The sidekick
17 Mar 2017 | Danny RocketWhen Danny finally got home, the dog greeted him by lifting her head and huffing once, then on recognizing him laid her head back down with a dumb smile and one and a half tail wags. Danny walked over and scratched behind the dog’s ears.
The dog is not the sidekick.
“Danny? Is that you?” The motherly voice came from the family room where the sound of courtroom drama also drifted.
“Yeah, sorry I was so late. I lost track of time.”
“Ok, don’t try to rush it, deciding on a career is worth stopping to think about.”
The mom is also not the sidekick.
“Thanks Mom, goodnight!” Danny walked up the stairs to his room, put the sword on the bed and stripped off the still-damp pants. After a hot shower, he felt much better about his situation.
He took close up photos of the sword while looking for a manufacturer and tried image searching them on google. No luck. Then he tried searching for the role of high mage of the Norther kingdom. After reading through a bunch of ameture fantasy writing summaries, he decided that he probably wouldn’t find what he was looking for. So naturally he looked for the possition on LinkedIn. One result.
A voice spoke from behind him, “I guess you found your career track.”
Danny squeaked and tumbled backwards over his chair and stared up at his grinning older brother. Jimmy.
He’s the sidekick.
Danny looked up at the ceiling, “No, not a chance. Not him.”
Jimmy cocked his head to the side, “Are you alright? Have you finally lost–”
“Shh. I’m not talking to you.” Then back at the ceiling, “I’ll take the dog, the dog can be my sidekick.”
Jimmy took a step back.
Danny grabbed a shoe next to his head and threw it at the ceiling.
“Danny, who are you talking to?”
“The author. He’s a real control freak and really bad at it. He got me this sword and is trying to send me on some kind of epic quest. He wants you to be my sidekick.”
Jimmy stared in disbelief at his crazy little brother. “A disembodied voice is telling you things? And you’re listening to it?”
After a final glare at the ceiling, Danny sighed, picked up his chair and told his brother about the events of the day, sighting the oil change receipt and sword box complete with the odd addresses. Jimmy began listening with a patronizing expression that gradually faded to wonder then to concern.
“So, I never got a chance to find out where this Northern Kingdom is, or who I should talk to if I do find it.”
Jimmy sat on the edge of the bed staring at the sword. After a long silence that didn’t seem as awkward as you might be imagining, Jimmy said, “This voice that seems to have a lot of control over today wants me to be a sidekick to a wizard? If it wasn’t you, I’d say sign me up, but I guess the sidekick doesn’t always get to pick his wizard. So where do you suppose we’ll find this ‘Northern Kingdom,’ Canada?”