Jalapeno Poppers – Mondays Finish the Story

Photo by: Barbara W. Beacham

Jalapeno Poppers

The only residents remaining in the small town of Miners Hill are spirits. Unfortunately, some learned about this the hard way.

Thad and Gina stopped into the diner at Vernonville. The 50-something waitress, Chrystal, called cheerily, “What’ll ya’ll have?”

“Something mild,” said Gina. She patted Thad’s belly. “He ate something bad in Miners Hill.”

Chrystal cringed. “Sugar. There ain’t nuthin’ but ghosts in Miners Hill.”

“Yeah sure,” scoffed Thad. “There’s lots of folks there. They had a Jalapeno Festival and everything.”

“Hun,” said Chrystal. “Them was Spirits. Whole town was destroyed by lightning 50 years back during their jalapeno festival.”

“But…”

“You didn’t eat their damned Jalapeno Poppers, did’ya?”

“Uh…why?”

“Cuz Spirit Jalapenos are a thousand time worse than regular ones.” She pointed to the seat beside Gina. A jagged hole shredded the seat and burn marks scarred the metal. In places, the steel had melted.

“What happened there?” said Gina.

Chrystal shrugged. “Last guy to eat Miners Hill Jalapeno Poppers sat there.”
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Each week on Monday, Photographer Barbara W. Beacham offers up an original photo as a writing prompt for flash fiction. She provides an opening sentence to start it off. This week, the opening sentence is, “The only residents remaining in the small town of Miners Hill are spirits.” It’s up to us to run with it from there. Look here to see what other folks wrote: https://mondaysfinishthestory.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/mondays-finish-the-story-may-25th-2015/