The Candle Light Saga 

Last week I was with Nick hanging out. We were basically cruising town waiting to meet up with Andres. Nick kept mentioning the candle light restaurant. He was a bit like an obsessed fan, " The newspaper said the this place makes the BEST wings in the county." And then we would forget about it and then a minute later, "This place is so crowded you have to sign a waiting list to get in." So somehow that night we ended up going to the place and trying the infamous hot wings. They come in 4 ways, mild, hot, extra hot, Chernobyl. ( Chernobyl is the nuclear plant in Russia that suffered a meltdown. It is our first time so we order the hot.

As the waitress brought the plate on the table we coughed the wings were so hot. Jhonny, Nick, Andres and I ordered 36. They were hot and one by one we ate. These wings are messy and spicy hot, the meat in them was tender but the skin and the hot sauce are just brutal, eventually though we were able to make it through all 36 wings. Even though they are the hottest thing we ever ate.

So it is a week later, next Friday. Nick calls me up, actually he has Jhonny call because for some reason he thinks my mother does not like him. So I pick up the phone and Jhonny says hello. He then begins switching the phone to Nick just as my mother picks up. Of course Nick says, "I had Jhonny call so in case your mother picks up she won't know its me." Of course my mother is still on the phone and hears that. So the night was off to a bad start even though no one had any bad intentions.

Later, Boris and Andres come over to my house. You know how Andres is.. He is only in the house a second and he fixes my computer chair. I had been putting it off for months, but Andres just comes in screws the seat on and the chair is done. So we are playing the guitar, throwing darts and just hanging out when Nick calls back. When Nick calls the second time it means one thing, he is calling from his cell outside my house. So I say to Boris and Andres, This is Nick I bet he is outside right now.

Ed: Whats up Nick?
Nick: I am outside come outside.

So we all come outside and try to figure out what to do. For a while Boris talks about selling his time machine. Then we open up the trunk of my crown Victoria LTD just to admire how big it is. Somehow along the way everyone gets all worked up and they Jhonny ended up hitting Boris in the chin. After that everyone was fighting on my front lawn for like half an hour as I watched waiting for my free weekends to start.

Eventually the fighting stops and we get in Nicks car and decide to drive around. An hour later where does nick end up? You guesses it the candle Light Diner. So Nick and I are trying to figure out what we should order. nick suggest we go all out and buy 24 hot and 24 Chonobols. I eventually talked him down into getting 12 Chernobyl and 24 hot. So the waitress comes over to take out order. Boris decided that he is going to order a half pitcher of beer and gets carded just 14 days before his birthday. So he did not get the beer. So we gave the order.

Ed: 24 hot and 12 Chernobyl.
Waitress: The Chernobyl are very hot are you sure?
Ed Nick: Yes 
Waitress: Maybe you should try the extra hot have you ever had that before?
Ed Nick: We have had the hot and we want to get the Chernobyl.
Waitress: OK.

So a few minutes later the waitress brings out the wings. Nick dips his finger on a Chernobyl wing and then puts it on his tongue.

Nick: Wow that burns.....Wow that really burns!

I took the same taste and he was right. Just a little bit of sauces on my pinky made my tongue burn. And when I swallowed it burnt all the way down. So Nick and I force-feed ourselves the first wing. It was not my mouth that was so bad its just that my lips were burning. So Nick and I kept going. 

Nick: Wow I cant even talk.. My throats burning.

Ironically I seem to have some immunity to the hot stuff because I ate another one. At this point Nick was just looking at me funny with bugged eyes because he could not even talk for real! Later he told me he wanted my pen to write what he wanted to say to me.

At this point I stopped and took a check of my coke. It was less then half full. Boris got brave and grabbed a Chernobyl wing. he ate it and then started getting as bad as Nick. Boris got real quite, he did not move he did not talk he just leaned against the wall and looked. 

At this point I had a plan. Eat the wings as quickly as possible and then get to my Soda. So I had another one and at this point Boris was talking about how his throat almost closed up. Nick was having the worst time with the wings but was dedicated to finishing his share. 

Ed: Nick you don't have to eat them..
Nick: No! I am going to eat them

Andres was having a ball when he saw Nick. Nick had this expression on his face like, this is nuts. So there was one wing left and I asked Nick if he wanted it. He said split it. So I split it and ate my half and that was it. I may have had an immunity but my stomach was not going to take any more hot wings. Luckily for the both of us Andres wanted to try a Chernobyl.

So were all psyched Boris Nick and I were cheering "ANDRES ANDRES"

Andres picks up the wing and takes two quick bites. He looks ok for a few seconds and then goes right to the water. He drinks all nicks water, then he stops and he starts shaking a bit. So we get him another soda. At this point it looked like he was throwing a hissy fit. He was waiving his hands wildly and one point banged his head on the booth behind him. His neck is like bulging a bit too. So he drinks the soda. At this point Andres looked like he was having convulsions and at that point we decided to get the check and get out before Andres puked. We were all worried about him for a good two minutes. Before we got out Andres mellowed down stopped shaking and started talking again. 

We were all sitting in the car amazed like we had just been in a car accident and had to talk about it.

Nick: Its like I ate a chicken wing and my throat closed up. 
Boris: I could not talk.
Nick: I could not even breathe I was trying to breathe through my nose. That did not even work.
Andres: I was hot then I was cold, then I had a headache.
Ed: Andres its a good thing you got better because when I saw you shaking I thought you were going into shock and was about to call 911.  
Nick: That waitress was right.
Ed: Thing could have went really bad. We all could have died in there. Can you imagine the news? Local college students killed by hot wings.

A few years back at WCC someone unfortunately tried to killed his ex girlfriend and then killed himself.

Boris: Yea people would say, " did you hear about the Guy who shot himself? Better yet did you hear about the kids who died eating chicken."

Afterwards we were back at my house. The wings were so deadly Boris did not even want to drive home. We were just all sitting around talking about how for a few seconds we thought we were gonna bite the big one. and I don't mean chicken wing ether.