The summer of 2023 was a hot and humid one. The temperature soared to record highs, and the air was thick with the hum of cicadas and the buzz of wasps. As the days passed, the heat only seemed to intensify, and with it, the wasps became more and more aggressive.
It was on a particularly sweltering day that the wasps met their demise. A group of children had been playing in the park, running through the sprinklers and trying to cool off in any way they could. As they ran past a wasp's nest, one of the wasps flew out and sting one of the children. The child cried out in pain, and in retaliation, the other children grabbed sticks and started beating the nest, trying to destroy it and the wasps inside.
As they struck the nest, the wasps flew out in a frenzy, their wings a blur of motion as they tried to defend themselves. But it was no use. The children were too many, and the wasps were too weak from the heat. One by one, they fell to the ground, their tiny bodies writhing in the grass.
As the last of the wasps lay dying, the children stood panting and sweaty, the sticks in their hands slick with the wasps' venom. They looked at each other, a mix of guilt and triumph in their eyes, and then they turned and ran, leaving the wasps behind.
The wasps lay there, their bodies still and silent, as the sun beat down on them and the grass around them turned brown and dry. They had drowned in the heat, their lives snuffed out by the relentless summer sun. And as the days passed and the heat wave finally broke, the wasps' bodies were forgotten, a small, tragic footnote in the long, hot summer of 2023.
