It was half past four when we had to stop to rest and eat dinner because we were starving. Susie sat on the sled. We both knew we were eating the last of our gorp and beef jerky. We had two bottles of water left, some raisins, and two small tubes of peanut butter. That had to be breakfast the next day, our last meal on the ice. I didn’t say anything to Susie, but I was guessing we weren’t going to be having lunch in the U.S. of A.

Susie: Next to Noah’s beans and bread, this is the best food I’ve eaten.

Me: Hunger is the best sauce.

Hobbes: Give me some.

I dropped some bits of the gorp at my side so Susie wouldn’t see.

Susie: How far do you think we are, Calvin? Will it take as long tomorrow as you thought? Maybe we’ll make brunch? How far?

Me: Did you know that zebra mussels are killing this lake?

Susie: That far? But you said we’d be there by lunchtime tomorrow. It’s going to be dark again soon, and I don’t see shore.

Me: Zebra mussels eat all the microbes and make the water nice and clean and clear, but then all those microbes are what the fish eat. The zebra mussel is destroying the entire ecosystem of the lake. One day the whole lake will just be a big tank full of zebra mussels. All thanks to ballast water dumped in the lake by a European boat. I found that out when I was doing avoidance research on my biology project.

Hobbes: That’s it? These crumbs are all I get?

Susie: Tell me. I can deal.

Me: And then they’ll go on to the next lake and destroy it.

Susie: Wow. You-won’t-even-answer-me far?

Me: The largest freshwater lakes in the world and we’re slowly turning them into cesspools, flushing our human waste into them, dumping our chemical waste into them, fishing them out faster than the fish can repopulate, tossing in anything we don’t want to see anymore—shopping carts, cars …

Susie: You’re depressing me now, Calvin.

Me: We’re basically walking on a big frozen garbage Popsicle.

Susie: Shhh.

Me:

Susie: Thank you.

Me:

Susie:

Me:

Susie: It didn’t help.

Me: What didn’t help?

Susie: You shutting up—it didn’t help. When we started out you told me seventeen hours.

Me: I said seventeen to twenty.

She got the compass out of her pocket.

Susie: I know how to use this thing. I know we’re not going in circles.

Me: I wasn’t counting on slogging through deep snow in some places, and climbing snow dunes, and going around snow goons. Seventeen hours was at five K an hour. We made four yesterday, but now I’m thinking we’re down to three. Maybe.

Hobbes: Hungry … hungry …

Susie looked so worried sitting there on the sled that I knew I had to say something to make her happy.

Me: So, Susie, I was going to do my biology project on the pollution in the lake. So since I’ve done all this research, do you think Mr. Ferrige would give me an extension?

Susie (standing): Calvin!

Me: What?

Susie: Yes! That’s exactly what you should do. Get an extension!

Me: Why are you suddenly so happy?

Susie: Because! Because you’re not giving up! On school, I mean. What a relief! You need a good education … Look, all creative people are a bit crazy. But nobody worries about ten hertz as long as you do something great with it.

Me: Okay, so all I have to do is be brilliant or great and I’ll be fine. I’ll get right on that.

I grabbed the sled and started walking, and Susie kept up.

Susie: Charles Dickens, he thought the characters from his books were literally following him sometimes.

Me: Even better—I’ll work on being a genius.

Susie stopped and looked at me.

Susie: But you are a genius already.

Hobbes: Hoo-boy!

Me (laughing):

Susie: What? You are.

Me: Now you’re the crazy one. I am not a genius.

Susie: Calvin, I thought you knew.

I was impressed with my delusionary powers. Not only had I conjured up a whole girl, but she was Susie McLean, and she was saying things that were obviously all about making myself feel better about myself.

Hobbes: Why is she talking like that? Maybe she’s just mocking you out of revenge for all those snowballs you chucked at her.

Suddenly I could hear whispering. Nothing I could really hear or understand, but I knew the whisperer was there, South Bay Bessie, or Jenny Greenteeth, or both, just under the ice, just a thin layer of frozen water between me and them. They thought I was one of them.

Me: I don’t belong to you.

Susie: What?

Me: I wasn’t talking to you.

Susie: I see.

Me: They’re under the ice.

Susie: Oh, Calvin.

Me: They’re waiting for me.

Susie: Well, they can wait, then. I won’t let them have you.

I stopped. I stood still. The wind was in the hollows of my ears, but the voices were gone.

Me: You made them go away, Sooz.

Susie: Okay. Now we know something.

Me: We do?

Susie: Yeah. We do.

*   *   *

I walked a little faster to put distance between me and the whispers, and Susie kept up until she couldn’t anymore, and then we went slow until we were beyond exhausted and it was getting dark.