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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#262: Turn Up the Heat

What’s not to love about summer? There's something so wonderful about spending lazy afternoons taking a stroll in the sunshine or cooling off with an ice-cold drink by a pool. I can still remember how excited I would feel on the last day of school, just hours away from barbecues, beach days, and family picnics.

With summer in full swing for many of us, let’s write some stories that center around long, sweltering days. Will your tale take place at a fancy resort or a crowded park? How about a county fair or an island getaway? No matter what you choose, make sure to bring on the heat!

This week's prompts

Write about a summer vacation gone wrong.

Summer – 66 stories

Start or end your story with a heatwave announcement.

Summer – 34 stories

Write about a character who is allergic to heat.

Summer – 26 stories

Center your story around an unexpected summer fling.

Summer – 53 stories

Set your story during the hottest day of the year.

Summer – 88 stories

Stories

“All That Could be Said.” by Rozmarin Ideas

Submitted to Contest #262

“… thanks, Tom. Heads up, folks, the National Weather Service has issued a heat warning for Fort Worth and Dallas, as well as surroundin’ counties, as you can see…”Norah looked up from her phone, alarmed.“… highs of 120 over the next week’r so…”She was up in an instant, rushing for the front door, grabbing keys from a dish and hat from a hook.“Norah? Where’r you goin’?”This from Clyde, her husband, whose head had appeared around the corner from the kitchen.“Checking on dad,” she said, already half out the door.His brows knitted a foreh...

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“A Day at Armier Bay” by Luca King Greek

Submitted to Contest #262

“He is such an idiot”, said Dennis, my brother. It was the summer holidays, so he was living with us again. I preferred it when he was staying in London with Nan and Grandad.“Mind your language,” said Dad. I could tell that he wasn’t totally in control anymore. Dennis was almost as tall as Dad now.“But he can’t bring the stupid Airfix kit with him to the beach. He’s going to make a mess of things, he’ll lose pieces and get paint on everything,” said Dennis, “and it’s too bloody hot to mess around with plastics and gl...

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“The Hottest Day” by VJ Hamilton

Submitted to Contest #262

During the hottest summer on record, I was in a terrible slump. I could find only part-time work, so I volunteered as much as possible. “Please,” I begged, “that batch of incoming mail for the city councilor simply must be processed.” I was appointed summer relief, in charge of sending personalized responses to the councilor’s snowbank of letters and cards, chiefly well-wishers, due to recent news of her lymphoma. I replied, rephrased, and, whenever possible, redirected the concern to different departments of the city. Yes, it was a mentally...

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“Long may the sun keep Shining” by Susan O'REILLY

Submitted to Contest #262

A family caravan park in Salthill in County Galway, Ireland was our parent’s choice of holiday destination for a lot of my childhood. It’s probably where I developed my love for the sea, always calming and soothing to me. The smells, the sights, the ice-creams, and of course the many friends won and lost on the beach, won and lost over and over on some days. The best days where when the sun was splitting the trees and we all got to show our knees.I’m remembering one holiday when I was eleven, all excited about meeting my friends again, not c...

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“Tortoise Shell Summer” by Julian Siminski

Submitted to Contest #262

Tortoise Shell SummerBy J.G. Simiński Gerald walked out from the cool of the rented cottage onto the shaded porch and down to the small patch of lawn. The blinding hot of the late afternoon sun made his eyelids narrow, almost shut, so that he could see the lilting glisten of the waves as they traveled from the ocean toward the shore. It was hot, damned hot, but it was summer, and there’s nothing that compares to the mixture of sea, salt and sand on skin that’s been baked brown, and the way the mixture makes the crease at the elbow stick to...

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“Eternal Recurrence” by Eliza Levin

Submitted to Contest #262

I have this theory that every person has a sort of essential act they’re doomed to repeat until they die. A single deed that serves as a metaphor for everything they are. Like Sisyphus eternally pushing a boulder up a hill but, in my version, that act holds some intrinsic part of Sisyphus himself. Even if he could extricate himself from the myth, if he left the boulder at the bottom of the hill and just kept walking until he couldn’t see it anymore, the truest part of him would still be pushing a boulder up a hill in everything he did. He co...

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“Luxuriating in the Cool Dark Night” by KA James

Submitted to Contest #262

Midsummer, and we’ve left the longest day behind, the dreaded solstice interminable, but still we must contend with day after day of the warmth. Twilight, the heat lingers well past the setting of the sun, radiating leisurely back to the ether from those objects, from the very land itself, that sat baked in light in the hours from dawn ‘til dusk. Even the clouds, when present, cannot completely repel the illumination and thermal rise of the daytime. On this evening, not a puff of a breeze as the daylight succumbs, the air stagnant, providing...

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“Formosa: Hot-Head Summer” by Pei Pei Lin

Submitted to Contest #262

(This story contains physical violence and foul language.)I'm sitting in a makeshift jail cell, feeling miserable. I believe this is just some random room in which the security guards sometimes take their breaks. The room is bare besides some cabinets, a counter space, and a table with some chairs. The air conditioning is weak, and there are no windows.With my arms crossed, I let out a huge sigh. This is so unfair. What I want to do is to be inside the arena, like I planned to do, and scream my head off supporting the badminton duo who are f...

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“Sweltering” by Chris Pye

Submitted to Contest #262

He had to raise his voice. 'Look, it's great here. We should definitely stay.' Ice-creams melting, they surveyed the heaving beach. A deep mass of colourful umbrellas and sun-tents crowded the hot sand. A confusing delusion of semi-naked bodies lay prostrate in little encampments, or wandered about lugging chairs and paraphernalia. They blew up shiny beachballs and inflatable loungers, ate from paper bags or drank out of plastic bottles. They sweated and chatted and shouted under a midday sun that beat down from a blisteringly ...

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“Linda” by PJ Town

Submitted to Contest #262

(sexual references)I was nineteen, going on twelve in terms of relational nous.It’s not that I was unwilling to enter into a relationship – in fact, it was my wildest dream – but from an early age, I’d been chronically shy. Put a goose in front of me and the very last thing I’d have said to it would have been boo. I’m better now, but that doesn’t negate the frustrated yearning I went through as a teenager.This shyness didn’t extend to male relationships, however; I made friends easily at school, in the football team, and at the summer holida...

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“Fire & Flint” by Julie Squires

Submitted to Contest #262

Almost everyone who has lived to adulthood has seen the portal to the other world at least once in their life. We’ve all witnessed people being drawn into it, returning as spirits—ghosts resembling younger, more beautiful, translucent versions of themselves. They wander the streets at night, announcing that they now reside on the other side, happier than ever. Lucky them, I muse as I polish the counter in Marco’s gothic art store yearning to be one of those fortunate ones. Longing to escape from this creepy place where I'm a cashier, a sales...

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“Bubblegum Bat-paste” by Lonnie Russo

Submitted to Contest #262

Hanging upside down for twenty-four minutes really had to suck. The thought made Brady’s head swim—probably because all the blood in his body had rushed there two days ago when he swung the backs of his knees around the monkey bars and dangled for at least two whole minutes, at least by his friend Vinnie’s count. But Vinnie was a stupid bullshitter who lied a lot; he underestimated things that made other people look good. And what was absolutely not good was that the metal had only taken those “two minutes” to burn red stripes into Bra...

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“Bear” by Victoria West

Submitted to Contest #262

She held up her phone, gazing at the top right corner. A large outcropping of rock lay ahead. Her dad slowed the car down for the turn. They passed the outcropping and… she held her breath. The last of the four bars faded. “Mom! Dad!” she shouted. “Did it happen?” her mom asked, glancing back at her. “Yup! Which means our vacation has officially started. Only twenty more miles to go” she replied, as she showed her phone off to no one in particular. She put her phone away and drank some lemonade. *** They pulle...

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“The Last Heatwave” by Samantha Bull

Submitted to Contest #262

The sun was just barely peeking over the top of the Cedar Rock Mountains, casting a fiery glow over the sleepy town of Wynnemiller. The morning dew was still thick on the grapevines that crept up the town sign – proudly announcing, “Welcome to Wynnemiller, Innovation Central!” Static cracked on an old radio as the familiar voice of DJ Lynn Sparkling filled the silence. “It’s going to be a scorcher today, y’all. The local weather service has issued a severe heat advisory for the tri-county area, starting this Friday through the weekend. Temp...

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“Heat Hazy Days” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #262

There was once a life within which I existed. Encased in a fantastical ecosystem designed to cocoon me from the pain of reality. Then it was over. A breeze-block in the face. I didn’t see it coming. The impact of the ending sent shockwaves of negative energy into batteries hidden deep within my body such that every time I thought I might have some respite from the pain of my sudden, shattering loss, those batteries fired up and fried my nervous system, leaving me reverberating with a sickness that I could not comprehend, let alone deal with....

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$250

Prize money

267

Contest entries

91

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 09, 2024 EST

Won by Tess Ross-Callahan 🏆

Title: Hair-Dryer Day

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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