Wednesday, March 11, 2020

"Hottest" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

For five years, Jeremy Peach had been searching for the hottest pepper in the world. His travels had taken him to India, South Korea and of course Mexico and Central America.

One day while sitting in a Cantina in Mexico City, he heard the story of an old man who cultivated the hottest pepper on earth. Jeremy had heard many such stories but it was worth checking out.

The old man was reputed to live in a remote village in Northern Mexico. The trip to the village took several days and Jeremy was exhausted by the time he arrived. After a long sleep, Jeremy set out to find the man with the pepper.

After asking around, Jeremy found out the old man owned some sort of social club called: "El Rancho" Jeremy entered the club and found a dozen or so bored people playing cards.  The man in question was watching a Soccer match on a big screen TV. 

Jeremy introduced himself and told the old what he was looking for. After watching the Soccer game for another ten minutes, the old man went back to the kitchen and returned with a small, purple-colored pepper.

Jeremy picked up the pepper and took a small bite. Alarm bells went off in his brain and sweat poured from his brow. Another bite and steam blew from his ears and witnesses claimed that a ball of fire escaped from his mouth. 

When the symptoms finally alleviated, Jeremy smiled at the old man and said: "That was delicious!"





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