Portfolio #3

Every year once year my subdivision of fifteen houses or so gets together and share recipes for chili. There is always a debate over whose is the best this year it was taken to far!
As usual started at dusk the bonfire was extremely hot no one could get within ten feet of it without being torched. The children, which there were an abundance of, were running around all over the place, getting hopped up on sugar cookies and hot chocolate. The adults relying on the competence of the teenagers; to watch and take care of the children while they go off and get wasted. Most of the adults need their time to kick back and relax. Although the children are very outgoing they know when to stop and behave. The adults on the other hand take things one-step further than they need to. For instance last year at the Christmas party (adults only) competitive drinking begat a trip to the hospital. Preston, Lori, and Regina didn’t want to stop drinking because they were winning and they got alcohol poisoning for that. This is the only time that the subdivision gets like this; most of the time during other activities such as volleyball everyone comes together for the common good of the subdivision. So why did the chili party get taken this far?
As everyone started to arrive, there were several people who had never come we welcomed them to be a part of our fun. Most of the people talked and got along with everyone except Jim Jirus. Jim is my boyfriend; the neighbors had not met him and I thought this was the perfect opportunity. Jim is tall, has brown spiked up hair, wears glasses on occasion, and dresses in casual jeans and tee shirts. He came with me to the party. Jim is normally talkative, fun to be around, with a great personality, but something about that night Jim was not himself. He was acting like a stranger wasn’t up for talking or even his facial characteristics show that he was depressed. When we arrived and started conversing with members of the subdivision he seemed closed off as if something else was more important to focus on. All the ladies that were close to me continuously asked “is Jim ok or what”. I replied, “No, nothing is wrong I think he might be overwhelmed by the amount of people he doesn’t know.” That was a little white lie because I didn’t know what was up. Carla and Dawn especially like to poke fun at my sisters and me when we have male friends that they have not met.
Around 7:30 Jim had wandered off while I was in a very engaging conversation. My mind was racing I seemed to have misplace Jim for about ten minutes I started to think, ‘How can I explain that I misplaced a person and don’t know where he went to’. I found him over by the chili later about 8:00. A feeling of relief fell over me when I noticed Jim standing over by the chili as if he were deciding which he should try next.
Now, people started to feel sick so we all curled up around the huge, fiery bonfire. Once we had been sitting there for about five minutes. People started to throw up and feel dizzy. My first thought was ‘great someone undercooked the meat in their chili and now people have food poisoning.’ Five people went to the emergency room, which was a twenty-minute drive for everyone. Once we arrived the place was packed like there was a mass murderer on the loose. After waiting an hour they finally started taking people in and they all needed to get their stomach emptied of the delicious chili people spent so much time making.
There was only one person that must have eaten more of the deadly chili because the scene was too much for him Doug died as they were pumping his stomach out. He was a good neighbor and he will be missed dearly.
Why did Doug have to die? For that the police had to come out and to a complete investigation. They were around the subdivision and asking questions for over a week and when people didn’t want to talk about the subject they would be right there to make you talk. With all this trouble we gave appreciation to the police for wanting to get to the bottom of things but just wanted those to say he ate an excessive amount of chili and that’s why he was affected more than the other four. After about one month they had a reasonable conclusion.
The cops called and said, “Their needs to be a meeting because we found more evidence than we should have.”
Every person at the subdivision that went to the party met in this room that was smoky and hard to breathe in. They informed us that they in fact found poison in the chili I had made. How could this be? This was very much a shock to me and everyone else. ? The cops knew who it was but wanted the person to confess and my supposed friends didn’t back me up; told me I should just fess up so that we could leave.
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Previously, the day before the chili party I was cooking the chili and Jim had come over to help make it. During the half hour of making the chili I had cut and cooked all of the chicken for the chili and added all of the ingredients to make it perfect. To give myself a head start on clean up I allowed Jim to stir the chili, while I started dishes. During this time period Jim had placed his own ingredients in to the chili. The combination on those after allowing to cool and reheat created a chemical that was deadly to the human body. Jim lacked the knowledge to understand this therefore; the result was five people in the hospital room.
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Back at the police station, Jim was taken to prison for six months to learn his lesson. His plans upon leaving are to obtain a degree in chemistry to teach high school. The subdivision still holds their annual chili cook off; most placed this experience into a hidden place. The subject of the matter is never spoken about.