Presenting: A Josh Crowley Original Series

Lately I've been thinking about how the name of this blog is Creative Corner, and none of my posts are really that creative. Usually when I write, the most creative things I can think to write about are: Soccer, Waterskiing, and BYU football, as you can already see from my previous posts. I'm going to make a valiant attempt to get you, my readers, and the rest of America hooked on an original Josh Çrowley series. No really, I'll do my best, but I do not profess to be a great writer, so bear with me as I venture off into the world of creative twists and turns, in what will probably turn out to be a pretty cliche, boring story.

Rick Somner opened his front door and inhaled deeply the pre-storm air.

"Perfect timing" he thought. He slipped on a sweatshirt and some just-a-little-too-short shorts, in hopes that Kylie, his incredibly attractive next-door neighbor might glance out the window as he went running in the lukewarm rain.

He stepped out the door and felt the first raindrops fall on his nose and eyelashes,

"Why do I love this so much?" he questioned. For as long as he could remember he had loved running through the cemetary in the cool, thick fall air of a rainstorm. It had something to do with the heavy, wet-asphault smell and the leaves that fell as he jogged by.

As he jogged through the cemetary, he thought about life. He was about ready to start dating, enjoyed school, and could appreciate things most teenagers didn't. He had worked for the first time over the summer and was still enjoying the all-powerful feeling of his strengthened muscles. He loved sports and had a real passion for soccer, (see, this is already becoming a narrative about my life) and felt that soccer in a way defined him. It was unique, fascinating, and took a completely different mindset from most other sports. Yet it was so simple, put the ball in the goal.

As he rounded his lap around the cemetary, he crossed the street and grabbed a ball from his backyard. He lifted the ball to his face and, for a second, just stood and smelled the ball and the grass and the rain.

Back in the cemetary, he took a couple juggles of the ball and then let it drop. He envisioned his opponent and took a touch forward, he faked right and went left, popped the ball up with his foot going full speed now, took a touch off his thigh and WHAM! he smashed the ball into the vine-covered fence, across the cemetary.

"Hey! You're going to put a whole in my fence you little terd! You about gave me heart attack and I'll call the cops on you if you ever slam a ball into my fence again!" said an old voice behind the vines.

"I'm so sorry!" Rick replied, scared half to death.

"Ya you better be" replied the old man.

Rick scampered off, both wishing he hadn't kicked the ball and cursing the old man under his breath.

"It's a freakin' chain-link fence" he thought "I mean, I can see that I scared him, but come on! What a loser." As he gave the incident more thought than it deserved, he noticed a plywood board laying in an empty part of the cemetary.

"That's weird" he thought, he had seen that done before, when a funeral got delayed a couple of hours on a rainy day. He had assumed at the time that they just didn't want the soil muddy. But today, it was already 5:00, they wouldn't be doing a funeral tonight.

"It must have been planned for today, but postponed till tomorrow" he figured. "Wait a minute, tomorrow is Sunday, surely there won't be a funeral tomorrow." Out of curiosity, he went and lifted up the plywood to see if there was anything underneath. His heart stopped at what he saw at the bottom of the hole.

A knife and a picture.