"Lights Out."

"It's time for...Lights...Out," he said dramatically in a deep voice, as he turned off the lights on his end, save for the monitor. I giggled, tapping the lamp on my end. We could only see each other by the light of our computer screens.

I gathered the blanket around me, put my head on my knees and waited. Rectangles of light reflected in his glasses.
"Tonight's episode," he began, and I could just make out his mouth moving, "is about...the Chicken Heart."
I squealed in mock fright and anticipation, like usual. How was he going to change it up this time?

"The chicken heart was kept alive. It was frozen in a cryogenic chamber, in a special solution, until he was released by a clumsy janitor.
The chicken heart melted..."

Wait, the chicken heart didn't melt.

"It melted...and it melted...and it kept melting...into a liquid."

Where's he going with this? This is new!
I couldn't stop smiling.

"It managed to leap into the refrigerator...which was then shipped to your very own state."

It's in my state! It's in my city! It's at my door! He's gonna say it!

"It's in your state. It's in....your local refrigerator store. .....It's in the refrigerator that you bought."

WHAT.

"It got into the water...it's in the water that you're drinking RIGHT NOW."

I squirmed. "That's not fair! Oh, that's not fair! I forgot about that!" He laughed, and I laughed.
He had been trying to get that chicken heart into my water, but was never sure where my water had come from until I told him it was from the refrigerator. And I had just been drinking my water!

"Your heart monitor," he continued, "isn't monitoring only your heart."

I widened my eyes, expecting him to make the creepy thump-thump sound of the rogue chicken heart.

A moment of silence in the dark. And then...

"A bok-bok bok," came surprisingly convincing chicken noises from his end.
I laughed out loud, stifling it to absurd almost painful giggles trying to minimize my obnoxiousness for my sister and grandma in the other room. We turned the lights back on on both ends of the conversation.

"Okay, okay, you win."

He just laughed gently, and we were quiet again.