Disclaimer: EEEP! Thanks for catching that, Jhomeboy! We'll just say that in this particular hotel, they don't have ladders in case of this emergency! THIS IS THE END OF THIS STORY! YES! Eck, sorry, it's been a HUGE burden trying to remember it, but don't worry! I'll be good and update more often with "Calvin's Second Play" and another story I have planned. Oh, sorry for the long delay in updating this- I started a fantasy story and I got so wrapped up in that that I finished it. Then I wrote another story, tried to write a sequel to the fantasy story that didn't work out, and, well, here I am! I don't own Calvin and Hobbes (but I'm not done trying to own it!) By the way, Warui Sakana means "Bad Fish" in Japanese.
Calvin was still dangling from the elevator rope. "Well," he commented to himself, "this is a predicament, to say the least!" His hands were getting sweaty, and he was hoping that they wouldn't slip. He knew he couldn't die, falling ten feet (he had done much worse on his sled and wagon) but he knew that a metal elevator would hurt more than falling down onto some snow or grass.
"Calvin! Are you alright?" his dad called up to him from the elevator.
"Um... yeah! I'm fine!" Calvin lied quickly. He had to think of some way to get out of this. Suddenly, an idea came to him. Rather quickly, he started swinging back and forth, causing the rope to rock, slowly at first, but gradually getting faster. He kept on swinging, and eventually, his feet hit solid elevator shaft wall. (A/N: Can't think of anyway else to describe it!) He then climbed the rest of the way up the elevator shaft, and was standing in the hallway of his hotel.
"There you are!" said a person. He was the person who told him to climb out of the elevator shaft in the first place. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah," Calvin said.
"What about your father? Is he alright?"
"Dad? Yeah, he's fine."
"Alright. We needed you to get out of there so some weight was off of the elevator. It should be operating any minute now."
As if to answer the man's question, the elevator started whirring, and out came Calvin's Dad. He looked a little shaken by the whole event, but was fine, needless to say. "C'mon, Dad! Let's go to the pool!"
"Calvin, let's go back to our room," his dad said, sighing.
Calvin, however, wouldn't give up. "PLEASE?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"We've been locked in an elevator for an hour. I want to go to our room and take a nap, alright?"
"No. I want to go swimming!" Calvin pounded his foot on the ground.
"Calvin, I'm getting a headache. I need to take some aspirin for it, alright?" Calvin's Dad took his son's hand and led him up to their room using the stairs.
After Calvin told Hobbes the events, Hobbes thought it was unfair. "You should get to go swimming," he said for the fifth time.
"I know," Calvin rolled his eyes. His parents were out eating, leaving Calvin in the hotel room by himself. "Hey! Let's go swimming ourselves!"
"No," Hobbes said bluntly.
"Why not?" Calvin protested.
"Because, I don't want to get in trouble, that's why!"
The rest of the stay in Brazil was uneventful. Calvin's Dad even regretted coming to Brazil, because his only meeting there was cancelled. After a five day stay, they were going to fly to Japan and then home.
When they landed in Japan, Calvin's Mom took Calvin immediately to a hotel.
"Welcome to Warui Sakana hotel!" a Japanese receptionist said, with a strong Japanese accent. "Please go to the front desk!"
After Calvin and his Mom got in the room, he and Hobbes played an indoor version of Calvinball, in which they broke a lamp.
"ENOUGH!" his Mom shouted. "Why don't we go shopping, Calvin?"
"I hate shopping!" Calvin protested flatly.
"Well, lets look around Tokyo for awhile." She picked up the key card to the hotel and walked out, closely followed by Calvin and Hobbes.
"Hey, don't they have the talking toilets here in Japan?" Calvin asked, grinning a sly grin.
Calvin's Mom rolled her eyes. "No, Calvin," she muttered.
They went into downtown Tokyo and hailed a taxi. Unbeknownst to Calvin, his mom was fluent in Japanese. As they stepped into the comfortable cab, the driver spoke up. "Dochira made."
"Bijutsukan made onegai shimasu," Calvin's mom said without pausing to think. Calvin blinked and looked at Hobbes.
"Did you know Mom spoke Japanese?" he asked him.
"No… I thought you'd know your mom better than I do," Hobbes shrugged.
Calvin buckled in between his mom and Hobbes, and was quiet for most of the ride. They finally pulled up to a large, white building with Japanese kanji Calvin couldn't read.
"Tsukimashita yo," the driver said. Calvin's mom handed him some Japanese yen, and he tried giving some back to her.
"Otsuri wa kekko desu," his mom smiled, and the driver drove off once the three got out.
"Mom, where're we going?" Calvin asked impatiently, tugging at his mom's pant leg.
"The art museum," Calvin's mom replied.
Calvin's face lit up. "Ahh," he said, with a false air of artistic knowledge. "I suppose we will be going to a finer museum in Japan. Very well, come along, Hobbes," Calvin said, grabbing a hold of the tiger and dragging him inside.
The museum wasn't very exciting. Calvin's mom took them on a tour of the museum with a group, translating what the tour guide was saying to an uninterested Calvin and Hobbes. It turned out Japanese artists weren't very much into the kind of art Calvin liked- "But they didn't have ANY avant-garde!"- and they went back to their hotel room, waiting for Calvin's dad. He told them that he would have a few more meetings and then they'd be going home.
Finally, on their last night in Japan, Calvin's dad spoke to them all. "Well, gang," his dad said, "our trip around the world is over. We'll be going home soon."
"YES! TELEVISION! MY INNER SANTCUM! AT LAST!" Calvin cried joyously.
"Now, let's pack
our things and say good bye to our last night away from home for a LONG time."
That night, as Calvin clambered into the huge double-bed, thoughts of home
floated into his mind. Miss Wormwood, Susie, Moe, the woods- all would be
coming back to him. He just had to wait for the next day.
YES! IT'S DONE!
HALLEIJUAH! (Hey, I spelled that right on my first try!) Anyways, I know this
was corny, but, well, it's over.
BTW, here's the translation for what they said in the taxi.
"Where to?"- the taxi driver
"Please go to the art museum."- Calvin's mom
"We're here."-the taxi driver
"Please keep the
change." –Calvin's mom.