3The world was hallucination yellow. The air was simply a receptacle for heat, and everywhere normally upright citizens cursed their stinging eyes, the padded earth roads that wouldn't raise crops but was an excellent heat reflector, and the beads of sweat, the only source of moisture any of them could see outside. The heat waves snaked upwards from every direction, making the setting sun a runny egg yolk. Occasional patches of weed the color of defeat splayed across the ground. Boys still trampled upon them, though. Thermometers went on strike, the mercury inside congealing at 120 degrees Fahrenheit, such that even at nighttimes, when the temperature cooled, the people would feel just as hot by looking at the them. People went about with chores normally done in the morning, in a society long since converted to nocturnal life. Here and there were children off to school, tugging at their cotton shirts in a vain attempt to get cooler, and mothers who did not need to scream goodbyes as the children would never run to school. Most children would take off their shoes just around the corner, the sting of pebbles an easy price to pay, and carried them the rest of the way. Children's shoes lasted a long time here in Sunrise.
When the sun finally went down and kerosene lamps lit up homes, the people started exiting the house. Pleasantries were shared by the few dozen citizens who were all heading in one direction. "Howdy" between men, "Ma'am" between a man and a woman, a simple smile between women, and "Gadawful weather, ain't it?" was the main conversation starter. They all passed the town bulletin board, on which a crude message was printed. "Town meeting tonight." Underneath it was a longer message on water conservation, one of the obsolete ways being a reduction in the drinking of hot tea and coffee. A few other advertisements, the newly arrived baker enticing customers with offers to barter rather than purchase, a plea from the blacksmith that he needed more funds to purchase an electric forge that would produce less heat, was enough for the one street town. People passed the board without a glance, subconsciously taking a step or two towards the long shadow created by the receding twilight.
Dresses and jean legs brushed pass a string hanging from the board, where a staple gun had hung for ease of new bulletins before Wild Bill, after fourteen piss-warm whiskeys, used it to puncture the previous baker's skull after he put too many stones in his loaf of bread.
A few steps beyond the board stood the town hall, which was more of a gazebo. The six large fans on each edge of the hexagonal structure were already roaring before the citizens entered. Each let out a sigh as they shed the heavy load of heat at the doorway. The wooden stools quickly filled, and the only person that had to stand was the sheriff who usually brought up the rear. He stood leaning to the left to accommodate the weight of the sword. A spittoon was brought out in a final call for men to spit out their chewing tobacco before the meeting started. After a few passes, the sheriff took the tarnished bowl, spit his own glob of brown goo, and set it aside in a corner.
Immediately the mayor walked on. Everyone knew the mayor. He was the only man in Sunrise dumb enough to sport the heat retaining beard that was so popular among other mayors. He also wore a black coat (to ward off "youvee ray-dee-ashun" he often said) that made stand out even more in the sea of white and beige.
"Order!" He yelled in the silent room.
"Now, you have all gathered in here today, to finally deal with the heat once and for all!" He waited for the cheer, but the citizens have heard enough claims to be wary of such exquisite promises. The baker, new to the scene, raised his hand. When no one called on him, he gathered himself and stood up.
"How do you plan to do that, sir, if I may ask?"
"All we need to do is raise enough money to get a Govermental Investigator out here! When he sees the troubles we are in, the government will send a team to take care of our situation!" Here the doctor stood up.
"Why would the U.S. Government even decide to come here? After the hands-off policy they've instituted for so many years!" Here another person stood up.
"My concern is the money. We don't make enough to keep outselves afloat-"
"Money is not the issue, gentlemen. What is the matter is our chance to be rid of this dilemma!"
"But we've been living this way for-"
"-Money is, and always will be-"
"Order!"
"-Never going to happen-"
"-way of life!"
"-retched poverty-"
"Order!"
The gaggle of voices would soon die down, blame would be placed on the heat, and the townspeople would heartily vote on the issue. However, down, a hundred feet below the town, on the bottom of a hill, four boys did not hear the meeting go so smoothly. They faced the Dragon's Cove, a cavern that ran directly beneath the town, at some points, the top of the stalagmites and the floorboards of a house not more than six feet apart, and all they heard were the wind and their own falsely confident whispers. All had their shoes tied together, hanging from their necks.
"I missed school for this? I'm sure to get a whooping, and I was expecting something!"
"Shuddup! I think I hear Jimmy!" A fifth pair of shoes lay at the base of the cave, no doubt belonging to the unseen boy Jimmy.
"Damn, we're waiting out here in the meltin' sun while Jimmy's inside having the time of his life!" Jimmy was not having the time of his life. The lone candle in his hand had run out, leaving a tiny stub with barely any wick, and he was pawing his way through the darkness. His cries of hello were met by a hundred echoes pressing against him. A thousand images of starvation, ghosts, and goblins flashed before his eyes. Ah-hah! He saw a pinprick of light, far ahead, the torchlight the boys had the sensibility to bring.
"Guys!" He yelled.
"Jimmy! We're over here!" Jimmy knew. He started making his way to the light. It was as big as an orange before Jimmy started calming down. It wasn't so bad after all. He could say that he located some secret pirate treasure but in the darkness would never be able to locate it again. He could say he wrestled with thousands of blood sucking bats, and he had the scratches to prove it, too. Then he felt the aches in his legs, and felt once again the fear.
"Well..." he said. "Well... at least it was cool down here."
Jimmy noticed that the walls around him were a lot brighter. He could feel heat at the back of his neck. A whooshing sound was coming from far within the cave. Jimmy turned around and saw light. Not the white, clear light that he had wished to see just a few minutes ago, but a mustard and amber colored light that signified only one thing. Fire. The fireball was coming towards him! Jimmy ran to the walls, and tried to fit himself in a crevass. His body wouldn't fit. His left arm, still tightly holding the candle, remained out in the open. Before he could withdraw, the flame passed him. Jimmy felt the flesh of his arm sear, and his hand felt like the time when a drop of bacon grease jumped from the skittle onto his hand, except now that pain was all over. He couldn't breathe; the fire was like a train passing right by him, sucking all the air around him and seemed to pluck open his mouth to grab whatever oxygen was remaining in his lungs. The whooshing sound, barely noticable before, was threatening to burst his eardrums. He couldn't take it. He couldn't take it! It was over. The wall of fire was no more, and Jimmy blinked a few times, trying to get his eyes readjusted to the darkness. He pushed against the wall with his right hand. Jimmy popped out, and he felt deep scratches across his chest and his back. He realized that there was still light somewhere, and wondered if his candle was lit by the flame. Jimmy looked down to find his arm on fire, along with the candle. The arm had turned black, and the only pink flesh he could find were in the burst blisters the size of his fist. He tried to wave the arms, desperately trying to rid himself of the flames. The other boys cried out to him, to make sure he was still alive before running for it. Jimmy kept waving his arms, harder and harder. Then he saw scales. His arm torch revealed a wall of scales just a few feet deeper into the cavern where he had come from. Scales the size of dinner plates. Jimmy then saw the eyes. The emerald-green eyes, with the creasant shaped pupils of a lizard. The eyes came closer, and the torch showed nostrils, a mouth with several teeth sticking out past the lips, and beyond that, two dark shapes that reminded Jimmy once more of the parasitic bats. The head moved back. A sharp intake of breath. The air around Jimmy rushed pass, and he squinted up his eyes, already beginning to tear. The arm fire was forgotten.
"I saw it..." Jimmy whispered. The wall of fire once again filled the cave, with Jimmy now front and center. The four boys outside saw an outline of a body with arms and legs splayed, in the middle of the air as if long jumping, before it was engulfed in flames. The boys ran off screaming, leaving the shoes at the entrance of the cave. The fire remained for some minutes, scorching the rocks, heat waves crawling up from the mouth of the cave all the way up to the town.
Back in the town hall, the mayor was wrapping up the meeting.
"So then it's settled! We contact Govermental Investigator tomorrow with the offer of twenty thousand dollars for complete eradication of our problem." Here he took off his hat and waved it at his face.
"Danged heat," he said. "The dragon must be acting up again."