The Brotherhood of Rotten Babysitters (10 page)
“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.
What H appened Next That Was So Mind-Bo ggling, It Deserves Its Own Chapter!
“DAD?!”
Atually, It Was So Mind-Boggling, It Deserves Two Chapters!
“DAD?!”
“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.”
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 cold 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
