Tv
Jasmine hit the power button on the remote. The TV on the wall powered on normally with a white bar materializing in the center of the screen and blooming out to the channel he had last. A passing sports fan, Jasmine, or rather Jared, had watched a hocky game the night before. It was on TNT which today was featuring a few basketball games. Jasmine’s jaw dropped. Famous athletes had all been skunkified like she had been. They talked, joked, and debated amongst themselves exactly like their human counterparts did. They analyzed game footage, discussed strategies, and made guesses on who would win. Everything was totally normal except for the jarring yet banal fact that they were all skunks.
She switched the channels. Yes, everyone else was a skunk too. The exact same commercials Jared had seen the human version of Jasmine could now see as the skunkified edition. They all included the same lines and actors. They all featured the same products. They all had the same annoying songs and jingles. Only difference? Take a guess.
“Wait!” Jasmine yelped, making Maria jump in her seat.
“What? What?”
“Are movies the same?” she asked as if Maria knew what was going on.
“The same? What do you mean? What movies? Jesus Christ, what exactly did you smoke?”
All that did was bring up the image of Skunk Jesus again. Jasmine had to stop herself from giggling again. “Nothing. Wanna watch a movie?”
“Um, Keith is expecting me back home for dinner.”
“OK, OK. No problem. Let’s just…” She opened the streaming menu.” Let’s see something really quick.” Using the many streaming services the market had to offer, Jared had both rented and bought several movies digitally over the years. If Jasmine was the same as Jared, at least in the very tenuous and confusing sense that she hoped it was, the movie Troy starring Brad Pitt was still in her library. It was her favorite movie, one she liked to rewatch at least once a year. She opened Netflix and browsed the movies she’d seen. Sure enough, Troy was both in the library and had been marked as something she watched. The thumbnail depicted Brad Pitt as Achilles, although not quite the version Jasmine/Jared was used to.
She laughed out loud. “Ha! Oh my God!” She selected the movie and hit play. It started exactly how it normally did, veering off only when the first character appeared on screen. Needless to say, they weren’t human. Jasmine just sat there laughing herself silly, watching as the movie played itself with a cast completely replaced with anthropomorphic skunk people.
Maria kept quiet, concerned but happy to see her sister in such a childish state of euphoria. She made a mental note to ask Jasmine who her dealer was. Whatever Jasmine was smoking, it was that good stuff. “Well, I wish I could watch this movie with you… again… but I should get going.” She started to get up.
Jasmine snapped out of her hysterics. “Wait! Don’t go!”
Maria frowned. “What?” Her patience was growing thin. “If nothing’s wrong I don’t think I need to babysit you, unless you think I need to.”
“No, no… You don’t, I swear. But… do you think you can drive me somewhere?”
“Your dealer, I’m assuming.”
Jasmine couldn’t help but chuckle even though she was trying to remain serious. “No. It’s a store I ran into earlier today.”
“Oh, so you’ve got the munchies.”
Jasmine shook her head, whipping her long white hair into a halo around her head. “No. It’s not. I swear. It’s something important I have to check out, and I’m too high to drive.” She wasn’t high at all, but driving her car seemed like something too surreal to do when everything around her was so significant and thus distracting.
“What is it?”
Written by TheGreatJaceyGee on 29 January 2023
