We sat in the smoky room. It was hot. Its always hot there, even when it was cold. I looked outside at the dusty landscape, the chickens used to be there. The brick wall surrounding the house was radiating heat. Science class explained it as something, but it was too difficult not to see demons in the heat waves. I imagined the hooves I would be listening to at midnight. I couldn't believe I was spending the night.
I tried to take her talk seriously but the circumstances made it impossible.
She chose to tell me about her deepest, darkest fear.
Talking dogs.
She had a really deep explanation for the fear. I could see the seriousness and earnestness in her eyes. They way she described it, you could tell it was intense. But I was in no state to hear actual words.
Then that laughter that throws me off came again.
From her sister.
And then the talking-dog-fearing cousin started laughing too. Tears coming down her eyes, she was laughing so hard.
Why do we laugh when we are in pain? We must have been in lots of pain, because my stomach cramped I laughed so hard.
Years later we were watching youtube videos. Of "funny" dogs who talked. It was a compilation of real sounds dogs made put together in a format easy to understand. Short words dogs say were strung together to make whole sentences.
I was gripped with fear.
I met eyes with my cousin, who nodded at me acknowledging that she understood what I was feeling.
And then we both started laughing.
This is my response to 
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