Chapter 4: Night Terrors

"And now, presenting, the amazing Calvin!" the town mayor yelled into the microphone. The crowd roared. Calvin stepped out onto the stage, pausing occasionally to wink at the news cameras. When he finally got to the edge of the stage where the mayor was, he looked down. The entire town was there to see him! People wore hats with pieces of yellow foam glued on them to resemble Calvin's spiky hair. Some held up signs with his name on them. "Calvin," the mayor remarked, "you sure have done a lot for this town! With your genius plan to send Susie Derkins to Mars-"

The audience began to start booing and replacing the Calvin signs with "Susie Stinks" signs. A group of people in the front starting stomping on a Susie dummy. The mayor could barely be heard over the noise. "-slimy girl related diseases have dropped ninety percent. And your plan to abolish schooling and homework has caused the rate of depressed kids to drop like a brick! And your annual Calvin is Great parade is a hit! But one of your best ideas of all was the one entitled Operation: F.A.A.P (Flamethrowers Are Awesome Presents), when you persuaded Santa Claus to give weapons to bad kids and skip the houses of goody-goody children! Calvin, for making this town what it is today, I present you with the occupation of new mayor!" The townspeople cheered as he pinned the official Town Mayor pin on his shirt. When the cheering subsided (after 10 minutes) the former mayor announced, "I also give you THIS!" He pulled a rope. A door opened and out came a cherry red convertible with Hobbes in the driver seat.

"Come on, buddy! Let's go to Vegas!" said Hobbes.

The audience cheered extremly loud. Suddenly, there was a huge cracking noise. Calvin looked behind him to see a large snowy mountain with an avalanche coming in his direction. He tried to move, but his feet seemed to be stuck to the floor. Calvin could only see white snow when it hit him. It was freezing! He felt like he was going to catch hypothermia. It was cold...so cold!

"HEEEELLLPPP MEEEEE!!!" Calvin sat up in bed. "It was a dream. Just a horrible, horrible dream!" He relaxed. "It was just getting good, too. Stupid avalanche!" He looked down to find that his blankets were gone and goose bumps were on his legs. Then he saw Hobbes wrapped up in the blankets on the floor. "Hmmph. He must have been afraid I was going to barf on him or something," said Calvin, remembering his stomachache. His stomach no longer hurt, thank goodness. He heard footsteps coming up the stairs. It was his Mom, probably come to see why he had screamed. He imagined her tucking him in and letting him sleep a few more hours before she called him for breakfast. The footsteps were closer now, outside his bedroom door. "Good morning, Mo- AAAAAAAGGGGHHH!"

It wasn't his Mom. It was Rosalyn. "Why are you screaming, bozo? Are you OK?

She approached the bed, but Calvin just scooted over, trying to reach the baseball bat on the other side of the bed. He finally reached it and swung it at Rosalyn. It made a swish in the air like a ninja sword as it nearly hit her in the nose. "What are you doing in my house? Where are my parents? What have you done with them?"

Rosalyn calmly took the bat and dropped it on the floor. "There was a minor emergency and your parents had to drive to another state. Everything is OK now, but they'll be back in a day."

" I have to spend a day with YOU?"

"Yes, that's right. And I'm not going to put up any funny business, got that? When I say 'jump', you're going to say 'how high?'. Got that?"

Calvin leaped off the bed and shook Hobbes. "Hobbes! Wake up! We have to escape and go to Mexico!"

"Nobody is going to Mexico," said Rosalyn, grabbing Calvin by the back of the shirt. "Now, what do you want for breakfast?"

Thirty minutes later, Rosalyn sat a plate of fried eggs in front of Calvin and Hobbes. "Here. Eat."

"I won't eat this. It's probably poisoned."

"Calvin, you saw me cooking them. There's no way in the world that they can be poisoned."

"What about that stuff you put on them?"

"It was salt, Calvin. Plain old table salt."

"I saw you put something in the salt shaker."

"The salt shaker was almost empty. I was refilling it."

"Oh, yeah? You taste some."

"Fine." Rosalyn tasted the eggs. Nothing happened. "See?"

"Rats. I was hoping we could have stole her cell phone." said Hobbes.