Hottest Day of the Year

Palatine is a pretty nice place when you compare it to the decaying City of Chicago. All things considered; it was a quiet place too. On August 7th, 2024, it seemed a little too quiet. The "Midwest heat wave" was in full swing and everyone around here was used to it. You would still see the next-door neighbor Sally walk her dog Beau every morning. The older couple from down the street would still get their steps in no matter how hot it was. But today, there wasn't a soul outside. It was sunny, 95 degrees, and humid for the last two weeks, but today was different. I could've sworn it was 115 degrees and I didn't even step outside yet.

"Mom, can I turn up the AC?" I shouted to her from my room. That ended up getting no response because she was at her boyfriends. I was home alone, yet again, and you bet your butt I was cranking up that air conditioner to the max. I clicked the white button in the box a few times and then everything shut off. “Well Shit”, I mumbled. Luckily, we have a big green generator in the back that

kicks on when the power goes out. I don’t think in my lifetime I’ve been in a power outage because of the heat, a new first to check off the list. I waited for a few minutes, but the generator never kicked on, now I was really screwed. Work shut down the office because of the heat so I got to work from home today. I was really excited to work in my pajamas from my bedroom, but the power outage switched up my plans.

I went straight to the basement because that was always the coolest place in the house. I set up my laptop and started logging on to my systems when I realized, I was still out of luck, no Wi-Fi. Right when I was going to txt my boss about my power situation, the air raid sirens started going off. I thought to myself, “Why the hell are those going off. It is not the first Tuesday of the month and there is no tornado warning. I am pretty certain there aren’t any bombs being dropped on us either. Could those really be set off because of the heat?”

I did what any rational person would do in this situation, I put some clothes on and headed outside. I took one step off my porch and it felt like there was a baby elephant on my chest. If you have ever been in 120+ degree heat, you know the feeling. Every breath felt like a battle and my lungs were screaming for some cooler air. The siren was still blaring and I couldn’t figure out why. I walked down the block and there was still no sign of anyone. Not a car, not a runner, not even anyone standing on their porch to figure out why the siren was going off. I set off down the block trying to solve this mystery. There was this large sled hill not too far from my house so I figured that would give me the best view to see what was going on. The heat made the walk feel like an eternity. The hill wasn’t even a half mile away, and I was the sweatiest I’ve ever been. Ignoring the red flags from my body, I pushed on to the hill. I needed to know what was going on.

Every tree I walked by looked like it was dying for a single drop of water. The siren has been screaming for a good 10 minutes now and showed no sign of slowing down. I pulled my phone out to see if there was anything that could help me figure out what was going on. There were no texts, no snapchats, nothing. That was odd, I wasn’t popular by any means, but I should’ve had a notification for something by now. It took me until 10:13am to realize, I had no service. All I could see was the “SOS” logo on top of the screen and that made the hairs on my neck stand up. Something really bad was going on and there was nobody around, I felt like the only person on the planet right now.

As I ascended the sled hill, I could’ve sworn it was now 25 degrees hotter. I didn’t think that could actually be possible. At some point my body would shut down if it was that hot, right? The last little push up the hill made my walk seem beyond easy.

I was surprised to see another person at the top of the hill. She was one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen. Could this have been a hallucination because of the heat? I don’t think so. “Hey! Do you have any idea what is going on?” I called out to her. I was so out of breath and needed some water desperately, but I still managed to get that out. As I moved closer to her, I knew she was real. It was so hot that the makeup would’ve been melting off, there wasn’t a fake part about her.

“I have no idea. I live a couple blocks away and hoped that climbing the hill would answer my questions. My phone has no service, I haven’t been able to get ahold of anyone, and that siren won’t stop. My name is Tammy by the way, but you can call me T.”, She said.

T looked worried, and I couldn’t blame her. But I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I wish I had the answer to every question she ever had. Or that I could tell her that the siren was just broken from the heat and everything is going to be okay. Sadly, every part of my body knew that wasn’t true.

“It’s nice to meet you T, my name is Marty. I haven’t been able to reach anyone either and I thought this hill would be my best bet. Do you think it’s getting hotter or is that just me?”

“It is getting much hotter! It feels like every second is increasing a degree”, T exclaimed.

Right when she said that, the siren started blaring even louder. I didn’t think that was even possible. It sure was. The short moment we shared, was our last moment together. We both looked up and a massive firey meteor was heading straight for us.

“Huh, I guess that explains why it’s getting hotter”, Tammy sighed.

I grabbed Tammy’s hand and gripped it firmly. Somehow, we both knew It was the end but neither of us were freaking out.

“Before we go, I need you to know you are one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen. It’s a shame we couldn’t have met before this happened”, I said with a smile.

“You’ll see me again, I’m sure of it”, Tammy said while returning the smile.

As the world got hotter and the meteor grew heading straight for us, I could only think about that damn siren. It was screaming aggressively now and when the meteor impacted earth it all made sense.

I shot up and my alarm was blaring in my room. I woke up drenched in sweat because I left my window open. All of the cool AC air was escaping as my room filled with hot air. The Midwest heat plays no games and on the hottest day, it is even haunting me in my dreams.