I Was Wondering....?

by Chris Meissen
(West Plains, MO USA)

Late this past summer, my wife had several bushes of chili piquins and prig qui gnu chilies growing in pots in front of our house. Our new neighbor said that she really liked hot chilies so we gave her 17-year old stepson a handful of the peppers, mostly piquins, to pass long to her when she got home from work later that night.

About 45 minutes later as our family sat down to supper, the ten-year old neighbor boy knocked on the door. "Excuse me," he said, "but my brother wanted to know, what kind peppers are those?"

I told him. Then he said, "My brother was wondering, how to you put the fire out?" I cracked up laughing. His sister's boyfriend had dared the boy to eat one, then told him that the only way to extinguish the fire was to eat another. The family said that the poor boy had tears running from his eyes for a good fifteen minutes.

And yes, I had pity on him and told him that milk, ice cream, or custard pudding would help put the fire out.

Unfortunately, he didn't listen and tried drinking cola instead. Lots of cola.