Frosty Greetings

 Upshur laid in his bed, cozied up, comfortable and warm as the winter raged on outside. Snow pelted his humble abode, the wind attempting to pierce its way through, the cold dropping lower and lower. It wasn’t pleasant outside to say the least, and he thought himself lucky to not have to bear the extremes of the snowstorm.

  Suddenly there was a knock at the door of his cabin. At first, Upshur imagined it’d started to hail, but it grew louder and more distinct. It had a pattern to it, unlike the usual winter weather. The rhythm continued as Upshur unwound himself from his fuzzy blankets, scurrying to the door to see what was out there.

  He peeped a look through a little circular window bound to the wooden frame. Outside he saw another pacapillar, just like himself. He had a funkily double patterned scarf wrapped around from his nose to his neck, their headphones creating a dim green glow as it sparked. Their fur seemed iced and frozen solid at the edges, snow matted throughout the poor fellow’s pelt. Whoever this paca was looked quite miserable.

  Suddenly panic shot through Upshur, realizing he was in dire need of help. The door was thrown open with urgency and the freezing paca waddled in shaking, shivering, and cold to the touch. Just hearing the chattering of their teeth made him feel like he was freezing too. 

  Snow trickled in the entrance for a moment before Upshur got a chance to close the door, the wind peaking through to blow out a few lit candles. The door creaked shut and now this paca was safe. Upshur looked over his shoulder at him, then turned around and smiled at the new guest weakly. 

  “I’ll go get you a towel and some tea, after you dry off you can borrow one of my blankets,” he said in a monotone voice.

  The paca nodded their head as Upshur quickly snagged what he needed to offer some hospitality. A baby blue towel was thrown to him and the gas stovetop began to hum as it was turned on, inviting a tea kettle with water ready to boil. Upshur took out a mug from the bottom cupboard, it was an off-white color with the words ‘2nd Best Cameraman’.

  While looking through the cupboard next to the cups, Upshur asked, “So, what’s your name? What flavor do you want, black, green, or lavender?”

  “Everyone calls me DJ Paca, but you can just call me DJ. I’ll take black, with cream if you can spare!” DJ’s tone was much more enthusiastic than Upshur’s, even while they were freezing.

  “Upshur,” he responded blandly.

  It was silent for a few minutes until the kettle began to whistle, prompting Upshur to turn off the stovetop and begin pouring the hot water into the mug. He left some room for another liquid, put in the black teabag, and went to grab his pint of heavy cream.

  “Put in as much as you’d like, but not all of it.”

  DJ smiled at the gesture and went to fix himself up the rest of the tea. It was a kind thing to do, being let in and offered as much as this without much questioning. They were quite lucky someone was home to let him in, he thought, as he began to sip the tea. It sure did the trick to bring DJ’s usual temperature back.

  “If you’d like, I have an extra blanket you can borrow. You should leave when the storm resides— and try not to be out in the cold like this again, you never know whose door you’re knocking at” Upshur warned.

  “Well, it seems like I came to the right guy for a late night lecture,” DJ jokes, “but thank you for your kindness…”

  Upshur nodded his head, he really didn’t enjoy talking more than necessary. A fuzzy blanket was grabbed and handed to DJ Paca, and shown a black couch where they could rest for the night. All the candles were blown out, cloth blinds on windows were shut, and the pacas went to sleep in their designated areas.

  “Goodnight,” yawned DJ.

  “Night,” mumbled Upshur.