Now that you’ve met the man at the center of my Joker Joker Deuce Halloween horror stories, let’s take a deeper look at his world and his mind. Jeph’s imagination can get pretty vivid as he walks through life feeling absolutely invisible to everyone around him.
Being invisible sounds like a superpower until you realize nobody needs special powers to look right through you. Jeph walks into work, grabs his delivery bag, and gets ready for another evening of bringing people their dinner. Around him, the conversation keeps moving, the jokes keep landing, and everyone seems to belong to a world that barely notices he’s there.
Part II of my Joker Joker Deuce Halloween Series brings us into that world with “The Invisible Man.” Jeph is still thinking about the woman he saw at the gas station, but now he has something more than a memory to keep him occupied. Her name is Julie, and a message on a dating site has given his imagination all the encouragement it needs.
Of course, answering her should be easy. A few words, a click of the mouse, and he can get on with his day. But Jeph can imagine an entire relationship more easily than he can write one simple reply, and even the blinking cursor seems to have an opinion about it.
That’s one of the things I enjoy about bringing this story to life. We get to hear the arguments Jeph has with himself and watch ordinary objects become participants in his private little world. There’s humor in those moments, but spending time inside his head also means discovering how quickly that humor can take a disturbing turn.
At the sub shop, Missy, Sean, and Brian are doing what coworkers do. They’re taking orders, making sandwiches, and debating things that have absolutely nothing to do with getting dinner out the door. Somewhere between an unusual meatball order and a theory about the moon landing, Jeph’s thoughts begin wandering into places his coworkers would never expect.
Then Shane arrives, and the difference becomes impossible for Jeph to ignore. Shane gets the greetings, the laughter, and the easy affection that Jeph watches from the edges. For everyone else, it’s another familiar evening at work, but Jeph is having a very different experience.
What makes this part unsettling is how little the people around him know. They can see the delivery driver standing in the room, but they have no access to the scenes playing out behind his smile. We do, and that makes an ordinary shift at a sandwich shop feel considerably less ordinary.
If you’d rather read it than watch it, here is the link you can start from the beginning: Joker Joker Deuce Halloween Series Part I – A Monster Awakens
These Halloween horror stories are based on the novel, Joker Joker Deuce! These are not the same stories you’ll find in the book. This is the prequel to who Jeph actually becomes when he hits full stride and starts learning more about himself than anyone wants to know…
Happy Halloween!
