Calvin and the Product--A fantasy short story

I've been hosting the twenty-four short story contest for a few months.  

But I have not posted my own short story in awhile.

When Harlan Ellison died the other I wrote one to just to get back into practice.  This is almost like the start to a novel.  

I think I was trying to summon my own internal Neil Gaiman in this fantasy story.  I have made my name writing children's books.  I need to do other stories to prove I can do them.

This short is only 1915 words.  Hope you like it.

It was a cold and rainy day when Calvin walked down the street.  He wore his low cut white athletic socks.  They were not enough to keep his feet warm.  His sneakers were beginning to get soaked.  His rain jacket, that was given to him by his best friend from high school for his wedding, was beginning to have water seep through at the shoulders.  He pulled his hood over his head tight.  The road that he was walking on began to get steeper.  His steps growing longer and slower as the hill got harder to walk up.

The corner of Babbler and Den Bark was empty.  No cars were coming from either direction.  Calvin was now wishing he had brought his umbrella.  He clutched his hood tight, his best effort to keep out the rain.

He looked back behind him, down Babbler Lane.  Realizing only now that the name for the street may have come from a babbling brook, as the water that rushed down the street had that same look.

The white car made more noise in the rain, as it splashed water traveling to the intersection.  It stopped and Calvin ran around to the passenger side and got in.

“You’re wet,” said the driver.  

“You’re late,” replied Calvin.

“Maybe I am,” said the driver.  The driver was pasty white in color.  An albino-Calvin had never seen one before.  His thin blond hair parted on the right side of his head.  He turned and smiled at Calvin.  The car took off fast enough to press Calvin to the seat.

“Slow down, there are kids around here.”

“So?” replied the Albino.

“There is a speed trap in this neighborhood, you want to get pulled by the cops for speeding in a neighborhood?  You want to explain that to Gio than be my guest.” Calvin flung his hand into the air.

The Albino driver gritted his teeth and gave Calvin a look of hatred.  He let off the gas and the car slowed to a more respectable 35 miles per hour.  They drove past a police car sitting to the right.

“See,” Calvin said without looking over at the Albino driver who did not respond.

The two remained silent as the Albino driver left the neighborhood and weaved in and out of back streets.

The car pulled in front of a large brown industrial garage door.  Three windows were placed across the middle.  They were blackened out.

The Albino driver pointed at the door, “Well…get out.”

Calvin jumped out of the car, and slammed the door shut.  He walked up to the door and banged on the middle of the door.  It had a hollow metallic sound to it.  He took two steps back.  He looked over his left shoulder and noticed the Albino driver was still there.  Looking at him.  The car was still running.

The sound of metal scrapping came from the door. Calvin turned back to looking at the door.  The door rose slowly, creeping higher and higher from the ground, until it had reached its height.

Calvin stepped back.  Looking into the dark vastness that lay beyond the door.

The Albino honked the horn, “Get going!” he shouted from behind the wheel.  His left hand motioning quickly to step forward.

Calvin looked back into the emptiness, took a breath and stepped forward.  

The darkness waited for him.

“Come in Calvin,” said a deep unseeable voice.

“I’m coming Gio.”  Calvin walked past the line where the door used to be.  Once he took two steps in, the door slammed down behind him, echoing through out the building.  Calvin knew to stand still.

The lights came on.

In the middle of the room, was a large snake.  It was green with black shading across the top.  Calvin figured it was about fifteen feet long.  Several people stood around the snake.  A couple of men were dressed in dark suits with black sunglasses.  Other stood behind it in suits of various colors.  

“Well, Gio, what is it I can help you with?” Calvin asked.

Gio the snake spoke, “Calvin.”  The v came out as an f sound.  The snake’s head rose slowly from the ground and face Calvin eye to eye.  The snake’s red tongue flashed in and out of it’s mouth.  “Calvin, we…I am glad you were able to come.”

“Don’t send the Albino again,” Calvin said.

The men around the snake laughed.

“Of course, I will choose better next time,” the snake replied.  “But you are here to tell me where the rest of the product is.”

Calvin thought he was ready for the question.  He whole body went cold, he was not fully ready for the question.

“It’s safe.  The product is safe.”  He said the last words slowly.

The snake shook its head from side to side.  “Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Calvin, my buddy I expected more than that from you.”

“Gio, I am sorry for not having it here now.  But when the FEDS come knocking on my door, I have to do something.  Remember if they find the product, they find you.”

The snake bolted straight up, hissed, and then brought his face near to Calvin’s.  Calvin didn’t budge.  “Don’t mess with me boy!”  The snake screamed.  “Bring me the product in three days, or…”

“You’ll kill me.”

“Yes. But only after I have killed your family in front of you.”

Calvin squeezed his fists and clenched his jaw.  

The snake moved in closer to Calvin, “Do you have something to say to me boy?”

His fists and jaw remained clenched. “No,” he replied quietly.

The snake leaned in closer, “Bring me my product.”  His forked tongue flicking in and out as he looked Calvin up and down.

Calvin took a few steps back, “I’ll get you the product don’t worry Gio.”

The snake’s tongue continued to flick in and out, “You will boy, or your family will die in front of you.”

The door noisily rose behind Calvin, he continued to face the snake as he walked backwards into the street.  He turned.  The Albino and the car were gone, and Calvin swore loudly.  The rain had stopped.  Puddles covered the street.

Twenty minutes later Calvin ran into his house and up to his room.  He slid on the floor and his hand reached under his bed, he grabbed a brown wooden box and pulled it out from under the bed. The box fit snuggly into the inside pocket of his hoodie.  He bounded down the stairs and out the door. Calvin stopped.

The car was parked outside of his house. The Albino was behind the wheel.  Calvin thought for a moment.  The window rolled down.  “Get in the car.  We both know you have it,” the Albino said, with a look of impatience across his face.  Calvin looked down the street and then back at the car.  The Albino brandished his gun by holding it outside the window of the car.

Calvin leaned to his left and ran.  The sound of screeching tires followed Calvin as the Albino took off after him.  

Calvin bolted to the left and ran in between Mr. Brown’s and Ms. Kelly’s house, narrowly missing her tulips.  He jumped over Mr. Hammond’s fence, luckily Dakota, his dog was 13 years old and in no shape to go after Calvin. 

Calvin sprinted on the Merrymont Way.  He heard the car speed up as it rounded the corner.  The Albino slammed on the breaks blocking the way, Calvin and the Albino stared at each other.  Calvin took across the street and into Mrs. Blackwell’s yard.  Jumping over the white fence and sprinting past the side of her house.  Benjamen, their small terrier, yelped loudly at Calvin from their back porach as he ran past their house.  Calvin cleared back fence and landed in Mr. Hammock’s backyard.   He bolted around to the right of the slate-gray colonial where pink azeleas were blooming.  When Mr. Hammock came out of the front door.

“Calvin!  Stop!” Mr. Hammock shouted.

Calvin looked behind.

“Get in here!” Mr. Hammock waved his hand.

Calvin paused.  The request caught him off guard.

“Get in here!  Before the car turns the corner!” Mr. Hammock’s finger was pointing to the sound of the car.

Calvin looked at Mr. Hammock, he looked at the end of the street.  He ran up Mr. Hammock’s front porch and into his house. 

Mr. Hammock slammed the door shut.  He looked out the window.

“How…did…you?”  Calvin pointed at Mr. Hammock.  “How?,,,” Calvin was trying to catch his breath.

“Do you have the product?” Mr. Hammock turned from the window and looked at Calvin.

Calvin stood up straight.  He didn’t say a thing.

“I know that Gio is looking for it.  I know the Albino.” He pointed to the window.

Calvin’s heart pounded in his chest.

“They’re going to kill my family,” Calvin said.

“Then why did you run?  Why didn’t you give it to the Albino?”

“I think you know why?” Calvin pointed at Mr. Hammock.

Mr. Hammock’s bottom lip stuck out as he thought.  “Follow  me.”  Mr. Hammock waved his hand and headed toward a door.  He opened the door and walked downstairs, Calvin followed.

“Shut the door,” Mr. Hammock instructed Calvin.  He shut the door and instantly sound emiminated from bottom of the stairwell. The sound of a bustling train station came from the basement.  Calvin stopped at the third stair down.

“What is this?” Calvin made a motion with his index finger.

Mr. Hammock kept walking and turned around when he reached the bottom of the stairs, “This is your way out.  Now, unless you want to go back up there and take your chances with the Albino and Gio then I suggest you come with me.”

Calvin folded his arms across his chest and felt the wooden box in the pocket of his hoodie.  “But he’ll kill my family,” Calvin shouted after Mr. Hammock.

“Not if you follow me,” Mr. Hammock replied without turning around.

Calvin bounded down the stairs.  He found himself in middle of a subway station surrounded by hundreds of other travelers.  It looked like the underground tube from London that he had seen in movies and tv shows.  There were red bricks on the walls, signs that showed the destinations.  Calvin looked at the map, how could an entire tube system exist in secret underneath his town?

“Calvin!  Keep up!” shouted Mr. Hammock who had stopped outside of a train with its door open.  Calvin ran and caught up to him.  They slid into the train.

“Where are we going?” Calvin asked.  Then he looked around, “Better question, where are we now?”

“The Rivermont.  Think of it as the Underground of the Underground.  A place for people who are fighting Gio.”

Calvin’s stomach dropped.  “You mean there are other people fighting Gio?”

“Of course there are!  You don’t think a twelve foot talking boa constrictor gangster that has been terrifying us and the other creatures that have been set upon us,” Mr. Hammock motioned with his right hand to nothing in particular.  He turned and faced Calvin, he put his finger over Calvin’s heart, touching the product hidden in his hoodie.  “And right there in your pocket is how we are going to stop him.”

The train slid to a stop and the doors opened, “This is our stop.”

And with that Mr. Hammock stepped off the train and Calvin followed into a brand new world.