Chapter Two

Hobbes

Every night when Calvin would go to sleep, he would look out of his window. On a good night, Calvin could see all the stars in the sky, but there was one particular star was special. The magic star.

You know how it works; the brightest star in the sky when you look at it is the magic star. It's the one star that every child has ever wished on at some point or another. It was also at this time that Calvin said his evening prayer.

"God" he began, "thank you for everything that you've given me. I know that Grandpa's up there with you. Tell him I said hi." Calvin looked left and right, "Bless my Mom, she's been feeling kind of down lately. Thanks for all the good sunny days here and barely any rain. Lastly, thanks for giving me Hobbes, my one true friend."

Calvin had never prayed for Hobbes, he never thought about it. Calvin didn't really know the reason for why he didn't, for Hobbes was his only friend that he ever had. As Calvin got into bed, he continued to think about this. Hobbes walked over to his bedside.

Calvin's mother was not the type of mother who tucked in and kissed good night, it was just how it was. Calvin didn't mind though, after all his mother did everything she could for him, that was enough. But it was still nice to have that moment, the moment when it's all about you and the rest of the world doesn't matter.

Hobbes had a way with stories. He could say things as if they had happened only a few seconds ago; putting yourself in that situation was cake for him. Hobbes also had a thing with pictures; he could create fantastic images with shadow puppets, an entire landscape with sand, anything that could be imagined he could make with nothing but his own two hands.

Every night right before Calvin would go to bed; Hobbes would entertain his creator one more time before he entered the magical realm of dreams. It was these moments that it seemed as if Hobbes wasn't imaginary at all. The moments when best friends feel like extended members of the family. In this case, it was absolutely true.

Hobbes got on the bed and continued the story from the night before. The story at this point was pretty simple, a prince finds a magic stone that when rubbed grants wishes. The problem is that the stone does the opposite of whatever the bearer wants, but as soon as the bearer figures this out-the stone takes the wishes literally. "Then the prince looked at the stone one more time," Hobbes stooped down as if he were holding a rock, while simultaneously creating the setting of a beach with a flashlight and his left hand. "And said his final wish."

Calvin sat up and looked at Hobbes with eager eyes, "Well, what did he wish for?" Hobbes looked at Calvin lovingly and sighed, "He wished that little boys would go to sleep." Calvin huffed at this, the kind of huff that you would do if you were disappointed at something but still agreed to the terms kind of huff. As Calvin lay down, Hobbes got off the bed and pulled out a large cartoon like zipper. The zipper opened up and just as Hobbes was about to go through, Calvin sat up again, "When can I see it?" he asked. Hobbes looked at him, his eyes shining with anticipation, "Not yet. For now, sing a little song that will make the birds themselves jealous." As soon as they were sure that Calvin was asleep they went through the zipper and closed it shut.

The zipper was a portal to Wackadoo Land, on the other side was a dock at the end of which was a train. This train led to the city of Jessop. Jessop is entirely underwater; a large dome surrounds it protecting it from the water. Its buildings are made of stone, making it similar to a medieval town. There is a river running through street, this river flows into the water surrounding the city. The castle is a large building directly in the center of Jessop.

There are no residents in this castle; it is more of a tourist attraction for creators. It is an exact replica of every medieval castle, when it's in prime. All one would have to do was push a button and the castle of choice would appear. It was quite a thing to be seen, and even more so when it's the castle of King Arthur.

Hobbes was soon on the street. Hobbes looked around and noticed that the street was relatively empty. Strangely happy about this, Hobbes headed for his house, which was right by the stream running down the road. Next to his house, was a large orange fig tree, in which lived his neighbor, Walter the Worm.

Walter the Worm was arguably the worst neighbor in the history of neighbors. He was annoying, asking rhetorical questions expecting an answer, waking people up at 3 am, banging pots together for the sake of making noise, and non stop talking expect for the eight hours of sleep between 10pm and 6am. Those were the only quiet time that Hobbes ever had when he was home, which is why so often that he slept with Calvin.

Hobbes' house was the most unique building, besides the castle in all of Jessop. The thing about Hobbes' house was its bathroom. You'd open the bathroom door to do your business and when you open the door again, instead of a hallway, you're in a blowing alley on the other side of town. This comes in handy when you're the mailman, not just for your Wackadoo Land but every Wackadoo Land in the entire world. Now this may seem like a lot of work but for an imaginary friend with a bag always full of mail, it takes about three hours.

The trick to this bathroom door was in the doorknob itself. It all depends on how you turn it to where you'll end up. In fact, it wasn't just the doorknob but the bag of mail itself. You see, the bag of mail and the doorknob are connected, so you would only go to places that needed mail to be delivered that day. The question you may be asking is: "If the bag is always full then when do you stop delivering mail?" The answer is in three parts: First the mail is delivered to certain places on certain days at certain times, much like a regular mailman. The second part is that the mail that is left in the bag when the day is done freezes until the day comes for it to be delivered. Finally, when the mail does eventually get low, the bag brings in more mail from The Imaginary Postal Service by way of vacuum in the bottom of the bag.

Other than this bathroom, Hobbes' house is quite ordinary. There is a bedroom, kitchen, living room etc. These rooms have the basic essentials. The bedroom has a bed, dresser, lamp, bedside table. The kitchen has sink, stove, dishwasher, cabinets and refrigerator/freezer. The living room has couch, lamp, coffee table, bookshelf etc. etc. You get the idea, I'm not going to bore you with these details, you should know what's in a kitchen, living room, and bedroom look like without me telling you. If you don't look it up online or in a book like normal people.

The bad part about Hobbes' house was that Hobbes' never knew when to expect company. Random people would pop in at the worst possible times, most famously during a dinner date with his girlfriend, a florist, and during times when he just wanted to be alone after a long day delivering mail.

Hobbes loved his job as a mailman, but his foremost responsibility was to Calvin, for he was created for the sole purpose of being there for him. His job as mailman, thus far has never gotten in the way of that, a surprising feat for someone who has to deliver mail to every single creation created by children from all over the world.

Hobbes sat on his bed and looked out his window. He could see the water surrounding the city and for the first time worried about drowning. Since he was imaginary he didn't need anything to survive, but it was the principle of thing that mattered. Hobbes preferred air to anything else, because at least with air he could speak normally, whereas with water or no atmosphere at all, his voice was distorted and people who lived in those areas had difficulty understanding him.

"I think tomorrow will be the day" he said to himself, referring to taking Calvin to see his own creation of Wackadoo Land. Something that Calvin never got to experience, either because it was restricted to him or Hobbes was hiding something- it was both.

The reason that Hobbes did not want Calvin to see Wackadoo Land was because it isn't his original design. It was changed by The Council for being too creative. It is ironic but Calvin's Wackadoo Land was close to breaking the rules, so it had to be modified.

The original version of Jessop and its surrounding areas was not altered one bit; it was the connection to the other Wackadoo Lands that made it a problem. You see, Calvin's had an international connection system between every Wackadoo Land in the entire world. This was cut out for one reason. If the connection system stayed there would be potential threat for other imaginary friends to enter Jessop. Some imaginary friends were created only following the bare minimum requirements for creation and thus were labeled as dangerous and a threat to the community.

If this connection system were active it would allow the dangerous friends to escape to other Wackadoo Lands, causing destruction and mayhem across the world. If this continued for a long enough periods, the imaginary friends themselves would become corrupt, bringing about the worst qualities in human beings and destroying the world views of children everywhere.

Hobbes slept comfortably for about three hours, until Walter woke up at 3am, for no reason. "Alright tiger! It's time to get up. You know the old saying-" Hobbes poked his head out from his window, "You finish that sentence and I'll feed you to my parrot, Walter." Walter, who was not looking forward to eaten, having much preferred to be alive slowly moved towards the door. "Ha, ha!" he said nervously, "You wouldn't do that to me would you? After all what are friends for?" It was at this moment that Hobbes threw a plant pot at Walter, "Shut up Walter" Hobbes shouted, "It's 3 am!" Walter made his way from inside the fig, for he had entered it upon impact, and to the surface, "One of these days, Hobbes!" he said to the tiger that was no longer listening, and went back inside his home. "Finally" Hobbes replied under his breath," Maybe now I can get some sleep."

As soon as Hobbes got in bed, the phone rang, causing him to get up and answer it. "Hello?" he said groggily, "Hobbes? It's me Calvin..." Hobbes groaned, it was too late for this, "What do you want Calvin?" Hobbes asked annoyingly as he climbed back in his bed, "I told you to only call this number in case of an emergency." Calvin nodded, "It is an emergency!" he cried. Hobbes immediately tensed up and reached for his back pocket, where he kept his zipper. "I'm lonely and can't go to sleep" Calvin continued. Hobbes relaxed, relived to find that it was only sleep deprivation and loneliness. "Listen kid" Hobbes began, "I can't make it back. The zipper's broke." Calvin sighed, extremely disappointed. Hobbes hated lying to Calvin, but there were limits as to how much he was willing to be there for his creator and 3am was definitely one of those limits. "Can you at least tell me a story?" Calvin asked hopefully.

"Now that I can do" Hobbes exclaimed as he situated himself comfortably on the bed, "So what strikes your fancy?" Hobbes continued, "Aladdin's Magical Lamp, The Three Musketeers, Hamlet or The Explanation of Einstein's Theory or Relativity?" The last one he obviously threw in as a joke, but Calvin choose it even so. Hobbes sighed, "You're killing me here Calvin. You really are. Please pick something simpler, you know I'm a simple guy!" Calvin laughed, "Okay then. How about your story?" he asked. Hobbes raised his eyebrows in confusion, "My story? You already know my story, you created me!" Calvin laughed, "I created you as you are. But you existed before then remember? You were kinda like a stuffed animal Hobbes. I just took that and used it as a basis."

This information troubled Hobbes greatly, so much so that for several minutes he was speechless. "Hobbes?" Calvin said through the receiver, "you there?" Hobbes nodded by said nothing, "Y-y-yeah I'm here" the tiger finally answered, "So...you want to know my story huh?" Calvin nodded excitedly, but before he could get an answer, Hobbes hung up the phone.

Hobbes stared at the door for several minutes, for the first time he questioned his existence. He thought about it for several minutes, but ultimately he came up with nothing. Hobbes tried to go back to sleep, but his efforts were futile, for in addition to his mind now being blogged with questions, Walter had begun his usual ranting at the world.