Preparing for Winter
"Daddy! Something terrible happened!"
"What, what?! What's wrong!"
Soeun came barreling toward me in a sudden flurry of panic, and I jumped. What on earth could have happened, for her to come running like the world was ending?
The alarm didn't last.
"Haneuli got all puffy!"
What she'd called a disaster was difficult to see as a disaster at all. Haneuli, our Siberian flying squirrel, had simply plumped up round and soft, his cheeks stuffed so full they looked ready to burst. I understood why the sight had startled her, but it wasn't actually a crisis.
"Well, there's a reason Haneuli ended up this puffy."
"What reason?"
"Remember when Daddy read you that picture book, and some of the animals hibernated?"
"Hibernate…… Yeah! I 'member!"
She dug through her memory for a moment, then nodded as it came back to her. The twin pigtails I'd tied so neatly bounced and fluttered.
"Haneuli's getting ready to hibernate too."
"But why's he all puffy?"
"Hmm…… If you went to sleep without eating, you'd get hungry, right?"
She nodded, and her hair fluttered all over again.
"That's why. He has to sleep the whole winter, so he's eating his fill ahead of time."
"Ohhh, I get it!"
Bright with the joy of a brand-new fact, she smiled and gave Haneuli's swollen cheek a gentle poke.
"Though, actually, Haneuli doesn't have to hibernate."
"Why not?"
"Animals hibernate because food gets hard to find in winter. Fruit doesn't grow then, remember?"
"So there's nothing to eat!"
"Right. But you're going to make sure Haneuli has food, aren't you? So he doesn't need to sleep the winter away. They hibernate because there's nothing to eat. If there is food, there's no problem, is there?"
"Uh-huh!"
She threw her shoulders back as if to say I could leave the whole thing to her.
I let out a soft laugh and scooped up Haneuli, who was so round he looked ready to roll away.
"You don't have to hibernate. We'll feed you and keep you somewhere warm, so you can spit all of that out."
"F'real?"
He'd crammed so much food into his cheek pouches that the word came out in a mush. I chuckled and held out my palm.
Haneuli hesitated a moment, then started pulling the food out one piece at a time. His tiny hands dipped into his cheeks, and nuts — almonds and the like — came tumbling free.
"……You really packed those full."
There were enough nuts in those pouches to fill my closed hand.
"These are for you."
I scattered everything he'd spat out high into the air. Parrots appeared from who knows where, wings beating, and snatched every last nut out of the sky.
With the nuts dealt with, I looked over at Soeun, who was holding the newly plump Haneuli and poking him again and again.
"Soeun. While we're at it, want to go see how the animals get ready for winter?"
"Yeah! I wanna!"
I took her along, and we started around the zoo.
First came the sheep, the sort you could find at any zoo. They weren't especially popular at ours, though. Given half a chance, they'd chew the clothes right off a visitor. People like to talk about how gentle sheep are, but in reality their personalities were absolute garbage.
"Soeun, should we cut the sheep's wool for winter, or should we leave it?"
"Don't cut it! They'll be cold with no clothes!"
"Bzzt! Sheep need to be sheared."
"Why?"
She looked thoroughly shocked. She'd figured more wool meant more warmth, so of course the opposite answer startled her.
"Are you warmer snuggled up with Daddy, or warmer all by yourself?"
"Together!"
"Sheep are the same. They're much warmer when they huddle, but thick wool keeps them warm enough to stay on their own. So we trim it a little, and then they stick together. Want to try cutting some?"
"I wanna try!"
She bounced in place, all but demanding to do it that very second, so I led her over to where the sheep were kept. Winter preparations had already begun, it seemed — several of them were in the middle of being sheared.
"Oh, boss! The princess came too?"
"Mind if Soeun tries the shearing?"
"Of course. If it's the princess, there's nothing to worry about. By all means."
Soeun couldn't lift the big, heavy clippers, so a keeper brought over a pair of scissors to suit her. I carefully closed her fingers around the well-honed, razor-sharp blades, and she stepped up to a sheep.
"The princess is gonna shear me!"
"I should've gotten in line first!"
"Me! Shear me too!"
While the others writhed with envy, Soeun grabbed a fistful of wool.
"Cut carefully. Those scissors are very sharp. You know neither you nor the sheep can get hurt, right?"
"Yeah."
At that, she brought the scissors in with great care and began to snip, the blades going snick-snick through the wool. A little tuft appeared, just big enough to fit in her small hand.
"Hehe, so cute!"
She hadn't managed to shear the whole sheep, but she seemed pleased with the job she'd done in her own way. Beaming, she stroked its head. Overcome with joy at her touch, the sheep simply collapsed. Soeun, of course, missed the whole thing — she was already running over to show me the wool she'd cut.
"Daddy, I cut it!"
"You did great. Thanks to you, the sheep are going to stay nice and warm this winter."
"Hehe!"
I took the delighted girl along to find the other animals.
"Soeun. You know bears hibernate too, right?"
"Yeah, they go snore-snore in caves. That's why you shouldn't go in caves!"
"That's right. But Daddy told you earlier, didn't he? The friends at our zoo don't hibernate."
"'Cause they get to eat lots!"
"Exactly. Instead, the bears are going to fatten up so they can stand the cold. Want to bring them some food and tell them to eat up?"
"Eat up!"
Before I'd even finished speaking, Soeun had scooped an armful of fruit against her chest and was charging at the bear. The people nearby startled for a second at a child darting into the enclosure, but the moment they realized it was Soeun, they settled in to watch as if they'd stumbled on a rare spectacle. Not the least bit cowed by the enormous bear, she was stuffing fruit straight into a muzzle full of sharp teeth — a sight that strained belief.
Only after she'd generously fed it both the fruit she'd carried and the fruit the keepers had brought did she come back to me, looking satisfied.
"Daddy, are we done?"
"Not yet. We're going to the Reptile Pavilion."
"Hanmu and Nureongi!"
I nodded at the two names that popped into her head the instant anyone said reptiles, and we went looking for them. The weather had already turned a little cold, and neither of them showed the slightest interest in leaving the Reptile Pavilion, where the heating was plainly doing its job.
"Do we give them lots of food too?"
"No, not them. If they stay in here, they can keep warm all winter, right? So all we have to do is make sure the cold wind from outside doesn't get in."
She followed me around, hunting down gaps in the windows and the like and helping seal them shut. Once the little holes that had been leaking chilly drafts were gone, the reptiles seemed to move a bit more briskly.
"And if you're going to take Nureongi outside, he has to wear this."
I handed her something I'd prepared in advance — a garment that looked like a wrist brace stretched about a hundred times longer. Since she used Nureongi like a third arm, I'd made him clothes so he could stay warm through the winter too.
"Nice and warm, right?"
Once she'd dressed him, she burst out laughing at Nureongi coiled around her body. I watched them for a moment, then kept helping the animals prepare for winter alongside her. For a few that had never lived through a Korean winter, we put on clothes so they could get through the season warm, and for the ones that would stay warm by putting on weight, we laid out plenty to eat.
There were still some we hadn't helped.
"Do bees hibernate too?"
"Hmm…… Hibernate isn't quite the word. They just stay home all winter. It's cold outside, so they keep warm inside the hive. All that honey they work so hard to gather — the honey you love — is what they eat through the winter."
"Then we gotta give them honey?"
If I said yes, I had a feeling she'd rip the whole honeycomb we scooped our honey from clean off the hive and hand it over on the spot. I hurriedly pulled her into my arms and shook my head.
"The bees make enough for themselves first, and then they give the rest to our family. So our bees don't need us to give them any."
"Aww."
She looked disappointed. I poked one slightly puffed cheek, letting the air out of her pout, and pointed at the hive.
"Instead, there's something you need to do."
"What do I gotta do?"
"Looking at the hive, it seems like it'd get really cold, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, it looks super thin!"
"So you and Daddy are going to make the hive warm."
I showed her the wooden boards I'd prepared ahead of time.
"We'll build a wall around the hive with that wood over there. So the cold wind can't get in, and the warm air inside can't get out."
"I wanna do it too!"
"Then you'll help Daddy?"
"Yeah!"
With Soeun nodding hard, I started setting the boards up around the hive, which had grown as big as she was. She would hold a board steady in her tiny hands, and I would fasten it firmly in place.
"That went so fast with your help. Thank you."
"Hehehe!"
Hands planted proudly on her hips, she produced a pen from who knows where and started decorating the boards. In big, crooked letters she set about carving messages into the wood, and filled whatever space was left with flowers and drawings that were plainly meant to be honeybees.
Soeun made this!
Buzzy's House
Yummy honey in here!
While she was busy drawing, the tap and clatter of our work brought a few bees outside, and they came over to me.
"Temperature good. Grateful. Winter, no problem."
"Don't thank me. Thank Soeun. She worked really hard."
"Miss Soeun. Deeply grateful."
A few of the workers, and the queen who emerged a little late, began fluttering around Soeun and settling on the back of her hand, fussing over her.
"You gotta stay warm in winter!"
Soeun petted them as she said it.
"All right, then. Shall we get you ready for winter too?"
"Huh? Woooow!"
I brought out the present I'd prepared for her. Soeun already adored her animal pajamas, so I'd gotten her a winter pair, lined warm on the inside.
She ripped the wrapping to shreds on the spot and pulled them on, and a snow-white winter rabbit stood where she had been.
"I'm gonna hibernate!"
Fully dressed in her new pajamas, she suddenly announced she was hibernating, then flung herself into bed and actually fell asleep. All that running around helping the animals through winter must have worn her out. It seemed she figured a nap was in order.