Heat Haze

A story about summer...

The first two weeks of summer were fun. Greedily we inhaled the perfume of rich flowers, suncream and chlorinated pool water and the associated memories turned us all into jaunty children. The entire city got drunk on sunshine. The newspapers proudly announced a glorious summer, one we hadn't had in years and we rejoiced at the prospect. We celebrated by clinking ice-cream cones as if they were champagne glasses and licked the sticky, sweet drippings from our fingers. We laughed at global warming and counted ourselves lucky.

From the second week on the record heat became a nuisance. We renounced the sweet ice-cream, yet our sweaty hands still felt sticky and we began to envy the cones, sitting mockingly in their ice boxes. Our blithe smiles caked into harrowed masks which softened only under a cold shower or lawn sprinkler rain. Even though the water drops evaporated within seconds, our skin stayed hot and damp. The humid nights no longer cooled the city down and sleep came only at the price of exhaustion. Since the meteorological prognoses offered no hope for a change the newspapers tried to soften the blow by adding cuddly cat pictures to their weather reports. Their distractions worked for a while and we convinced ourselves that we loved the summer. Like stubborn fools we insisted that this was what we wanted.

Beginning with the fourth week the sun turned into a merciless tormentor. We banished all ice-cream from the fridges and began with the mass-production of ice cubes. When taken out they melted halfway down before we could even close the fridge door. Shower heads and faucets spouted hot water despite their settings, fans and blow-dryers had the same effect and the city reeked of sweat and sewage. Ancient specks of chewing gum, carelessly spat out by prior generations, rose from their asphalted resting places on the streets and clung to soles like gluey zombies. The newspapers - realizing that warm, furry creatures began to incense the masses, instead of placating them - switched to pictures of naked cats but without fur the felines lost all appeal. When we finally saw behind the curtain of their manipulation, they promised rain - always three days ahead. We knew they were lying, but we no longer had the strength to complain. We had become soulless husks that scuffled along the roads to hell, paved with self-pity and veiled in heat haze.

The sixth week almost broke me. The communal suffering had become very personal, I couldn't take it anymore. I wrapped myself in wet towels, I stuffed my clothes with ice packs, I watched documentaries about the Antarctic… but nothing helped. I stopped reading the weather report, I gave up on sleep and social interactions. My last attempt to find consolation by begging my husband for a reassuring hug ended with him grumbling that it was far too hot for an embrace. He was right of course. Thus I turned to cold beer in hope that alcohol would make me at least indifferent to the infernal temperatures. The beer failed to relieve my suffering, instead it burned me up from inside. Dazed, hot and desperate I dropped off into an exhausted slumber but restful it was not.

And then, when no one dared to hope anymore, it finally came: Rain! I ran out onto the front porch and sat on the cracked wooden bench. A cool breeze caressed my body like a gentle lover. Oh, I had almost forgotten how good it felt to breathe fresh air! I squirmed under the chilly touch of the wind, cherishing every shiver it sent down my spine. The vivid gusts, ruffling through my hair, made me gasp with delight.

Then suddenly lightning ripped the sky apart, thunder broke the heavens open and wrung precious water from thrifty clouds. Heavy drops pattered against the scorched ground and more thunderbolts hailed down like a flurry of camera flashes. They invoked visions of myself and my husband on the front lawn, laughing, dancing, kissing in the rain, getting soaked right down to our parched bones. I called him but he was asleep. Not having the heart to wake him up I kept watching the thunderstorm, dreaming, feeling, and I raised a cold can of beer to the rain gods of Central Europe.

When my husband finally awoke the rain had stopped. The precious water had been sucked up by thirsty soil and what the ground couldn't store had evaporated into the steamy night. He stepped onto the porch and behind my bench.

"I had a wonderful dream," he slurred, slung his arms around my shoulders and kissed my nape.

I dived out from under his embrace. "Too hot," I apologized, "maybe next rain."

Author's Note

Haha, just a bit of aimless prattling. We're having a record summer here and this is my attempt to manage the trauma of the past weeks' heat. Not entirely autobiographic, but the sentiment is certainly authentic. Hope you enjoy nonetheless ;-)

As always - all comments are most welcome!

Reviews

[Carol Cashes]

Oh, my goodness! The last line is a real conversation for me - minus the "rain" part. And that perfectly describes spring/summer down here in Biloxi, MS. It gets too hot for bodies to touch, much less anything left outside. We, too, have wonderful thunder booming storms in the afternoons. This was well written and I appreciated it immensely.

[Kaliope]

Thank you very much for your kind words!

[Julie McCarthy (juliesp..]

Love this it describes Aussie summer too
I felt it lived it loved it in your story
I enjoyed this so much

[Kaliope]

Thank you so much! I guess we all will have to get used to more of those summers. Over here, at least, they are definitely getting hotter and longer.

[Julie McCarthy (juliespenhere)]

Sydney has heat waves and very hot summers where are you

[Kaliope]

I live near Vienna, Austria.

[Julie McCarthy (juliespenhere)]

Ok wow
Didn't know you had hot summers

[Kaliope]

Well, it doesn't get as hot over here as in your corner of the world, but we've noticed that the temperatures are getting more extreme. We have more hot days (~37°C/98°F) in summer and more cold days (~-10°C/14°F) in winter than we used to. We're better equipped for handling the cold though. Heat is making everyone grumpy :-)

[Regina]

I enjoyed this story. It's fun and lighthearted, and a nice break from heavy or emotional writing. If the heat is our biggest problem, then life is great.

[Kaliope]

Thank you very much for this kind review!

[alanwgraham]

Well done Kali - I enjoyed this story. It is light hearted, humerous and with a nice twist at the end. Your excellent writing with lots of nice images gives the piece the perfect tone. Of course nowadays there is always the shadow of climate change looming but you haven't overdone that. By the way, did you mean communal rather than commune in para $?
Try Scotland next time you have a heat wave!
Cheers, Alan

[Kaliope]

Thank you for your kind words Alan - and for spotting the mistake. This year though we've got a lot of rain over here, so I guess it's pretty close to Scottish climate ;-) But joking aside, I'd love to visit Scotland within the next few years. From what I've seen and heard, I seems to be a wonderful country.

[alanwgraham]

It is - the west coast and particularly out on the western isles are out of this world. I've been climbing in Switzerland recently for the first time in many years and we were shocked to see how much the glaciers had shrunk back. It's very worrying but also east to jump to the wrong conclusion. Cheers, Alan

[Woody]

I'm in admiration of your skill at description. you are good, Kali. it is a pleasure to read you.
interesting anf humourous in places.
after a heat wave, rain is a godsend (can we say that?). I've known that feeling. like you, when the rain came, I went out on the porch and danced and sang "I'm siiiinging in the rain", naked. glorious feeling.

[Kaliope]

Oh, thank you so much. Can't get the picture of you dancing and singing naked out of my head now :-D As to the use of "godsend"... since I'm an atheist I'm perfectly okay with god-, allah-, jahwe-, buddha-, vishnu-, rama-, krishna- and flying-spaghettimonster-send, just don't mention the invisible pink unicorn, that's clearly blasphemy and would make us go straight to my-little-pony-hell ;-)

[Woody]

oh did I say naked? well not STARK naked of course. I had my pantyhose on. otherwise our neighbour, old Ms Pinkerton, would've freeked out. or maybe not.

[Kaliope]

Too late my friend, that image won't go away any time soon... *chuckle*

[Michael Laird]

Great little story. You've really captured the glory that is the first rain after a long dry heat-spell.

[Kaliope]

Thank you Michael, glad you liked it :-)

[Bobby Garfield]

"We laughed at global warming and counted ourselves lucky." Great line. Would be a great line for the next Roland Emmerich Blockbuster where some natural disaster destroys the earth and only Brad Pitt or whoever is left to fix things. Well. I really liked it once again and it made me think back of the great feeling you get when rain finally comes after a period of hot weather.

[Kaliope]

Haha, last summer - when I wrote this - pretty much felt like a Roland Emmerich apocalypse. Jeez, I'd love to have Brad Pitt say one of my lines some day...
Thank you so much for reading and reviewing, your comment sure made me grin :-)

[Bobby Garfield]

Another thing I really like about your stories that I've read so far is that you don't necessarily go for the biggest drama possible. I've been thinking about that for some time and I've found out that one can get overstrained by writers who have one emotional extreme situation after the other, so I really enjoy writers who are able to understate and don't begrudge their characters some moments of peace and ease. Or maybe I'm just getting older, don't know :)

[Kaliope]

Thank you again! I guess in my case the lack of melodrama can be attributed to two factors. One is certainly my age. It took me a few decades to realize that life isn't all those grand events and big emotions I expected when I was young. When I take a look at my very early work... yeah, it's dripping with over-the-top drama and does make me cringe quite a bit :-)
The second factor - I suppose - is the format. In my novels I'm probably a bit more excessive. My short stories, however, often feel like quick therapy sessions so they tend to be closer to reality - not necessarily regarding the events, but in regard to the expressed emotions.
In any case, I'm honored and delighted that you enjoy my work. The main reason I'm writing is not to receive praise, but I'd be a shameless liar if I said it didn't feel absolutely fantastic :-)

[Emiko Tagahushi]

Hahahaha Kali I was laughing out loud. This is so clever, and I completely understand the character's torture over the summer heat and then the thrill of rain. Right now we're having pretty cool weather over here, and I am really glad for it even though everyone thinks fall is coming too soon lol. I, personally, can't wait to wear comfy sweaters. Anyways, the sections with her husband were also really funny. The way you describe everything is amazing. I swear you sit there and type one word at a time haha. You're a really amazing writing. I hope your work gets read by millions and millions of people. XD Thanks so much for sharing this!

[Kaliope]

Haha, glad you liked it. I'd be lying if I said that getting read by millions of people wasn't part of the dream, but honestly - I'm thrilled that I get all this wonderful feedback here, from great writers! So thank you very much for this lovely review!

[Samuel Dickens]

I'm wondering how he slept through all of that. Oh, well--it was his loss. Those who live in Needles, California might not have much sympathy for you, since their discarded chewing gum vaporizes before it hits the ground. (The idea of resurrected gum made me laugh) Nice writing, and I hope your weather returns to normal.

[Kaliope]

Thanks for the review and for your kind words, much appreciated :-)

And geez, I just looked up the climate data on Needles and those poor people sure have my sympathy! Fortunately our weather is a bit closer to normal now and people are more relaxed. We're just not used to the prolonged heat and private homes are usually not air-conditioned.

[JMKane117]

Wicked prattling. I was wondering for a minute why the husband was asleep. It's a good exercise/example for plot twists. :)

[Kaliope]

Thank you very much!