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“You think it’s broken, or something?” Hannah said as some new movie trailer for a superhero appeared.
“I don’t think so, I don’t really have many options here.”
“Maybe you have to use the regular remote?” Hannah said as she grabbed the Television’s and changed the channel. She clicked her way through their list, all was the same. Just run of the mill, standard broadcasts from their local stations.
“What the hell?” Scottie said as Hannah landed on a local station playing a rerun of the TV show “Friends”.
“You sure you set it up right?” Hannah asked.
“Yeah, pretty sure! It’s not like there were a ton of options.”
“Then what the hell does the remote thing do?”
Scottie kept clicking. “Apparently, not a damn thing!” he said before tossing the remote onto the couch. “I give up,” he said. “What a waste of time.”
Annoyed, he rose and retreated to the kitchen. “Man, sorry Hannah. Didn’t mean to get your hopes up.”
His sister turned around on the couch and watched him, resting her chin on its back as her fingers fiddled and traced the seams in the fabric.
“Honestly, Scottie, it’s no big deal,” she said with a laugh.
“I know,” he replied, opening the fridge. “I just thought it would be cool, and I know you were super pissed when dad cut the cable service…” He pulled out a couple of slightly stained cartons of Chinese Food. “Beef with broccoli or chow mein?”
“How long’s it been in there?”
“Two nights?”
“Chow mein,” she replied.
He continued, “… Cool. So, yeah, I got a little excited as last semester kicked my ass.” He snagged a group couple of chopsticks from a drying rack and handed them to Hannah. “Do you want me to heat it up?”
“No, I’m starving actually,” she said as he handed her the carton. “Thanks, ‘Lil Brother.” She popped open the top.
“Yeah, no problem,” he said. “Look, Dad said he cut the service to save money, yet we still order out like five days a…”
Scottie trailed off as something on the TV caught his attention.
“Hey, you okay?” Hannah asked seeing her brother lose focus.
“… Yeah,” he replied, his eyes locked on the television. “I never really watched this show, but it wasn’t on a family network, was it?”
She nodded, swiveling on the couch to face the screen with a small waterfall of noodles hanging out her mouth. Hannah slurped. “What show? Friends? Yeah, I think so, why?”
“I, uh… I don’t think I’ve seen this episode…”
Scottie set his leftovers down and took a seat back on the couch.
On the screen, all the cast members were in a coffee shop, seated on a couch. They appeared to be in the middle of a conversation with overly exaggerated expressions and gestures as one does in the world of sitcoms. Yet behind them, the extras appeared to be peppered with puppets of bright and whimsical colors.
“Did they ever do a crossover?” Scottie asked.
“… I think so, but this is weird,” Hannah said as they watched as one of the characters, an attractive dark haired man named Joey, approached the counter. Standing there, waiting at the register was another character; a pink, female muppet. Without batting an eye, Joey started chatting with her as if it were a normal thing to speak with a puppet.