“Carmen, could you please take off your headphones?”
Carmen didn’t respond.
“Joey, could you please tell your sister to take off her headphones?”
In the back row of the family van, Joey, a twelve-year-old boy with dusty brown hair reached over to try to yank off his sister’s headphones, before she just took them off herself.
“What is it, mami?”
“I just don’t want you shutting yourself off from us is all, Carmen,” Manuela said. “You’ve been… rather distant since I remarried, and I want this trip to be a fresh start.”
“Look, I didn’t want to visit Mark’s family’s stupid farm in the first place. If you’re gonna drag me along, at least let me listen to my own music.”
“Sweetie, what have I said about calling your father by his-”
“He’s not my father!” Carmen yelled. “He’s just some guy you’ve married. I had a father, but you’re apparently so gung-ho about forgetting him that-”
“Okay, let’s all calm down,” Mark said from the passenger seat. “Look, Carmen, I understand that you… don’t like me all that much. I’d like for you to be able to think of us as family, but I know that can take time. If you want to listen to music during the drive, that’s okay, but once we get to the farm, could you at least try to engage with us?”
“Ugh. Fine.” With that, Carmen jammed her headphones back over her curly black hair and returned to her own little auditory bubble.
“Honey, you can’t let her keep being so rude to you.”
“I know, it’s just… I know she misses her dad. I don’t want her to think I’m trying to replace him.”
“I’m sure she’ll come around eventually. For now, let’s just get on the road.”
---
Soon enough, they had made it onto the highway, Joey being kept occupied by looking out the window and Carmen reading a book.
“Honey, could you put on some music?”
“Sure thing,” Mark said. “Let me find a good radio station…”
A quick spin of the dial and-
”Today is gonna be the day-”
“Something else, please?”
“Sure thing.” Another twist of the dial and-
”I’m waking up, to ash and-”
“No, not that either,” Mark said.
”’Cause I’m free, free fallin-”
“Every breath you take-”
“Boots with the-”
“SWEET CAROLINE-”
“For the love of- isn’t there anything good on the radio these days?” Mark muttered under his breath, giving it one more spin.
The next song to come on was far less played-out. Mark couldn’t actually make out what the lyrics were - probably something foreign, if he had to guess - but it had a nice, folksy beat to it, and he doubted he’d find anything better.
With the issue of music sorted, Mark sank back into his seat and relaxed, eager to finally introduce his new family to the farm where he had spent many a summer in his youth.
After a few minutes, the song trailed off, and the radio host came on.
”Wazzup, Lactation Nation! You’re listening to 800.8 FM-
Moooo-
Where ya girl, DJ Cowtits, is bringing you the sloshiest beats!”
‘Sloshy’ was right - the over-energetic host’s voice was accompanied by loud sloshing and bouncing noises. “What the - Mark, what channel is this?” Manuela asked, the only thing keeping her from turning it off herself being the need to keep her hands on the wheel.
“I - I don’t know! It was just the only thing playing good music, I’ll turn it off now and-”
However, no matter how much Mark twisted the dial, the DJ kept talking. The volume controls were equally ineffective.
”Up next, we got a brand-new, dairy-fresh single straight from the Texas Longhorns that’s guaranteed to kick your mammaries into overdrive!
As the sloshing and incessant yapping faded away, a new song came back on- this one with a much different tone than the last. Rather than the incoherent, folksy tune of before, this new song was far louder and bassier - and a lot more outwardly cow-themed, the car vibrating with the first bone-rattling ‘moo’.
“Mark, turn this off right now-”
“I’m trying, I’m trying! The dials aren’t working!”
Throughout all of this, Carmen was none the wiser, her nose buried in her book as she listened to her favorite club playlist - completely missing it when the first of her family members started to transform.
Tue May 13 14:21:41 2025
2 comments Last updated: Tue May 13 17:58:02 2025