The Hot Sauce

On our trip to Texas, we stopped at what looked like an authentic mexican resteraunt for lunch.  Adam noticed the hot sauce on the table.  It was green.  He couldn't resist a challenge.  "Hey, Houston, I've got $4 if you try this hot sauce." he says as he starts counting the bills out on the table.  Adam knew he was appealing to Houston's weakness.  The kid will do anything for a buck.  "Look, I'll show you, it's not even hot."  He continued to entice him.  Adam dabbed a little on a cracker and tried it.  It was a struggle, but he was able to maintain a straight face.

Just so you know, Wikipedia defines this stuff as:  "El Yucateco Chile Habanero is a brand of hot sauce made from habanero peppers. Unlike other hot sauces such as tabasco sauce, El Yucateco hot sauce uses habanero rather than vinegar as its base. Unlike most American sauces, the green sauce is much hotter than the red sauce."  It's rated at 9000 Scoville units.  For reference, a jalapeno is rated around 4000 units.

My son, who turns his nose up at just about everything I put on the table recently, took Adam up on his challenge.  Surprisingly, Houston did not make a face either.  He did, however, down his entire drink once he was done chewing.  He and Adam had a good laugh and Adam admitted that the sauce really was freak hot.

At about the same time, they both looked at Hayes.  Fresh meat.  Adam once again extended the challenge to Hayes.  Now Hayes is not usually compromised against his will with the enticement of anything.  He is pretty true to his own convictions.  I figured there was no way he would agree.  "Four dollars" Adam kept repeating teasily.

I headed to the restroom and while I was sitting there, I heard Hawkins' voice right outside the stall.  "Mom, I got picture for you!  Mom!  I got present for you!"  Then a strange female voice, "Ma'am your son is trying to hand you something."  From under the stall pops a piece of paper.  "Thanks, buddy." I replied, completely confused.

When I got back to the table, we figured out what happened.  Hayes tried the hot sauce.  Holt started crying.  Apparently, while that was going on, Hawkins sneaked away to come find me and present his picture to me.  The waitress saw him wandering towards the restroom and helped him in.  Thankfully, the place was rather slow.  I'd hate to think what might have happened had they been busy!  We loaded up and headed to Wal-Mart since the four dollars was now burning a hole in their pockets.