Sidekicks 2: The Return Of Luther Front

INTRODUCTION: The existing text of Sidekicks 2: The Return Of Luther, now known only by its subtitle, and fourth in the D Is For Damien series. Written in the same five-subject notebook as The Trench Rats--On Leave, Inspector Dobermann To The Core, "An Interview At LRU," D Is For Damien 2: The Night Of The Goat, "The Night Of The Goat Excerpts" 1-4, Sidekicks (original draft), "D Is For Damien Excerpt," Lucifer (original draft), "The Return Of Luther Excerpt," and "The Return Of Luther Blurb"; judging by erased text under it, this was written over an earlier story, Amity, which as I recall was about a housecat living with a huge assortment of other odd animals; sad that I didn't at least copy it first. This rather broke my idea of a trilogy. I had then planned on different sets of trilogies, but when the series just kept going ON and ON, I gave that up and named it the series that it was.

What little I recall of this particular story: It takes place around December of the same year that D Is For Damien and Sidekicks take place--1990 (crap, Dami was having a busy year!)--I believe, and it was supposed to be told mainly in flashback. Damien and some pals would end up at an abandoned house which had some bearing on Damien's childhood friendship with Luther (yep, you heard me) and his sister Lilu, whom Luther later ended up murdering. Damien would tell the entire story of how they grew up and then parted ways before Lilu ended up dead near the railroad bridge which is right near the house in the story. There would be references to flooding which used to take place in Cheboygan in real life years ago, and of Luther's own experience with the railroad bridge which plays such an important part even in the newest versions of the stories that a sketch of it is included as the cover illustration of this novel. (This railroad bridge truly exists within walking distance of my house, BTW.) It would be revealed that Luther's "death" at the end of Sidekicks was not actually his death and that he's still on the loose! (Well isn't that always how it is with evil killers?) At the climax of Return, Damien and Luther would face off on or near the bridge, when a ghostly figure would appear, and scare Luther so badly that he would AGAIN seem to plunge into the water to his death. Damien would be left wondering if this ghostly figure was in fact his dead sister Lilu? Oh, there were also flashback references to a train, or a ghost train, I think, and a thunderstorm in December. Really convoluted dippy stuff. Hm, I just realized that a fall from a bridge plays a huge part in the Minot spinoff series too. Huh. Anyway, now that I've completely spoiled it, here you go. Likely 1991.

Front, Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2

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Sidekicks 2
The Return of Luther

By Rachel Lea H. [last name omitted]