98.6

The fog had fallen and the street lights were dandelions gone to seed. The chill in the air just enough for the light jacket I was wearing, and just enough to make me check the dangling thermometer/compass/trendy/zipper pull.
“What is it?”
Almost as soon as I’d forgotten I remembered and that freaked me out.
So odd to forget that.
The healthy human body maintains an internal temperature of 98.6 degrees. Without my asking, it has been doing it all along. 98.6.
98.6.
98.6.
I completely forgot and that scared me. Not in a “put the gun down” kind of fear but in a far more serious and deeply unsettling way. A momentary lapse of modern common knowledge. Why couldn’t I think of my internal temperature? Why had I asked myself in the first place? Why am I talking to myself again?
Out loud.
Stop. Talking. Out Loud. Stop writing about it. It’s a pretty pathetic thing to forget.
Stop it.
98.6.
Why is it the same temperature under your tongue as it is in your ear canal?
“Because it’s your internal temperature stupid, not your 'under-the-tongue' or your 'in-the-ear' temperature,” said the chicken in my head, to himself, rolling his eyes with all the sarcastic flair I'd come to expect. He can be a real jerk sometimes. That’s probably not even true. I’ll bet the ear-temperature-taker is somehow calibrated to take its proper reading, maybe 85.4, and read in relation to 98.6. Which is the number I couldn’t remember. I do now, of course. I really only forgot for a second.
It’s kind of like forgetting how old you are. I did that this week too.
Did the chicken in your head just roll his internal eyes at you because for just a second, maybe longer, you forgot how old you were?
I hope so.