The Brotherhood of Rotten Babysitters Read online

  “But you still won.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Pete fired me,” I explained. “And tomorrow he’ll be looking for you at two o’clock!” The Strike laughed.

  “Look, you’re not one to make big speeches about quitting,” I told him. “Didn’t you walk out on King Justice twelve years ago?”

  “I had a good reason.”

  “Well, so do I!” I defended. “I’m tired of doing all the work and everyone else getting the credit. I save the world and Pete gets the credit. I save Charisma Kid, and somehow Charisma Kid gets the credit. How do you get the credit for saving your own life?!”

  “I can’t believe they get all the credit,” he said.

  “Extra! Extra! Read all about it,” a young street urchin yelled from the corner, waving a fresh copy of the evening paper in the air. “Charisma Kid saves the world from rotten babysitters!”

  I cocked an eyebrow at The Strike.

  Suddenly, his utility belt flashed. He pulled out a small communicator. “This warns me when important news breaks!” he explained. The screen came to life.

  “We’re here with the brave soul who single-handedly fought back the attacking babysitters!” a news reporter barked.

  Charisma Kid’s pretty mug filled the screen. “Thank you! Thank you!” he began. “The odds were against me, and even though I wasn’t actually on the island where they were defeated and never even fought them, I’m just glad to have done my part to defeat those evil babysitters —”

  “Rotten,” the news reporter corrected. “Rotten,” the cameraman agreed.

  “Yes, yes,” Charisma Kid continued. “But this was one battle that I could not have fought alone. There’s one sidekick who helped me more than I can say, whose bravery and steely nerve gave me the inspiration to fight against insurmountable odds!”

  I perked up. Was he talking about me? He had to be talking about me! There was no one else to talk about! I couldn’t believe it! It was amazing! It was...it was the greatest feeling I had ever —

  “Blind-as-a-Bat Boy! I just want the world to hear me say... thanks!” Charisma Kid smiled.

  Blind-as-a-Bat Boy stuck his head into the corner of the TV screen. “Skree! Skree!” he shrieked.

  “You should have seen him batify those babysitters,” Charisma Kid bragged.

  “Skree!”

  “You bet, buddy!” Charisma Kid patted him on the back.

  “Skree!”

  “Blind-as-a-Bat Boy!? Who the heck is Blind-as-a-Bat Boy!?” I shouted to The Strike.

  “You can’t quit, Speedy,” he said in response. “Give me one reason,” I said.

  “Because you’re good. And right now, maybe more than ever before, the world needs a hero.”

  “If the world needs a hero, it can have you again. Besides, I’m sure you’d rather be saving Charisma Kid than me.”

  “No, I wouldn’t. Charisma Kid is a jerk,” The Strike said.

  He thinks Charisma Kid is a jerk? I could really get to like this Strike guy. But I wasn’t convinced that easily.

  “Like I said, you’re not one to go around telling people to not be quitters. Besides, I have a wonderful future ahead of me as junior assistant florist. Maybe my dad will finally be proud of me then.”

  “He is proud of you, Speedy,” The Strike replied immediately.

  I stopped and turned around. “How do you know that?”

  The Strike looked at the ground. He took a deep breath. I could tell he was struggling with something.

  “Well?” I pressed.

  “I loved being a superhero,” he began. “I used to soar above this city like a bird! Imagine that, Speedy! Imagine the freedom and the joy! I bet it’s how you feel when you run — when you don’t give a darn about anything and just run!”

  “Maybe,” I replied without looking at him.

  “I knew I’d never find something that I loved more than being a superhero.”

  “If you loved it so much, how come you quit?”

  “Because I was wrong. I gave it all up because I did find something I loved even more,” The Strike explained.

  “Pfff. What was that ? Knitting?” I asked, rolling my eyes.

  “No. You.”

  The Strike raised his hands. He slid his fingers under his mask, and what happened next was so mind-boggling, it deserves its own chapter.

  Chapter Nineteen

  What H appened Next That Was So Mind-Bo ggling, It Deserves Its Own Chapter!

  “DAD?!”

  Chapter Twenty

  Atually, It Was So Mind-Boggling, It Deserves Two Chapters!

  “DAD?!”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  “Uh . . .”

  “Dad?! What’re you doing in The Strike’s uniform?!” I gasped.

  “Son, I am The Strike,” my dad confessed.

  I stared at him for endless seconds, eyes wide, mouth open.

  “Dad?! What’re you doing in The Strike’s uniform?!” I gasped.

  My dad smiled. “Haven’t you ever wondered how you got your super powers? I mean, usually they’re... inherited....”

  And then it hit me.

  “Ohhh, nonononono. No. No. No.”

  “Guy, I —” my dad began

  “No. Nonono. No. It’s... it’s just not possible! You... you couldn’t be! You’re an accountant! You’re... you’re... you’re my dad !”

  “And I’ve never been more proud to be your dad since you joined The Sidekicks.”

  My dad was proud of me? Somehow things didn’t seem so bad after hearing that.

  I wondered aloud. “Why tell me all this now?” “Because I want you to be happy, son. So does your mother. That’s all we’ve ever wanted for you. Our family was placed in danger today, and I just thought it was time I told you the truth,” my dad explained. “We’re proud of you, son. Both of us. Now, you don’t need to stay with The Sidekicks, but...”

  “Yeah. The world needs a hero. I’ll think about it,” I said with a sigh.

  All this was too much for one kid to absorb. But I did have one question, one that had been burning in my brain since I discovered its existence.

  “Dad? Can I ask you something?”

  My dad put his mask back on. He grabbed me around the waist and the two of us sailed into the air.

  “Shoot.”

  “Why’d you leave King Justice with that grocery list? I mean, he was your sidekick and all. It’s been driving him nuts for twelve years!”

  A pained expression came over my dad’s face. “I’d thought I left him a letter explaining I was having a son and I was quitting. I didn’t realize the mistake until I dusted off the old costume to start watching over you and found the real letter still stashed in the utility belt. I felt terrible!”

  “I can give him the real one, if you’d like...” “I would like that, son. But maybe King Justice would like it better if it came from me.”

  Then a funny thought hit me. How did my mom and dad really meet? What if... what if...no way. That would be too freaky!

  “Dad? Um...Mom ... Mom’s not, like, a supervillain, is she?”

  He chuckled. “Only if she finds out you forged her signature to play football.”

  We soared into the moonlit night, superhero and sidekick ... father and son. And suddenly, things didn’t seem so terrible after all.

  “Oh, and Guy?” my dad said. “Let’s not tell your mom about any of this.”

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Hello? Anybody?

  The moon hung high in the night sky. A chill rose in the air, a stinging reminder that winter lurked on the horizon. Dead leaves danced along the ground, pushed ever forward by the icy fingers of the night wind.

  A brown owl swooped from the darkness toward an oak tree. It forcefully flapped its wings once, twice, then extended its talons to rest on a high branch of the timeless sentinel.

  The owl scanned the terrain below for an unwary mouse, but on this night, the world lay silent, its secrets kept like the col
d earth beyond a cemetery’s walls.

  The owl snapped to attention. Something moved behind him. A sudden cracking noise from the strained limb of the oak sent the owl airborne. It beat its wings with a certain urgency and quickly disappeared into the cover of night, safe from whatever unseen danger lurked in the branches of the great oak.

  “Hello?” Earlobe Lad whispered, still hanging from a thick branch by his Spandex. “Anybody?”

  The End