"whoa! TMI!" jeff boisterously coughed out toward shelby, as she made copies. shelby only returned a polite smile and continued her story with marilyn about her teeth cleaning. jeff awkwardly gathered his papers and exited the room. he couldn't help but think that should have gotten a better response. as he made his way to his desk, jeff passed kyle. "just livin the dream, huh?" jeff chuckled. kyle smiled and returned to his work. jeff shook his head. that used to get quite a laugh. now kyle didn't even give a fake chuckle. he was noticing this more and more. when karen tripped and her banana flew straight into steve's coffee cup, jeff had been right on the spot with, "that just happened!" everyone had shared a good laugh over that one. and when alan had mentioned his pencil being too big for his hand, jeff was quick with a "that's what she said" but even that phrase wasn't getting laughs these days. since mike had been scooped up, people had been a little more resigned to laugh out loud, but he knew they secretly wanted to. mike had been taken, but jeff had secretly wished it had been him. everyone knew when they sucked you up in their beam, it led to a life no one wanted. they forced you to get on stage in front of strangers every night. in different cities. and then you HAD to make them laugh. jeff had always welcomed that challenge. he knew that with a little practice people would recognize his talent. they'd gone to see mike when he was in town. jeff watched with anger as mike did the same things he always did around the office - and drew big laughs. it infuriated jeff how little mike seemed to try. he just talked. what was funny about that? when mike saw jeff from the stage and said, "luckily jeff keeps khaki pants in fashion" and jeff responded with "i'm kind of a big deal" ...no one laughed. he'd chalked it up to mike having the stage and the lights on him, but he knew if he were up there, they would love him. but he wasn't. not yet. all he could do was keep trying. the next time the craft stopped overhead and the beam shot down - it would be on him. and he'd have the perfect quip.