Winter Tales

  Winter snow pattered softly against two fluffy pacas, strolling together in Upshur’s pinetree ridden yard. There was snow all over the trees and atop Upshur’s roof; the snow was only a handful of inches, but it was a little much for DJ. He was the kind of paca to stay indoors even with his thick fur and lengthy, warming scarf, alongside his insulated headphones. A gust of wind nipped at DJ’s nose, and he could feel his gentle skin shiver under his blue-ish fur.

  Alas, Upshur was left unscathed by the frosty weather. He looked comfortable somehow in his oversized coat and thick fur, and as usual his face stayed in a resting position with no emotion, even during the cold. It made no sense to Upshur how DJ could be so chilly, but made no sense to DJ how Upshur could not be chilly.

  “Man– Shore, how do you stay so warm… this weather’s got me ch-ch-chattering my teeth!” spoke the shivering paca.

  The other looked at him blankly and answered, “Winter coat. The one I have to deal with yearly. You should try it some time.”

  DJ just rolled his eyes and continued trotting next to Upshur, albeit a little annoyed with his sarcastic comment. More shivers and shakes developed throughout his body, more chittering and chattering of the teeth, more nipping at the nose. His breath was visible and it felt like icicles were flowing through his bloodstream!

  All he did was shake his head, thinking of ways to get his mind off the frosty weather. So DJ did what a DJ does best– sing along quietly to the music in his headphones. The music sounded pretty electric and it blasted from his headphones. Upshur could hear every bit of it– weird Boreal Wish-like music samples with repetitive noise. What it really sounded like to Upshur was a cheese grater going ham on a radio trying to flip through all the holiday stations.

  “Ugh, can you turn your music down? You’re going to scare the wildlife!”

  No response. Just continued jamming and singing along.

  Upshur squinted his eyes, then repeatedly tapped DJ until he got his full attention, taking off his own headphones, “What’s wrong?”

  “Your music is what’s wrong! It’s so loud, you’re going to scare everything in my yard away!”

  Skittering in the pine could be heard, followed by animal noises and snow falling from the trees. 

  “Well, so is your yelling, dude. Why don’t you just listen to some tunes with me?”

  Upshur grumbled, “And why would I do that?”

  “Because it’s fun! Just sing along with the song, it helps me get my mind off this freezing cold weather,” DJ responded joyfully.

 “...fine.”

  The two of them strolled together, listening to music. Somehow DJ’s headphones played music without a source and connected to Upshur’s dingy earbuds, producing loud electronic Boreal Wishes music. Usually Upshur didn’t listen to this kind of stuff, but he realized it was nice huddling next to his paca friend and singing along to songs (even if the lyrics were like cipher.)

  Both of them sang, but neither could hear the other over the blasting tunes, enjoying their time together in Upshur’s massive yard.