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Set your story during the hottest day of the year.

Posted in Summer on Aug 2, 2024

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✍️ 84 stories

Hair-Dryer Day

Winner of Contest #262 🏆

I didn’t know there could be a day too hot for planes to fly but I guess I should’ve, because lord knows it’s entirely too hot for anything else to happen. I figured I should still take the dog out but honestly as soon as I opened the door, he looked at me with these doleful eyes like, Are you kidding me? Makes sense. I was ready to crawl out of my underwear and just walk around with a creatively placed fig leaf or something, so you gotta figure it’s even worse for a furry guy. When we went back in, I dug an old t-shirt out of the ...

134 likes 39 comments 39
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Hot Like Grease

Shortlisted for Contest #262 ⭐️

I'm standing there, concentrating hard on not tipping the cast iron pan because it's filled almost to the top with grease, even though I shouldn't worry too much. It's on the far burner. When I lay the chicken legs in, the grease rises a little higher. I slowly lay another drumstick in the bubbling pool while my two-year-old clutches my leg.  My life is a series of tasks, small ones that follow each other relentlessly. Most of them I associate with a sensation, an awareness of sound or touch, maybe. Not many are pleasant in themselves. ...

28 likes 18 comments 18
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Red Hot

Submitted to Contest #262

“Come on, buddy, let’s get you to a shelter.” They peered into my box, shining a beam of light into my eyes. “Fuck off,” I wanted to say, but I knew better. Best not to antagonize the public, especially the cops. They would haul you out and shove you into their car quicker than you can shake your ass at them.  I held my tongue and said nothing, waiting for them to move along.The sweat was collecting on my forehead, dripping sideways down my face, stinging my eyes. I felt sick, nauseous, and disgusted. ...

24 likes 33 comments 33
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Necessity

Shortlisted for Contest #262 ⭐️

Where I live, people always talk about how the summer heat feels. It feels sweltering, blazing, blistering, searing, oppressive, miserable. Some describe it in degrees: hot one today—heat index of 120 degrees—can you believe it? Some people explain it with physiology: it’s so hot out there, your sweat could water the desert. Or: it’s so hot, just looking out the window will give you a sunburn. But when I think of the heat, my native language is frequencies. Days like today sound like cicadas hissing so loudly, your eardrums still ring with i...

22 likes 20 comments 20
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Degrees of Parenting

Submitted to Contest #262

That last day of July was so hot, even How hot was it? jokes had long since worn out their welcome. When Jack’s wife, Jess, begged for a much-needed weekend respite from their 5-year-old twin boys, with plenty of notice, Jack wholeheartedly agreed. A summer weekend of quality time alone with his sons would be a memorable bonding experience.“C’mon, Jess, how hard can it be?” Jack had said.“This, coming from a man who believes shoving quarters up his nose constitutes entertainment. Good luck.” Jess had laughed and before he knew it, ...

22 likes 10 comments 10
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Rio the Monkey Rescues the Ship Destiny's Dreams

Submitted to Contest #262

No wind. Hot weather like a furnace. The ship running out of drinking water.  The steam engine used as a backup in calm seas not working.Even Captain Alfonse of the ship Destiny’s Dreams looked like a wilted plant. Foresta the colorful parrot slouched where he sat on the captain's shoulder and Rio the rescued monkey clung to his back.He reached over and stroked the parrot's head, saying something softly. Jealously, Rio the monkey wiggled around to Alfonse's chest, chittering, then jumped to the ship's deck and scampered around, pic...

19 likes 25 comments 25
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Curtis and the Caliente Conundrum

Submitted to Contest #262

July 21 took the grand prize for hottest day in the recorded history of Earth, whooping July 2023. July 2025 was a frontrunner for the title next summer, so doings in the Gaza and Trump’s attempted comeback tour and Simone Biles pretty much took the steam out of the story.And while Curtis was normally a net-balance sort of guy, the local July 29 numbers were what really counted. Beyond an afternoon upswing in fender benders at the intersections where the Walgreen’s displayed the high two-digit temp, the usual domestic and street shit extreme...

18 likes 8 comments 8
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Fat Man

Submitted to Contest #262

The fat cat, arm around the pretty girl’s waist, pressed the unlock button on his car fob, which had a famous logo.Phil Hopskins glared. Whilst some poor sods – such as him – had to get up and go to work, others basked in a life of glorious luxury. It wasn’t fair, damn it. Especially on this day, the hottest of the year, or so the weatherman proclaimed. Lovely. It was only 7:30, and already sweat was trickling down his back, making his work shirt stick to his skin. And Phil was sure that when he got to work and took his blazer off, there wou...

18 likes 12 comments 12
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A Hot Drive

Submitted to Contest #262

As Stephanie stepped out of her Gulfstream G300, the hot pavement beneath her feet felt like a frying pan through her flats. She squinted against the sun, and that’s when she saw him–the man standing in front of her, who had a youthful masculinity that made her heart race. He was smoking hot.When you are ultra-wealth category, you need to keep a distance. It’s too easy to be scammed by people who see you as a dollar sign. She pretended not to notice him as she approached.“I will drive you anyplace you want to go,” he said, his voice was...

15 likes 19 comments 19
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A Day at Armier Bay

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...

13 likes 10 comments 10
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Tortoise Shell Summer

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...

12 likes 8 comments 8
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The Hottest Day

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...

12 likes 7 comments 7
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Sweltering

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 ...

11 likes 6 comments 6
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The Rider

Submitted to Contest #262

The cool summer rains lashed the paved streets radiating from the ancient Drum Tower on the cusp of Xi’an’s Muslim Quarter. Throngs of tourists skipped between grimy puddles beneath a field of umbrellas, shielding t-shirts and summer dresses from the deluge. The murky sky, which cleaved the heavens and this ancient Chinese city, had loomed ominously all morning. Thirteen million smartphones, alive to the threat, had convulsed with yellow warnings for storms and heavy rain. Undeterred, the street vendors lined the alleyways, stationed behind ...

10 likes 6 comments 6
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Ladybird, Ladybird

Submitted to Contest #262

***TW fire***July 1976, the hottest day of the summer so far, perhaps the hottest since UK records began, and in the driest of years. Even Scotland, known for its rainfall, had imposed a hosepipe ban. Everything about this day was intense; the heat, the glare, the colour clash – sun and sky, yellow, blue and naked above the wilting green - and ladybirds, each a blink of a sty-in-the-eye of the borderland cemetery mourners, red swarm through their black and white swelter, their cluster of onyx and pearl broken ring, diamond in a box.Ashes to ...

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