One Way of Cooling Down...

Is it a heatwave? Technically not, apparently. This is because there have been brief respites from the overwhelming stretch of sunshine and sweltering temperatures. To be a true Brit you have to moan loudly about the miserable summer we've been having, so chilly... and then moan even louder when an open window produces no respite; bus or tube travel is devoid of oxygen; tarmacadam on the roads caramelizes before it disintegrates and train rails buckle and bend.
As I took the train to Milton Keynes on Friday, a much cooler, fresher day, it was the latter that came to mind. It is almost twenty years to the day that there was a serious rail crash at Watford Junction.
Our son was thirteen at the time and was intent on doing a project on the Paranormal for his Year 8 project. At that time there was a great deal of Buffy, Moulder and Sculley, going on in this house. Body-snatching was a routine experience. (Shame I ended up with this one..)
In the local newspaper, there was an article about an artist who claimed he foresaw future disasters. He would dream about them, then draw them and photograph his picture next to a clock in a Bank to give veracity to the time and date. The Watford rail crash was one he had recorded in this manner. The authorities whom he contacted in advance of the event were dismissive, and his warning ignored.
I thought it would be a great idea for the project-writer to contact this gentleman and interview him.
This was what we did. I supplied a cream tea and a tape recorder and he duly arrived with examples of his work.
There, in front of us, was a picture of the crashed train and he pointed out a red-haired lady who was the one fatality. We listened to  his experiences, rapt, and astounded  by the ordinary way in which he spoke of his second sight. This would certainly put some oomph into an arguably ordinary schoolboy project. And pictures too!
A few years later as I did a school pick-up I saw my son speaking to a red-haired lad at the school gate. As he got in the car, he said that he was the boy who'd lost his mother in the rail crash. The lady in the picture we'd seen, also had had red hair.
It was a very hot summer's day but I shivered.