Let the two consecutive numbers be $x$ and $x+1$. According to the problem, the smaller number is 43, so:

$x = 43$

The larger number is $x + 1$, so:

$x + 1 = 43 + 1 = 44$

Now, the sum of the two numbers is:

$43 + 44 = 87$

Thus, the sum of the two consecutive numbers is 87.

Would you like more details or have any questions?

Here are five related questions to explore further:

1. What is the sum of two consecutive numbers if the smaller one is 50?
2. How do you represent two consecutive odd numbers algebraically?
3. Find the sum of two consecutive even numbers where the smaller one is 22.
4. If the sum of two consecutive numbers is 99, what are the numbers?
5. How does the sum of two consecutive numbers change as the numbers increase?

Tip: For any consecutive numbers, the sum is always twice the smaller number plus 1!