Later that evening, after dinner and a few distracted conversations about the dullness of their routines, they both found themselves in the living room, sitting on the sofa and watching the TV. Josh was laying back like that of a couch potato with his arms stretched out as he was flipping through the channels to find something worth watching. As for Daniel, she was laying on the side with her head on the side arm half her body stretched to half the sofa and away from her husband. Her eyes glazed over as all she could see on the screen is just lights and colors. Just a typical day for the two after dinner, sitting around with nothing to do but veg out.
Josh shifted, pulling the small bone from his pocket again. He rubbed it absent-mindedly between his fingers. It had a strange effect on him—like it was soothing and stimulating all at once. He had half the mind to ask Danielle if she thought it was...something more than it seemed, but he didn't. She was never one for the mystical or mysterious.
During his channel flipping, he heard Danielle yawned and said randomly, "You know, I really think we need to spice things up a bit."
Josh stopped searching through the TV and turned to her with a bit of confusion. "Really? What gave you that idea?" he asked in wonderment.
Danielle shifted her body around to look at him while laying on the sofa and answered, "Because, I don't know how to fix this...whatever this is between us."
Hearing that, he lifted his head back and groaned, looking at the ceiling fan spinning. "We’ve talked about this. I don't think either of us has the energy for 'spicing up' these days."
Danielle frowned, but her expression softened quickly. stretching her legs, she let her feet around on his, trying to get his attention. "It’s just...we used to have fun. You know? It felt like every day was an adventure, even when we were just sitting on the couch, watching TV." She sighed deeply. "Now it feels like we're just going through the motions."
Josh felt his feet getting rubbed and looked at her, wondering if this was a cry for help or just the frustration of the daily grind creeping into their lives. He didn’t know what she needed, or what he needed. Maybe they both needed something different.
Danielle let out a small, wistful laugh. "Maybe we should go random. Like watching something on TV and pretend we live in that world. Just... something that feels alive."
Josh raised an eyebrow. "You want us to live a life that's on television?"
She shrugged, her voice growing a little more playful. "Yeah, maybe. What do we have to lose? If things are already stale, why not make them ridiculous?"
Josh chuckled, not thinking much of it. But as he did, something about her words seemed to settle in the air, a little heavier than usual. Something about the way she said it felt... real. Thinking that through, he decided to laugh it off and said, "You know what. Why the hell not. Got nothing better to do around here. Let's pick a random channel and pretend our lives are like what's on the TV."
Dannielle gleamed and nodded in anticipation. Both of them turned to the TV screen as Josh hit the button to go to a random channel. That's when the cable stopped at...