Calvin and Hobbes
The Faint Dying Light…
Prologue
(This piece is pretty dark and sad, and there are extreme themes present throughout. There is also some bad language in the next installment, but there isn't anything excessively violent or disturbing, so I have rated it "T". I don't want to give anything about the story away, but I will say that this is a very different take on the happy world of Calvin and Hobbes.)
It was late in the afternoon, although not quite enough that the Sun had started to dip beneath the horizon. Yet, it was late enough that families around the country would soon be sitting down to eat dinner, and although the three of them were camping perhaps a dozen miles from the nearest grocery store or fast food restaurant, they were no exception.
He wasn't a young man anymore, but a good diet and plenty of exercise had negated the results of a sedentary position in a multinational in the city. He was fit and he still had a full head of hair, and when he moved around he moved around like a man half his age. And as he knelt next to a portable but sturdy charcoal grill with a lighter and newspaper in hand, he did so without a hint of strain or difficulty.
Life had been good to him. By maintaining a high sense of morality and ethics, he'd risen through the ranks of his company and now, he was making over $200,000 a year, plus bonuses. He still took weekends off, though, and he spent plenty of time with his family, but that hadn't stopped him from enjoying prosperity. He'd just closed a deal on a new, bigger house in an exclusive suburb a bit closer to work, and he'd driven to the camping grounds in a brand new Lexus LX with all of the upgrades.
It took him just a few moments to start a small fire. He added a few charcoal briquettes to the small blaze and put the grate back on with a pair of tongues, and sat back to enjoy the landscape.
They'd set up their campsite on a mountain that overlooked a large, perfectly blue lake. Beyond the lake were a series of snow-capped mountains, and all around the air, an old but varied forest provided a gentle but dynamic green basis for the rest of the scene to build on.
It was so beautiful and peaceful that he barely moved a muscle for a full five minutes.
His wife was perhaps a hundred yards away, swimming near the shore. Although she wasn't young anymore either, she'd aged marvelously—these days, she was still slim and attractive, and the few strands of gray in her hair had served to do nothing but make her more beautiful in his eyes. It was true that she'd changed over the years, in some ways, but so had he—and by being open and honest with one another, they'd never had to spend a night apart in their lives.
It was hard to believe that his life at home was so good. Just five years ago, he'd never have guessed that life for him could possibly have turned out like this, but it had. It was when his son had been seven when it had all changed… when he'd finally crossed the line and forced him and his wife to take drastic measures.
Until then, his son had gotten to within a hairsbreadth of breaking the family apart forever. Now, he couldn't love his son more.
"Calvin," he called, looking over his shoulder to the two tents pitched behind him. "Are you ready to get up, buddy? The coals are getting pretty hot, and I need someone to help me cook the burgers."
"One minute, Dad. I'll be right there."
He smiled and faced forward again, but not for long. Perhaps thirty seconds later, a tall but lanky young man took the seat next to him.
He was blond, and if his hair had been shorter than the centimeter it was, it would have spiked up naturally. He had the face of a child, though, and rather dressed like one, too. Come to think of it, one of the few things that attached him to his childhood was his apparel—khaki shorts and a striped red and black shirt that clung snugly to his lithe torso.
He said nothing for a few moments, and that annoyed his father slightly—but not enough that he said anything about it. These days, it usually took prompting to get Calvin to speak, and, of late, even prompting hadn't been enough to get more than a few words out of the youth.
"It's been a while since we talked, Calvin," he said after a few moments. "How are things going for you?"
"Fine," Calvin said, looking out across the water. He held his knees to a chest and didn't elaborate.
"That's good," his father said a moment later. "So, are you doing well in school? Mom said you got a hundred on the last math test."
"Yeah," Calvin affirmed. He looked at his father for a moment, and almost smiled. "It wasn't that hard. I just… studied hard and checked over my answers a few times."
"Great job," his father said. He smiled at his son, proud, but Calvin didn't smile back. He didn't even look back.
"So," his father said, clearing his throat in an attempt to regain Calvin's attention, "how are things with the girls? What about that Susie Derkins who used to be our neighbor—do you still see a lot of her?"
Calvin nodded, at first… but then he paused, and shook his head.
"No? Why not?"
"I'm not sure," Calvin said. "She still has classes with me, but she doesn't say much… I think it's because her parents got divorced."
"That's a shame," his father replied. He sighed, briefly, but then smiled at Calvin.
"Well, your parents aren't about to divorce, kiddo. You know that, right?"
This time, Calvin did manage to smile.
A few moments later, the coals were fully heated and it was time to start cooking the burgers. Not long after that, Calvin's mother returned from the lake and joined her husband and son for a long, idyllic dinner that ended with s'mores cooked at a campfire closer to the tents.
It was a long night, but a happy, peaceful night, and the ideal way to open up a weeklong spring break. Calvin's father ended the evening with a cold bottle of beer, his mother with a bottle of water, and Calvin with two small pills that he'd had every evening since he had been seven years old.
(If you guess the fan comic that was the inspiration for this piece, do tell me in a review. Otherwise, look forward to the next part.)