I live in Louisiana, at least I think I do, I don’t know if I’m dreaming all of this, or if I’m in some other world, but I just don’t want to believe that this is real.
It started four days ago, July 19th, I was going to get groceries, but checked the temperature outside beforehand, 88 degrees Fahrenheit, not too bad for this time of year. I went out to a Target not too far from my house, and double checked my grocery list:
Toilet paper Milk Eggs Extension cord Heineken Strawberries
I got just about everything on my list and went back home, the whole trip should have been probably 45 minutes at most, but a car accident on the road back made it take 2 hours. When I got back I decided to turn on the news while I unpacked my groceries, just a habit of mine.
“A heat wave is currently sweeping through Europe, with a high of 108 in Madrid and no signs of stopping.” The news anchor read. Hearing this, I instinctively checked the temperature on my watch, and this time it read 92 degrees. “Jesus, wasn’t it 88 when I left?” I asked myself. But then, something more pressing entered my mind.
I forgot the eggs.
“Damn it, I remembered the beer but not the fucking eggs?” I cursed myself, but not wanting to drive back through the traffic, I resolved to go back tomorrow.
I woke up in the middle of the night, drenched with sweat, it was hotter than usual, much hotter. I opened my phone and checked my weather app, almost gasping as I read the temperature: 112 degrees. It was around 6pm last time I checked, and now, not 10 hours later, it was 20 more degrees? I hoped this would pass over soon, but in the meantime, I turned my AC on full blast.
One hundred and twenty six degrees. That is how hot it was when I woke up, around 11 o clock. I have a week off from work, so normally I would be waking up even later than this, but the heat is unbearable.
It was at 3pm that the temperature reached 134, the highest natural temperature recorded at Death Valley, CA, and it was also at this point that I realized that the temperature was consistently rising by 2 degrees per hour. I wasn’t sure if this was a coincidence, but I was beyond suspicious at this point.
At 5 pm I had given up trying to be cool and thought to go back to the store to get those eggs, maybe they would have been able to keep the store cool.
There were no cars on the road, on the way there or back, and the only people inside the store were the employees, which I found weird considering that the inside of the store was almost cool, at least compared to the blistering heat outside. While I was there, I grabbed several large bags of ice and 2 cases of bottled water along with my eggs, as I felt like would need it soon.
At 11:30 pm the worst possible thing that could have happened occurred: my power went out. No refrigerator, no freezer, and worst of all, no air conditioning. The temperature outside had reached 151 degrees at this point, and it was when I began to understand why there were no people in town: they all left. I resolved that I would take my ice, water, and whatever food I could manage and leave first thing in the morning.
I woke up to a horrid stench, my milk and eggs had gone bad, very bad. I went outside to start my car, crank the AC, and hopefully make it bearable to drive, but when I got to it, I found that my tires had fucking melted. I should have left when I had the chance, but noooo, my pride made me stay. My phone was useless, I tried to call AAA, but no matter where I went, it said that it was too hot, go figure.
Provided that the temperature was still increasing at 2 degrees per hour, it would have been 172 degrees outside. I felt hopeless and more alone than ever, I couldn’t contact anyone, there was nobody on the streets, all of my neighbors had left, everything smelled like shit, and all I could do was sit on my floor and cry.
At 2pm, I realized how bad the heatstroke was getting to me. I thought I was just scared and confused because of the situation thrust upon me, until I saw my mother. My mother lived alone in South Carolina, I had been deathly afraid for her during this, to the point that when I saw her, I wasn’t surprised, I wasn’t confused, was relieved that she was okay. But one of the more severe symptoms of heatstroke is hallucinations, and I realized that I was having a hallucination of my mother.
As a last resort to ward off heatstroke, I filled my bathtub about halfway with water and poured one of my bags of ice into it. As I stepped in, I felt the most relief as I had in my entire life. I thought that I would be too cold, which didn’t even seem possible at this point, but the ice felt so good against my skin that I wanted to fall asleep in it. At 12 o clock midnight, July 23rd, 2022, the temperature in Bossier City, Louisiana hit 200 degrees Fahrenheit. When I woke up, all of the ice had melted around me. I didn’t know what time it was, but the sun was out, my worst enemy. I felt hopeless, powerless, every bad emotion you could feel as a result of not being in control, so I decided to take control.
I took my phone, a bag of ice, a fold out chair, and a six pack of Heineken, and walked out to a hill, not a few hundred yards from my house. The walk there was excruciating, but as I set up my chair and put my phone under a bag of ice, I felt at peace. It is currently 2:30 pm and 229 degrees out as I write this, and I know that I am going to die here, but I have accepted that. I hope that someone finds this, and knows what I am going through, I just want someone to remember me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to crack open a cold one, the heat is unbearable today.