Biting into fresh chillies hidden in her pasta was a thrill she chased; she always added freshly chopped cili padi in her marinara sauce when making pasta. None of her housemates ever dared steal her pasta again after the first time they’d been surprised by that bombshell.
So when Jack wanted to surprise Jo for her birthday (and maybe get her to say yes to a date), he bought her a platter of jalapeños. There were green ones and red ones, mild ones and hot ones. Some were plain, others smoked or deep fried. There were some stuffed with cheese, or wrapped with bacon, some both stuffed with cheese AND wrapped with bacon! Jo loved them all!
Jo was especially fascinated by the little jar of jalapeño jelly. She stuck a finger into the wobbly mess and licked it. It was wonderfully spicy and sweet.
“Why, it’s like spicy jam! I could put spread it on bread and make a sandwich,” she mused.
“Sure, why not?” Jack said. “But wouldn’t it taste better on crackers?
Jo thought about that. “I don’t see why not. Let’s give it a try.”
Rummaging through her shelves, Jo found an unopened pack of crackers. Jack looked in the bread box and found half a loaf of white bread.
“Okay,” Jo said, “let’s do it.”
After having a jalapeño jam sandwich and several crackers topped with jalapeño jelly, Jo concluded that it tasted much better on crackers. Jack just sat there, his face burning red, sweating profusely as he gulped down glass after glass of water.
“Oh dear, I hope you’re okay,” Jo said, feeling a little guilty. She’d lost many an eating kaki for this very same reason—most people couldn't take as much spice levels as she could.
Jack cleared his throat and gave her a weak smile. “I’m fine.”
“This should help!” Jo made him a nice mug of hot chocolate with plenty of milk to soothe his throat and mouth—and stomach.
That day, Jack went home feeling like he’d lost a battle but won the war. He’d totally embarrassed himself by his lack of ability to eat spicy food, but Jo had agreed to a date. Now all he had to do was find a place that served really spicy food for her and really not-spicy food for him.
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Today's suggestions were:
- Jalapeño, from Jonathan Pizarro
- justify/judas/join, from Cherie Osier
- joey, from Sharna Steinert
- javelin, jam, jeopardy, jaguar, from Donna Smith
Fairly obvious why I went with the spice :p (London, you need more chilli).
At any rate, if you want to suggest more prompts or just want to look (and laugh) at the words I'm going to be working with, you can check out this link: Give me more words!
My word target is 500 words per flash fiction piece, which I'm failing miserably at. The past few have been averaging 200-ish words, though this one made it over 400!
This puts me at about 3.3K for Camp NaNoWriMo so some of the later pieces will have to be longer to make up my target of 10K for the month. Unless maybe I count my book reviews as well..................
We'll see.
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