A little fun fact: In 1999 the Habanero hot pepper was the hottest pepper in the World. Something that I did not know at the time. This will makes sense later in the story. My name is Tracey Beaudin. My father was Clyde H. Smith. Not only am I Marshall's step sister I was Katie & Marshall's house cleaner for many years and a few different addresses. I am also their gardener. A job that I still love to this day. Even before all of that I worked at Shelburne Farms starting as a breakfast waitress and then moving outside to the Formal Gardens with Birgit Deeds. Eventually I moved on to beautification all over the farm and Marshall was my boss. We would see each other as we passed on the road. We'd stop and have "a meeting". He would ask me if I needed anything and I would reply with either a yes or a no, and then the meeting was adjourned until the next time we would pass each other on the road.
One day we were at the Market Garden and we had come across a new hot pepper that they were growing. The Habenero. Pffft, how hot could it be? They were beautiful. Orange and waxy looking almost artificial. Marshall and I decided that we would, on the count of three each take a bite of a pepper. Mind you, a bite. We each had a pepper in our hands and counted, one, two, three. Somehow Marshall had his in his mouth a split second before I did and he screamed, "NO!" and swatted the pepper out of my hand, grazing my teeth and lips on the way by. Even though I did not "bite" the pepper, my mouth was on fire! There are many water faucets at the Market Garden which was very handy and meant that Marshall and I did not have to share one while we tried to put the fire out in our mouths. Between laughing and crying we decided that we needed milk and bread to help with the heat. We went back to the house and ended up soaking bread in milk and stuffing our cheeks like chipmunks. It took a long time for my mouth to return to normal. To this day, I do not like really hot spicy food.