Invisible Man Boogie

by Jeff Baker

“Okay, Henry…start going now!”

Ethan stood behind the camera on the tripod and waved at the pair of cowboy boots sitting on the living room floor.

“Where’s the music?” Henry’s voice came from about five and a half feet over the boots.

“We’ll dub it in. We’ll dub it in. Just go ahead and dance.” Ethan said.

“Okaaaaay. But it’s more fun dancing with you!” Henry said as the boots began to dance a sloppy sort of line dance with only one person there.

“Good…good…” Ethan said, checking the video screen.

“Better than last time?” Henry’s voice asked.

“Yeah. But pay attention to your dancing.” Ethan said.

Henry and Ethan had met in High School a decade ago. This was right before the incident which stuck Henry with being invisible several hours every day. Ethan had found out about it and their lives had become ‘a bad sitcom,” as Ethan had cracked once.

They had also fallen for each other. Two big secrets they were keeping.

By the time Henry had become able to control his invisibility they had graduated and decided to move in together. But this was the first time they’d tried to make any money off of what Henry called “The Invisible Man Boogie.”

After a few minutes, Ethan called out “Cut!” and the boots walked over, with a brownish-reddish haired twenty-something in basketball shorts fading in over them.”

“I still think we ought to have those shorts visible too,” Ethan said.

“Naaaa. Have to pay the team royalties for use of the logo,” Henry said. “How’s the video look?”

“Gimmie a second,” Ethan said stealing another glimpse of Henry wearing nothing but shorts and boots.

Together they watched the video.

“Looks good, if I do say so myself.” Ethan said.

“Yeah.” And everybody will say it’s A.I.” Henry said.

“But very good A.I.” Ethan added. “And this is better than the first try.”

“Yeah,” Henry said lifting up a foot. “One boot out of frame a lot of the time.”

They laughed and kissed.

“Just gotta edit a little, put in the music and post it.” Ethan said.

“And we’ll be rich!” Henry said. “Or maybe just get a bunch of Likes.”

Their video got the Likes, but the music track got deleted.

Copyright.

Watching it on their laptop, snuggled on the couch with a bowl of chips Henry and Ethan didn’t care. They laughed and sang as the cowboy boots danced across the screen.

—end—

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Third story I wrote about Henry and Ethan (actually from a very old idea of mine.) But Ethan didn’t have a name until this story!

Here’s links to the earlier stories:

“Sherlock Holmes vs. the Invisible Man” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2019/01/12/sherlock-holmes-vs-the-invisible-man-friday-flash-fics-by-jeff-baker-for-january-11-2019-okay-a-day-late/

and “Boot Scootin’ Boogie.” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2017/11/12/out-of-sight-story-for-monday-flash-fics-nov-13-2017-by-jeff-baker/