He was enraged at the television.

The television didn’t seem to care.

But behind the glass and through the pulsating cathode ray tube, coursing beyond the receiver box, along a twelve-mile stretch of coaxial cable, bouncing through a network of routers and clear into the darkness of space above the service’s satellite dish, someone was watching him. And was equally enraged.

Maybe it was the fury behind the remote control he so angrily threw at the floor.

Maybe it was the way he was ignoring his wife.

Maybe it was just his ugly, ugly face.

For whatever reason, there was more at stake than a football game in Indianapolis that night. The man was about to be thrown to the floor alongside his weary remote control, by forces he never knew existed, his innards spilling out like a pair of AAs.

Poor guy.

It seems the human race itself was oblivious to what would soon befall it. We never suspected that, out there, others were watching, learning, mimicking us.

We never knew how contagious were our own emotions.