Everyone in the office loved Brightside. To some degree, almost everyone on the accountancy staff understood that he was there in Harold’s stead. Dave already had an established and remote working relationship with Brightside. It was just a matter of introducing him to all of Harold’s client accounts through conference calls and communications. As far as sitting in for Harold on internal committees and attending industry events, everyone enthusiastically embraced Brightside and recognized his streamlined approach to an abundance of complex issues. The roadblocks and stagnation of the past seemed to subside once Brightside got his paws on things. Each and every person who interfaced with the Canine saw him as a fresh new face with immediate value, enthusiastic presence, and attention-grabbing proficiency. Rarely did anyone inquire about the displacement of Harold. No one speculated whether this situation was temporary or permanent. Nor did anyone weigh in with any concern for Harold’s return.
Most of the work that Brightside was overseeing could be reviewed by Harold through the company’s online portal. Over the first few weeks of the Brightside proxyhood at the office, there was a degree of virtual supervision throughout the day. Harold checked in on developments remotely during business hours and wrote technical notes along with some opinions in the late evening. Harold retained some semblance of his career through a light touch of mentorship style input that was delivered in the form of emails. Harold would send the emails to himself, knowing that Brightside had full access to both his personal and work email accounts. He had every confidence that the dog would meticulously sniff through all of the unread emails in the morning. Brightside was appreciative of the guidance and critical input, but oftentimes the task in question was already processed and completed before the email from Harold was ever opened. Going into the second month of the new work arrangement, Harold was sporadically looking at the online portal to appraise the ongoing work performed by Brightside. One late evening, upon multiple attempts to log onto the Dichter Boswith & Crongower online work portal, Harold came to realize that Brightside must have changed the login settings. He no longer had access. And in that moment, Harold felt an overwhelming liberation.
Harold felt confident and secure in his hideaway behind the kitchen. Everything was now handled, including his former work life. The meals were prepared, the bills were paid, the home was maintained. Harold no longer worried about the trajectory of a work career or mapping out the tasks associated with professional service to others. When payments were due for electricity, natural gas, municipal water, and twenty other items cycling through a never-ending payment process, this no longer concerned Harold. He was truly relieved of everything except his personal pursuits, which mostly took place in the hideaway. His every meal was consumed there along with all daily activities and sleep. Harold permanently resigned from sleeping in his upstairs bedroom at about the same time that Brightside took command of his vocational sphere. With far more free time available throughout each and every day, Harold became immersed in the busy schedule managed through an electronic daily planner that Brightside organized with regular updates executed by Patches.
For Harold, a typical week looked something like this: A morning online poker tournament with recreational players from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam. An afternoon tournament with players from Germany, France, and the UK. Finally, an evening tournament with Americans, Canadians, and Brazilians. Harold was scheduled for these small stakes tournaments on the daily planner, and he would hear a special chime emanating from his computer fifteen minutes prior to start. Between tournaments, Harold would scroll through hundreds of video clips on YouTube and managed a detailed catalogue of saved clips. He rarely went back to his curated archives to re-watch a video clip. Still, the saving process provided Harold with a sense of accomplishment and the illusion of ownership. There were off days from poker tournaments when Harold could immerse himself in hours of his favorite online role-playing game, “Genshin Impact” or his most addictive clicker game, “Bitcoin Billionaire.” Meditation and self-guided yoga sessions supported by soundscapes of colored noise variations were a regular part of life in the hideaway. A prompt from the electronic daily planner would trigger a digitized sound bite. From the birthplace of yoga came the sampling of an Indian woman’s encouraging voice, “Find Your Center.” This call to mindfulness occurred twice each day and at different hours from one day to another. Cappy Caballo online tequila tasting only took place once every other week, but Harold was often on the Cappy Caballo app to socialize with his fellow tequila aficionados. Then there were the dozens of podcasts, many dozens of book reviews, and an ever-growing backlog of new and old episodic shows to stream. Harold had a full and busy life in the small room behind his kitchen. There was almost no reason to ever leave the confines of his hideaway.
As much as Harold experienced a dynamic range of activities throughout each day, Brightside recognized that Harold was confined to something of a self-imposed cage of virtual touchstones, away from the outside world. Not only was Harold in need of regular physical movement, but the dog and cat team also needed a window of time to air out and properly clean up Harold’s hideaway. Since Brightside took hold of the household, online ordering and timely deliveries kept everything a functioning home could need in stock. But the current program needed to be tweaked. The subtle modification of visiting select stores in the name of non-essential purchases was essential to fulfill the minimal exercise Harold required to keep his physical person in balance.
The Service Dog seed of interest was originally planted by Patches among the slew of esoteric advertisements on the pages of book review blogs that Harold regularly visited. Patches had initiated licensing for Brightside to become a Service Dog for Harold, knowing this would allow Brightside to naturally lead Harold outside the home and take regular strolls. Like so many other aspects of Harold’s life at this juncture, attending Service Dog training with Brightside felt like a self-manifested decision. The training process was very straightforward, and Harold did well to learn key voice commands as well as hand signals. Upon completion, Brightside was adorned in an official red vest with embroidered bold white letters, letting the world know that he was Harold’s Service Dog, and he could act as Harold’s agent with access to any public space.
