Canary in a Coal Mine

My blood ran cold. Last night, I went out to pull the last vegetables out of the garden before the impending freeze. Working in the twilight, I frantically tried to finish before the rapidly approaching darkness. With the leaves rustling around me, and as long shadows disappeared into blackness, it was very easy to imagine being surrounded by spirits and witches, still around from Halloween. That’s when my hand clasped this cold wet hideous mutant and actually stopped my heart for a second...




Now I know it’s just a green pepper, but in the Middle ages, the appearance of a conjoined twin in the garden like this was a sure sign, of a witch practicing her Dark Arts around Towne. In more primitive societies, it was evidence of bad spirits in the village.


Of course, today we have Science, and no longer believe in silly superstition. That’s why I know that this strange pepper is not evidence of Witches or Evil Spirits. I know it most probably happened, because of Global Warming.