The summer of 2013, I was glancing at the Fort Dodge newspaper in July as I came across a breaking news story, claiming there was a man found dead in a ditch a few miles west of Otho. Investigators believe that an axe was involved in the homicide of the peculiar incident. With Otho being a few miles from my own home, the thought of the crime sent shivers through my spine. The mysterious deceased body left me feeling blessed I have never had an experience like this, but made me wonder about the countless overwhelming feelings and how I would react to discovering a lifeless carcass of a human.

October rolled around; it was the week of homecoming. Every year the senior cheerleaders go to all the houses of the high school senior football players to cover their trees with toilet paper. When it was my turn to carry out this tradition, a group of girls gathered, and began to stake out our plan of action. Many of the boys lived out of town so we began our journey, left Fort Dodge behind us, and headed toward the town of Otho. After finishing throwing toilet paper on trees at the first two football player’s houses, we found ourselves venturing out towards the third. Leading us to a long gravel road west of Otho, I felt as though the dark of night was consuming us as the dust from the road smothered my vision. The heavy feeling of only being able to see what the headlights of the truck allowed us, left me wondering what the night would bring.

After what seemed like well over an hour, we arrived at our destination of an old family farm. I grabbed as many rolls of toilet paper as I could while I jumped out of the truck along with my friends. We immediately began to do our dirty work of forming canopies over the branches of the trees. While chucking rolls left and right, the eerie sound of distant horses echoed in my ears. We decided it was time to desert the scene when slight shadows were noticed from the kitchen window. We left behind our mark of thirty or more rolls of toilet paper while we backed out of the driveway and left the residence.

Speeding down the gravel road, once again the dust flying around, I witnessed a glance of what appeared to be two legs and arms connected to a face down, motionless body. Flashbacks of reading the newspaper regarding a dead person being discovered on a gravel road west of Otho began to flood my memory. Trying to think about what I just saw, the image stained my mind and the sight of red soles of a shoe stuck out like a sore thumb, confirming it was what I had feared most. The red soles appeared to be exactly the same as the ones of a student that has walked the halls of my high school, Saint Edmond, countless times. Like a knife stabbing me in the throat, I screamed to the others what I had just seen. No one else in the car had noticed what I had thought I had which made me think I was more psychotic then I felt.

I kept desperately screaming that we needed to go back, but the others were scared to death and did not know what to do, they tried to convince me there was no way it was a person, rather just a pile of dirt or a dog. Continuing to shriek at the top of my lungs, I was repeatedly yelling for someone to call 911 and the driver to turn the car around. I knew what I had seen and I began to feel damp all over, as the heat consumed my body. I couldn’t stop shouting that the person could still be alive and may need help. Every breath seemed harder than the one before.

The driver said she could not drive back so she requested that I take the driver seat and turn the vehicle around myself. I crawled over to the seat next to me and gripped the steering wheel as I trembled like an earthquake, not knowing what to think. All I could see was the image of the gravel road with a classmate lying on it. As I drove, the gravel seemed never ending and the dust was as taunting as ever making the distance seem like miles long. As the dust surrounded the car, it felt as though it was suffocating me. Gasping small amounts of air with every breath, the air began to clear and the sight of a body began to become visible, revealing two legs spread apart, with two red shoes attached at the bottom. The only motion that occurred in the truck took place from the girl in the backseat hitting send on the call to 911.

Every person was in awe and overwhelmed with shock. I kept telling myself I had to get out of the truck to confirm if the person was lifeless, but my body seemed disabled. Soon the faint voice of the operator in the background was all I could hear. Then, the person lying facedown began to rise to their feet. They began to walk toward the car. Panic overwhelmed our vehicle because everyone thought of the possibility that the person was a murderer. As the person neared us, the light eventually shown on his face, making it known that it was our classmate with a huge smile on his face.

When he opened the door and saw the mayhem we were all in, the smile quickly faded. He quickly tried to explain himself, not a single thought of the situation being a practical joke had ever crossed my mind nor anyone else’s. The girl in the backseat talking to the 911 operator quickly lied by saying that it was a misunderstanding because what we thought was a body ended up just being a large deer. They took her name and number as she apologized several times. Many emotions were running through me all at one time: anger, frustration, and shock. As relief hit me, my hands kept getting wetter and wetter each time I wiped my eyes.

Pity for the man who discovered the homicide west of Otho and all of the other people who have found dead bodies fills my mind occasionally. Whenever I hear about a new murder or dead person, I always think of the person who had the experience of finding them. The indescribable feeling of the situation is like no other. Luckily, my situation turned out for best by being a practical joke, but the thoughts of what I believed I saw when driving past a face down body still haunts me. I am so thankful for being extremely fortunate and I count my blessings everyday because I know there are many others who have not been as blessed.