NOWHERESVILLE

The grocery store where he works is in the middle of Nowheresville. If there's no traffic, he can get there in less than a half hour. If there is, it takes him much longer. Fortunately, he knows all the backroads.

When he enters the breakroom, there's usually a few people, sitting silently, staring at their phones. They always ignore him. He often wonders if he's invisible.

When he enters the produce backstock, Jim is usually throwing freight. Jim will stop what he's doing and ask Guy how his weekend was. Guy says the same thing he always says.

"Not bad. I didn't do much."

TUESDAYS

Tuesdays arrive before he knows it. His work week starts all over again. He feels as if a weight is holding him down.

He peels himself out of bed. He turns on the downstairs heater. He makes coffee.

He looks at his phone. There are no messages.

Before leaving, he checks things. He checks the faucets. He checks the tanks in the toilets to make sure they are still holding water. He then checks the faucets again.

He locks the door on his way out. He jiggles the handle to make sure it's locked. He makes his way down the stairwell toward the world outside.

In winter, the sun is low in the sky. It's cold. The days are short.

Time slips away.

EXTREMES

When Guy Daniels was a kid, he, his father, and his brothers would joke around a lot. They would talk about something, then develop an exaggerated version of the events and see how far they could take it.

His mother, who didn't always share the same sense of humor, would say, "You guys are taking things to extremes!"

All his life, Guy found himself re-shaping situations and events into things that made them sillier. It was all in the spirit of making things light-hearted, entertaining, and fun.

At a certain point, he came to realize that his sense of humor was often mis-understood, especially by people who took shit very seriously. 

There were times when his sarcasm was confusing. Sometimes he took someone who was not present, placed them into his tale, and unexpectedly offended his audience who happened to have an affinity to the person at the butt of the joke.

What was even more confusing was when he placed himself at the butt of the joke and started acting like the character he was creating in his head. He said things he didn't mean, but people didn't understand that.

Sometimes he got carried away and pushed boundaries.

He had a guy sock him once for doing that.

GUY DANIELS

He is hearing impaired and often tries to fake that he understands what people are saying.

He likes to share stories about people and experiences from his life.

He has been suffering a mid-life crisis for the last fourteen years.

He's divorced and single.

He's a loner.

He fears disruption.

He makes himself quesadillas with rice and beans every night for dinner.

ESCAPE

Guy Daniels is a produce department manager for a regional grocery chain.

He has a nervous habit of thinking out loud, and mumbling words under his breath.

He needs to get out of the grocery store business, but society isn't granting him favors, and he isn't asking for them either.

BLUE DRAGONFLY GUY

The color blue is often aloof.

The repetitious dragonfly gravitates towards change.

Guy Daniels needs purpose before he dies.

This is that story.