It is a very hot day today - we spent a little while in Brian's Lilycrest Hybridizing field digging up some nice daylilies. So I looked up the words "August Heat" and got this synopsis of a short story, written in 1910 by W. F. Harvey:
On a scorching August day, artist James Clarence Withencroft draws a sketch of a criminal in the dock immediately after the judge has given him a sentence. That evening, Withencroft goes for a walk and wanders into the workshop of a stonemason, Charles Atkinson. To his surprise, Atkinson exactly resembles the criminal in the sketch he is carrying in his pocket. Both men are shocked to discover that the model headstone Atkinson has just finished carving bears Withencroft's full name, his date of birth, and that very day as the date of his death.
The two men are unnerved and agree that, for the sake of safety, Withencroft should stay at Atkinson's place until midnight has passed and the date changed. The story ends with Withencroft writing the day's events as Atkinson sharpens some tools: "It is after eleven now. I shall be gone in less than an hour. But the heat is stifling. It is enough to send a man mad."
And that's the last line. You can read the short story HERE.
So far my hot August day is just a hot day.
I've visited a numerous cemeteries, looking for interesting headstones with carvings. Here's one that seemed a bi unusual with the leaf obscuring the name.
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