2018/2019
Vol. 14

The Twins and a Chili Pepper

1970; St. Charles, Missouri, USA

The day began like any other day, and nothing had gone wrong — yet. Five-year-old twins Danny and Lisa were enjoying another lovely day in 1970, but little Lisa decided to bring chaos into their home once more. They were simply standing in the kitchen, because they had just finished eating dinner, when Lisa saw her key to revenge for all the annoying things Danny did. There on the counter was a small chili pepper.

Lisa was the one who usually got picked on, but she had finally found a way to get revenge. Just a small chili pepper — that’s all it took. Danny was missing a tooth, which gave Lisa the perfect idea of how to get devious little Danny back.

“Hey, Danny, I have something for you!” she said. Danny thought that Lisa might have candy, so he walked over to her. Little Danny loved candy so much that he had once run away to a candy store, which had scared the life out of his family. He also had once eaten a small green and red glass ornament, thinking that it was candy. Young Danny seemed to be quite gullible, which made it pretty easy for Lisa to trick him.

When Danny walked over to Lisa, she told him to open his mouth. There was a gaping hole caused by the missing tooth, so this was the perfect idea. Lisa turned around, put a pepper seed on her finger, and held her hand behind her back. Danny opened his mouth, anxiously awaiting a sweet treat. Instead, Lisa violently shoved the seed into Danny’s gum.

At first Danny was confused. But then he slowly felt an awful feeling. His mouth felt like an actual fire was burning inside it. His face slowly turned red, his eyes were watering, and it felt like a volcano had erupted inside his mouth. Danny began screaming so loud that Lisa thought the neighbors could hear him. He looked like he was crying waterfalls, and he was running around like a psychopath.

Little Lisa was laughing so hard that she started tearing up. She rubbed her eyes to wipe her own tears, but then realized the huge mistake she had made. It’s not smart to rub your eyes after touching a pepper seed. Lisa’s eyes began to water and sting. She began screaming and running around, too.

From the other room their mom, Bev, heard them. Bev was worried out of her mind and ran to see what was the matter. Between the cries and screams, Danny and Lisa told her what had happened. Bev had to wash out Danny’s mouth and Lisa’s eyes.

Despite what happened with the chili pepper, Danny loves spicy food. Lisa learned a good lesson that day: What goes around comes around.

Sarah Schneider, daughter of Danny; Missouri, USA

Illustrator: Kylie Taliaferro; Missouri, USA

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