshhhh"."
The Doctor seemed to turn in on himself. "Humans with advanced technology; always a tricky one."
"If you're an alien can you take Hobbes and I to another planet?" said Calvin, his eyes gleaming.
"I could," said the Doctor. "but the old girl's having a rest today, same as me. That doesn't mean we can't have fun, though."
"Do you know how to play Calvinball?" said Calvin.
"I don't but I'm fairly certain it's going to be brilliant." said the Doctor.
For the next two hours Calvin and Hobbes and the Doctor played Calvinball. The Doctor was a fast learner, picking up as he did the only rule which was to make the rules up as you went. The Doctor invented the rule that sonic screwdrivers could be used to quintuple the number of points scored but Calvin eventually won after inventing the rule that all players wearing bow ties had to remove them or forfeit the game. The Doctor had refused to take off his bow tie so Calvin had won.
"Listen Doctor can I talk to you about something?" said Calvin.
"I'm all ears." said the Doctor. "Well not literally but go on."
"I have these problems at school; there's this big kid Moe who beats me up for money and the other kids don't see things the way I do."
"Sounds familiar." The Doctor chewed his bottom lip. "Just remember, there's a universe of infinite majesty and wonder just waiting for you to discover it, and I don't just mean space travel. Every person contains untold wonders within them, you just have to keep an open mind and not let little things like rules and reality get in the way. Do you think you can do that?"
"Yeah." said Calvin.
The Doctor smiled. "Righto, must dash, thanks for the game, it was the most fun I've had in ages."
His eyes twinkled. "See you around."
With that he went inside the blue box and shut the door. Soon there was a huge whooshing and grinding sound and the box began to fade in and out until it was gone.
"What a nice individual." said Hobbes.
There was a pause, and then Calvin said "Let's go look for weird bugs!"
The two friends hurried away to enjoy their weekend.