Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to read is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Mrs W hummed to herself as she hurried about the kitchen. Tonight called for a feast. She and Mr W had recently purchased land, all the permits had gone thru AND the excavator had just called to say that he would arrive on Monday.

“It sure is nice that the chopping crew finished up in good time so Father can move the bulldozer and his latest obsession- an 8760 and pan over to our place!”

Mr W hollered in from the grill “hey I invited Joe and Cole over for steaks”

Mrs W paused in her supper prep. J and C were the kind of comfortable friends that stopped by occasionally and made themselves at home. They were the kind of friends to have. She decided to add stuffed peppers to her supper menu of steak, corn on the cob, company potatoes… Tonight was going to be fun!

The guests arrived and everyone settled into supper and all was at peace in the world.

Suddenly a phone call interrupted the meal- Father was slaving away moving equipment and needed some assistance. Since Mr W and Joe were closest to done, they excused themselves and rocketed out the door, leaving the rest of the meal and the dishes to Em and Cole.

The writer was part of the bulldozer moving crew and noticed after those guys arrived Mrs W was sending them at lot of messages in a short amount of time.

“Cole must have thought that stuffed pepper was hot, he can’t handle anything apparently, he’s even drinking milk” Joe explained

“That baby” said Mr W, who loved anything hot

There was no small amount of harassing once Cole and Mrs W arrived. “I feel a little better now, but my stomach burns.” He said “my mouth was completely on fire.”

Someone else asked him why he didn’t just spit it out right away. He looked horrified “I couldn’t just spit it on my plate!” (Good training, mom!)

“I got that pepper plant free somewhere,” explained Mrs W “I wonder what kind it is.”

“Waaa” said Mr W

Later that evening, a small Facebook update appeared in my newsfeed, along with a number of comments.

Upon returning home, Mr W had tried a small piece of the mystery pepper, and even with his incredible heat tolerance-the poor man still got in trouble.

The report came that while Mr W writhed in pain and got literally sick, the Mrs rolled on the ground in laughter, and Cole rushed around assisting the poor guy- bringing him a gallon of sweet tea and the rest of the milk in the house “help him, he’s suffering!”

There are several morals to this tale:

• Do not accept free peppers without establishing what they are: turns out Mrs W was innocently stuffing Ghost Peppers (among the hottest peppers in the world)
• Nothing brings compassion like walking a mile in someone’s shoes- or taking a bite out of someone else’s pepper
• Be able to laugh regardless

Thanks Kerry and Em for sharing your hilarious episode with me!

Notice: Stuffed peppers at our place tonight if anyone is brave enough- bring your own milk products 😂

A merry heart does so much good.

Blessings,

Kendra