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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about another day in a heatwave.

Posted in Summer on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 177 stories

“A Dance for Eototo” by Cynthia Cronan

Submitted to Contest #53

REEDSY.COM  07AUG2020 Writing prompt #202 Write a story about another day in a heat wave. A Dance for Eototo by clcronan 2020 She was certain she would not die. Every time the creator, whom she called Grandfather, tried to dry her up like bones bleached white in the desert sun, then Grandmother, the soul of the natural world, would blow the whisper of a breeze, or she would bring a hot rain shower, or even better, a cool one. Wa-ti would do as she had always done, and spend the day moving her chair slowly around the outside ...

7 comments 7
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“Hound Alone” by James Offenha

Submitted to Contest #53

      My masters turned the air conditioning off to cut down on the electricity bill.   I don’t know what that means, but I feel like a live lobster in a pot of boiling water on the stove.   Those leftovers are yummy.  I walk over to my food bowl.  There’s lots of dry brown pebbles for me to eat, but there’s only a little bit of water in the other bowl.   Why did they fill my food bowl and not the water bowl?   It doesn’t make any se...

2 comments 2
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“Smitty's Ice Cream” by Sundance Lee

Submitted to Contest #53

Mills was laying down on a wall at the park, wife beater, shorts, and his old reliable flip flops. He was peering into the Sun, hand on top of his eyes shielding himself enough so he could see up into the sky. “Fuck.. It’s so hot out here!” he said with a groan, clearly frustrated with the heat they have been facing this summer. “Bro, do you ever wonder how girls wear jeans year-round?” he directed his question to Los, who wasn’t too far from where he was. “Yo, where do you become up with this shit? It’s like every day you have something ran...

2 comments 2
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“Portal of Destiny” by Baevida Felix

Submitted to Contest #53

THE PORTAL OF DESTINYMy eyes opened to the sound of my alarm going off, it was 3:00 am at night, my lips curved up into a knowing smile. “The day has come,” I half whispered, half shouted.Not waiting for a moment more, I jumped out of bed and raced to my grandpa’s room. My grandpa died a year ago, and since then, my aunt comes once every week to check up on me as I lived alone and twice when there was a special day like gramps’ death anniversary or birthday.I never knew my parents; gramps said they died in a car accident. I didn’t have any r...

1 comment 1
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“HEAT WAVE” by Sivaram Govindaraj

Submitted to Contest #53

Mustafa, a house painter, lay on a coir rope cot in the small one room unit of the slum. It wasn’t yet midday but the sun was already showing how fierce it could be: Following high temperatures of the last two days, a heat wave was predicted and soon the atmosphere would be a cauldron. His ill-health apart, the pandemic  had prevented Mustapha from going out to work as all construction work had come to a standstill. Inside the room the heat was blistering as there wasn’t even a fan. He had to leave the door shut as hot breezes would oth...

4 comments 4
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“One Hundred Degrees” by Lonnie Larson

Submitted to Contest #53

David woke up at seven am and he knew instantly that today wasn’t going to be any different from yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that. In fact, David would learn, today was going to be even worse than the past thirteen days. The temperature was already ninety degrees. He got up and took a cold shower. Cold was not really the right term as the water coming from the tap and shower was nearly eighty degrees. He washed his hair and basically rinsed off the sweat from last night, and then he got dressed for the day. Cotton underwe...

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“Stupid Ants” by Luke Blount

Submitted to Contest #53

“Get yer thumb outta yer ass and water those goddamn horses boy!” my daddy yelled as he rode around the corner of the barn and found me not working.  I didn’t see him coming. Sloppy sloppy stupid I should have been watching better. I knew he would be back soon but I let myself get distracted by these stupid ants. Why do I like messing with ants so much? Do all kids like playing mad scientist god with insects? I shot up from the ground and started running as fast as my 11-year old skinny legs could propel me. Sweat was already pouring...

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“Heatwave Day 42” by Dianne Brice

Submitted to Contest #53

Another day with extraordinarily little to pee. Yes, I said it. Little pee. The heat is so unbearable. It is like the sun has inched closer to the planet. Everything is covered in a thick coat of dust. The water table is next to nonexistent, even in this coastal town. It has been twelve days straight without any rain. The last rain we had was a quarter of an inch, and it dried up before it even had a chance to soak into the ground. It’s a wonder if any of the infants of this generation will know what mud is- or rain or hailstorms, for that m...

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“Droplets” by Phillip Moore

Submitted to Contest #53

The droplets darkened, diluting as they pulled the ink from Melvin’s writing. He sighed, wiping the sweat from his forehead. He crumpled the paper and tossed it over his shoulder. He fanned himself as he leaned back in his seat, gazing over his desk. The corn swayed in a gentle breeze beyond the glass, a deceitfully pleasant scene in the midst of the mid-August swelter. Still, he felt a compulsion to go bask in the peaceful illusion. He strained as he pushed himself up, gripping the chair’s arm tightly in his struggle to balance. He waved at...

4 comments 4
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“In My Field Of Paper Flowers” by Blisters Wournos

Submitted to Contest #53

He passes the rabbit every day.  The fresh reds of new roadkill have dulled to browns and pink roapy insides have shriveled grey.  The fur has faded, sun-bleached.  The big teeth are pushed further out by rotting gums.  Every day, it is a little bit worse.  He can smell it from 100 steps away.  Yesterday it didn’t stink until 50 steps.  That poor rabbit in the road, one reanimated by ants and stripped by turkey vultures.  It smells like sweet and sour chicken from the shitty Chinese food place at the t...

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“Waiting for Sheila” by Keith Manos

Submitted to Contest #53

Keith Manos                                                                                         &n...

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“The Adventures of Vermillion the Flamingo at the Zoo!” by Denny Tsitsiwu

Submitted to Contest #53

The morning was absurdly hot. The popsicles that were left on the ground began to melt. All its sticky properties slithered onto the hot, blistering ground. It wasn’t even bright yet, it was still dark, but this was no normal day. This was bound to be one of the hottest heatwaves since the Diurnal inferno of 1819.  The sky was dark. Small, petit dots scattered across the Prussian blue sky. A bright light among the animals of a zoo is observed from afar. That bright light seemed to take the shape of a bird. A bird staring at the night s...

2 comments 2
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“Red Earth ” by Felix Twingrin

Submitted to Contest #53

The sun bore down on the brown earth, baking it into a dusty cracked clay that stretched for miles to see. If you stepped on it you would feel it crunch beneath your feet and the hot sand beneath would pour free, ready to be baked by the sun again. Because of this footsteps would stay visible for many days on the great plain. If you ever got lost, you could just turn around and walk your way back, following the line of your own red feet, painted red.The people called it the grace of the sun. They believed he was helping guide travellers...

2 comments 2
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“Keep the Change” by Kristina Raynor

Submitted to Contest #53

Aggravated. Agitated. Annoyed. I named each drop of sweat as it raced down the small of my back, waiting for my wife in the doorway of this art deco monstrosity of a house she insisted was home because “it spoke to her soul.” Sitting comfortably in the middle of Pacific Beach’s grungy charm, our turquoise and glass house mocked me as I sizzled under the griddle-hot glare of another relentless summer sun. In response to my discomfort, the obnoxious collection of windows for walls glittered beneath the wispy shadows cast by...

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“Soundtrack” by Phil Manders

Submitted to Contest #53

Cue: Violins.Hi, my names Carlos. Spanish you’re thinking? No, I’m called Carlos because my mum got pregnant on the Spanish island of Mallorca when she was eighteen. She thinks my father’s name was Carlos or Carlo or Chico or Cristiano. I’ve never met him, all I’ve seen is a faded photo of mum with her arms around a young Spanish lad. To be honest, with my mum, at eighteen she was drunk most of the time….actually she still is, it could have been any of them, or all of them, and then some. Anyway, who needs a dad after all? They’re overrated ...

4 comments 4
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