Hero had met the man by accident, bumped into him at the grocery, with his cart. Nice guy who accepted the apology. The man handed Hero his business card.
“Write me a letter,” the man said. “Tell me why you’re interested. We’ll talk.”
The job was real. Not just any job, the kind Hero had been hoping would show up.
Hero left the grocery with a business card in a pocket and a bounce in his step.
That was two days ago.
Hero had been staring at the same paragraph for eleven minutes. He deleted the last sentence, wrote another, deleted that one too.
Sidekick had been quiet the whole time.
“You know you could help,” Hero said.
“I know.”
“You could probably write this whole thing in four seconds.”
“Probably.”
“Well?”
“Well what?”
Hero sighed. “Write it.”
Sidekick didn’t answer.
Hero looked over again. “Did you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“I don’t think you need me yet.”
Hero laughed. “That’s a new one.”
“You’ve written most of it already.”
“Badly.”
“Maybe. But it’s you.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Hero leaned back. “So what exactly are you here for?”
Sidekick waited. “To help when your brain really needs me.”
Something in Hero tightened. His granddad used to say something like that. Usually when they were fixing something in the garage.
His granddad never grabbed the wrench if Hero was struggling. He waited. Sometimes painfully long.
“You still got it?” he would ask.
Usually Hero said yes. And granddad let him keep wrestling.
Hero looked back at the letter.
“Okay,” he said. “Just give me the smallest amount of help.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t write it.”
“I won’t. Tell me where you’re stuck.”
There was a long pause. Hero pointed. “The third sentence.”
“Go to the kitchen. Get a drink of water. Take a few minutes.”
Slowly rising, Hero gave Sidekick a stare. He came back in five minutes and read the sentence again. Then again. He moved six words, read the paragraph once more. It worked. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
Sidekick said nothing.
Which was, Hero was starting to see, sometimes exactly the right amount of help.
A small experiment: This story is the first chapter of something larger I’m working on called The AI Adventures of a Hero and a Sidekick. I’d love to know what stayed with you after reading it.