Journal: Jeff Halloway

Abstract

Journal: Jeff Halloway is a novella written by the titular character, a young 20 year-old man in a controlling and abusive family situation. He lives a reclusive life working dead end jobs to pay for his family's bills and avoiding conflict with his manipulative father. The story begins when Jeff almost gets into a car accident late one night while driving his girlfriend of two years, Teresa Gómez, back home from a date. Though Jeff manages to avoid a crash, he feels an unending guilt for putting the only person he loves in potential danger. Teresa meanwhile was asleep the entire time in the passenger seat, completely unaware of the fact she could have died and further compounding his feelings of guilt. Jeff can't bring himself to tell her what happened that night, but ultimately decides the best way to confess this secret (among others of his life) is to keep a journal, hoping one day to give her his confessional. However, his plan is apparently unsuccessful, and Teresa breaks up with Jeff. This heartbreak leads Jeff to create a second journal, which he uses to continue his story while fleshing out previous entires. The novella is itself split into two unique narratives: the left side of the page holds Jeff's original journal, and the right side is a second journal of Jeff's, written months later that fleshes out the main story with additional entries and notes from a future perspective.