Mysterious Snow

The boys trudged through the wood, their boots sinking into the half foot of snow--each step offering a whoosh followed by the softest crunch of the frozen forest debris buried below.

“So, tell me something,” Kenji said. “What’s up with ‘Chino’?”

Blaine looked with wide eyes at his lanky friend.

“Huh?”

“I saw what your phone said when your man called.”

“Oh,” Blaine sputtered, blushing a bit of crimson. The pet name was something they only used in private. He forgot he’d changed the caller ID and Kenji had clearly read it when Vernon called Blaine only moments ago on his cell phone.

“So … ?” Kenji prodded, waggling the brows over his deep, brown eyes.

Blaine let out a small sigh. Caught. Better confess. “It’s short for … don’t laugh … I call him My Little Mochaccino.”

Kenji’s jaw dropped. “Dude! That’s racist!”

“What!? No!”, Blaine blurted. “It has nothing do with that!”

“No?”

“No! You should know me better than that! Jeese! It’s because … ” Blaine’s words trailed off as he looked away.

Kenji waited, raising a single eyebrow this time. “Because…?”

Finally, trying to not grin and turning a darker shade of red, Blaine said softly: “It’s because he’s so warm and sweet.”

Kenji couldn’t help a tiny laugh exploding from his lips.

“Shut up!” Blaine rebuked

“Sorry. That’s just sooo gay.”

Blaine sighed, failing to hide an amused smirk. “Whatever.”

“No,” Kenji decided. “It’s not gay. It’s beyond gay. It’s like super gay. Like mega gay.”

“Fine. Whatever! You should hear what he calls me.”

Fuck!

Blaine instantly regretted his words.

“Oh, this should be good,” Kenji teased.

Blaine just kept walking. Shaking his head. “Nope.”

“Come on”, Kenji prompted. “Spill it.”

Blaine pulled his lips in, fighting what he knew was a lost cause: the proverbial train was already out of the station. He let out a huffing breath that vaporized in the frigid air.

“He calls me his Little Frap Boy”.

Kenji stopped. Stared deadpan at Blaine. Hearing the sudden drop in footsteps, Blaine turned to face Kenji and whatever was coming.

Kenji didn’t disappoint, braying “MAXIMUM GAY!”

“Ha, ha. What does Pilar call you, huh?”

“Well, duh: ‘Daddy’, of course!”

“Yeah, right,” Blaine bantered. “Probably ‘Pookie’. Or ‘Honeybear’”.

“Fuckin’ hell!”

Blaine did a double take. “That’s an odd nickname.”

“No,” Kenji said. “Look!” He pointed at something behind Blaine.

Blaine turned.

There was a large snowdrift piled up at the foot of a tree.

“How the hell did that happen?” Blaine wondered aloud. They both looked around. Kenji looked up.

“Hm. Thought maybe an animal had knocked snow off the tree branches, but they seem undisturbed,” he said.

Blaine scrunched his mouth in thought. “Yeah. But could the wind blow such a smooth pile like that with only the tree trunk to stop the snow? Kinda defies the laws of physics, right?”

Kenji shrugged. “Well, what else coudla done it?”

The boys stood still, pondering the strange mound.

“Maybe there was already something there,” Blaine offered. “And the snow layer is just the same depth as everywhere else, but it seems like a bigger amount because of whatever’s there. Like a mound of dirt or…something.”

Kenji winced. “Maybe a dead animal?”

“Shit, I hope not,” Blaine said.

“Only one way to find out.”

Blaine shook his head. “Nope. If that’s what it is, I don’t need to know.”

“Oh, come,” Kenji said. “What if it’s a person and they’re still alive and we could save ‘em from hypothermia or whatever. We could be heroes!”

Blaine’s eyes wandered in thought. He really didn’t want to investigate the mysterious mound, but Kenji’s point about possibly saving someone’s life was too hard to ignore.

“Okay,” Blaine acquiesced. “But if it’s anything dead or gruesome and I have to live with the image in my head for the rest of my days, I will never forgive you.”

“Deal.”

They looked back at the snowdrift. Nobody moved.

“Well, go on,” Blaine said. “You’re the big hero.”

“Fine,” Kenji spat and marched toward the snowdrift. He called over his shoulder “You can film it on your phone!”

Blaine rolled his eyes. “Great,’ he muttered. “Another vertical video for the vacuous throng … ” But he begrudgingly pulled out his phone and tapped the screen. When the camera app opened, he looked up to aim the phone.

Kenji was gone.

Blaine scanned the scene.

“Kenji?”

Nothing.

“Oh, fuck you, Kenji! Come on out from whatever tree you dodged behind.”

Nothing.

“I’m not kidding! It’s not funny!”

Nothing. Nothing but trees and an impossible heap of snow.

Blaine lowered the phone as he felt a chill from inside. Then, squinting his eyes, he peered across the way. Was the mound just a little bigger?

No…that’s stupid, he thought to himself, despite his heart throbbing louder and louder in his chest.

“Come on, Kenji! I’m gonna just head onward if you don’t come out!”

The woods lay still and disturbingly silent.

“Fuck!”, Blaine muttered.

He swallowed a lump and took slow, careful steps toward the snowdrift, following alongside Kenji’s footprints. Blaine’s heart was beating so hard he could hear it …

Thump-thump, thump-thump …

… could actually feel it pulsing in his ears …

Thump-thump, thump-thump …

… pounding in his chest …

Thump-thump, thump-thump …

Or was it his heart he was hearing … ?

Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump …

* * *

Blaine’s phone rang. The display read “Chino”. But no one answered. The phone just rang and rang, lying at the base of the snowdrift where footprints swiftly disappeared, snow filling them up as if it were made of something alive.

And the mound was just a little bigger now.

Waiting.