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Calvin comic with no Hobbes in it that proved all the bad stuff that had happened to me was just for a laugh and tomorrow would be a whole new three-frame adventure.
    That was the plan.
    Too bad it didn’t work out that way.

 
    While we ate lunch we looked out over the lake. The wind had blown the forming ice into sharp, angled ridges and chunks between the shore and the open ice.
    The snow was white, the sky was white, the sun was white. Susie’s face was white.
    Me: It’s 12:20. If we walk five kilometers an hour for the next six hours, we’ll be in good shape to make it to the United States by breakfast the day after tomorrow.
    Susie (in a small voice): Bill doesn’t even know you’re doing this.
    Me: Yes, he does. I e-mailed him in care of his publisher, and they will have forwarded my letter to him. And I also sent a letter to the editor at The Plain Dealer . If the paper published it in their letters section or turned it into an article for the front page, Bill will read all about it.
    Susie: Maybe he’s drawing the comic right now so you won’t have to do this.
    Me: Bill didn’t save Calvin from much. He let Hobbes tackle him every day after school.
    Hobbes: He let him ride in his wagon with me on the back.
    Me: He let him sled down that steep hill with Hobbes in the winter.
    Hobbes: He let him jump out of his bedroom window on the second floor and let him get attacked by his food.
    Me: He left Calvin alone with a tiger.
    Susie: Yeah, I guess Bill isn’t going to suddenly pop up and say, Hey, don’t do it.
    She turned to me.
    Susie: He’s not going to save you. I’m going to save you by telling you this is the craziest idea ever, and it just proves you’re sick.
    Me: It’s a creative idea. I’m creative. The doctor says lots of creative geniuses have this problem. I read somewhere that John Lennon saw God in his living room.
    Susie: Well, that was John Lennon, so it probably really was God.
    Me: True.
    I looked out at the lake again, and now I could see all the different colors of white in it. Blue-ice white, and lavender-white in the shadows of the drifts, and every kind of white ever invented. I looked at Susie and she looked back at me.
    She couldn’t be real. Nobody could be that pretty.
    I looked up at the sky.
    Me: Okay, universe, this is your chance to stop me. Send me a sign and I won’t do it.
    Universe:
    I stood there and, Bill, I felt powerful somehow, like I was in control of me again. It was like the lake was invented for just this moment, and for me to walk across it. I packed our things in the duffel bag and roped it and the tent onto the sled.
    Susie: I’m scared.
    Me: It’s beautiful.
    Susie: It’s empty.
    I stepped onto the ice.
    I didn’t want her to come.
    But I did.
    I picked up the sled handle and looked back. Susie was staring down at her feet as if wondering why they weren’t moving.
    Me: Susie, meet me on the other side. How’s that? Talk to Bill in case I’m a bit late.
    Susie: You’ll never make it without me. Do you know why you have to store your bottled water upside down?
    Me: Why?
    Susie: Because water in the bottle freezes from the top down. If it freezes up a bit, we’ll still be able to drink some.
    I didn’t tell her I already knew that.
    Susie: You need me.
    I left it at that, Bill. I knew she would come. I guess I thought I could take care of her. That’s how crazy I was.
    I turned back to the lake.
    Susie came to my left side, Hobbes to his spot just behind and to my right.
    Me (to Susie): Okay. If we die, we die together.
    Susie: You die first.
    Hobbes: I’m already dead. Washed to death.
    Me: Yukon ho!
    We had begun.
    *   *   *
    The wind only whines and whistles and wails when it’s trying to get into the cracks of windows and doors. It only thumps and bellows when it bumps up against trees and houses and cars. But on a big flat empty