In the Heat of the Night

by Louisa Adjoa Parker (Weymouth)

They move to the town to start again, after sticking a pin in a map to decide where to go. They arrive in a November storm; afterwards it rains for a month. One night, a year later, heaters are left on to dry paint in the red-brick church across the road.

Something wakes her. She opens her eyes to find the room is glowing. Her son shouts from the other room, ‘Look outside, Mum!’ She moves to the window, half-sleeping, and pulls the flowered curtain back. The street has turned orange.

Police and fire-fighters swarm like flies up and down the road. They are banging on doors, telling the residents to get out and run. She and her son run outside into the unexpected heat of the night. Fire engines with yellow hoses spray water.

She hitches her white nightdress up around her legs, not seeing the snapping journalists. She doesn’t yet know that she will become front page news, running for her life when she should have been sleeping.

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What Louisa Adjoa Parker says about In the Heat of the Night:

Inspired by talking to Jennie, who moved to Weymouth to get away from problems in Wiltshire.