Death on White Oak Road

White Oak Road was an extremely beautiful road. The trees were immense and their leaves were a perfect shade of green. The sidewalk was not cracked or uneven, unlike the other streets in their development. All of the people who lived on this street had some things in common. They all kept their lawns green as the same shade of the trees. The outer appearances of the houses were well kept as if the house were their child. Different neighbors contributed to the elegance of White Oak Road. However, one front yard of a house was just magnificent. A couple of houses from the intersection of White Oak Road and 13th street, the owner of a little red house planted various flowers. From towering sunflowers to petite roses, the house was a sight to see.

In the fall and winter, the intersection was never anymore quieter. Cars started disappearing from the roads. The green leaves from the tree transformed into yellow and orange ones. The spring and summertime flowers began to withered and died. The mosquitoes and flies sense the changes in the community and sped off somewhere or just died quietly. Joggers stopped jogging and bikers stopped riding. White Oak Road seemed to slow down.

Spring was the welcoming celebration of heat and the close arrival of summer. The trees started growing the perfect leaves they had lost last fall. The cars began speeding down the road once more. Flowers started blooming again with bees and humming birds appreciating spring. Joggers resumed jogging and bikers started biking. White Oak Road became alive once more.

Summer was the busiest of all times at the intersection of White Oak Road and 13th street. Cars were piled at the intersection with angry drivers honking horns and swearing at others. Other insects started joining the busy little bees. Mosquitoes started biting and sucking their victim’s blood. Wasps buzzed and stung the innocent.

White Oak Road and 13th Street both had a pleasant aroma. Not the smell of one of those plug-ins, but the smell that those plug-ins try to imamate. Despite the huge amount of cars that used the intersection during the summertime, it still smell like a meadow, fresh flowers and the breathe taking breeze that went along with it. The people who manufacture those plug-ins never had been on the intersection. If they had, they knew they would never capture that unique smell.

13th Street was the busy intersection, not White Oak Road. Very few cars come down that road. As a result, the kids who lived on the street played in the street. One day they would play baseball, being careful so they ball would not break someone’s window. Then, the next day they would be playing tag. The kids hid under cars, climbed trees, and had various other hiding spots. The many games they played last for hours. No child said that there was nothing to do.

The neighbors were friendly to each other. When the street was blocked off for the day, there was a street party. One neighbor on that street would become that year’s coordinator. Everyone on that street would attend the party and contributed, whether it was money, food, or party supplies. Nobody was left out. For the kids, it was just another day for them. The adults discuss their jobs and their personal lives, while the elderly gossiped about people on the street. Everyone always have a good time.

But there were secrets. Terrible secrets that none of the neighbors knew. Well, at least most of the neighbors did not know.

It was a pleasant day in May. The street had its usual street party like it does every year. The kids played harder, the adults shared more, and the old people chatter their heads off. All of a sudden, the exotic scent in the air disappeared. A fowl stench filled the air. The kids smelled it first. They blamed each other for passing gas or not taking a shower. The elderly were next. The stench was stealthily inhaled and elderly made new rumors of who it could likely be. The adults finally meet the smell. The adults described it as an “indescribable” odor. They fanned out to try and find the source of the odor. One neighbor found the source. A rain storm drain smelled ten times as foul as the stench which had spread throughout the development now. The coordinator of the party called the City Office.

Workers from the city checked out the sewer about a half an hour later. The party ended early. There was no use of partying if it smelled bad outside. While the workers tried to find the problem, neighbors cleaned up. After the clean-up, most of the neighbors went inside of their homes, escaping the smell. The rest of the neighbors stood outside, holding their noses. The workers finally found the problem. They pulled out a corpse from the sewer.