Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Crushed Chilis

I grew up with two older brothers. Jason was six years older than me and Jonas was three. Jason and I were far enough apart in age that he mostly left me alone. Oh, we had a couple of spats, but nothing too serious. Jonas, on the other hand was another story. We use to drive each other crazy, and he could truly be mean. In time I've come to accept that big brothers are just hardwired to annoy and torture their younger siblings. Unfortunately for me, I was the youngest.

When I was about eight years old, my brothers and I were sitting around the kitchen table doing who knows what. I imagine we were probably playing a board game of some sort. Jonas eventually started talking about how good crushed chili's were. "Almost like candy," he said. "Why don't you try them, Holly?" Being young and naive,(and just a little bit stupid, I think) I had no reason to disbelieve him. Looking back, I probably had millions of reasons. He even went so far as to lovingly pour me a handful.

I don't know if you've ever eaten a handful of crushed chili's, my guess is no. They most certainly do not taste like candy. I imagine they probably taste a little bit like fire. Eventually my mom found me crying under the bar rubbing my tongue. I felt like a fool for believing him, and even at eight, I was ashamed. It didn't help that I had to lick milk off of a napkin because I wouldn't, and still won't, drink the stuff. She demanded to know what had happened and it wasn't as satisfying as it should have been to hear her yell, "Jonas, get in here, NOW!" after I told her what he had done.

It was a while before I would believe anything he said, and truthfully sometimes I still don't. It was then that I realized that I had better learn how to fight back or risk being humiliated in this way for a long time to come. I never learned to fight at his level, but I did learn something useful. My mom always believed me when I told her that he had hit me, whether he had or not.

I never said I fought fair.

1 comment:

Jessie said...

ahahahahahahahahaha that is too funny!

jonas always intimidated me for some reason. perhaps it was your distrust in him that made me cautious of him.

heehee.