“Justin” - Bobby the Superboy - Two Truths and A Lie - VOTE NOW!!

Justin was this kid that lived my block on the east side of St. Paul when I was in junior high. He was one of those kids that nobody ever asked to come out, but he just always seemed to be there for games of ditch and baseball and show up at barbecues and shit like that. You know the kid, every neighborhood has one, he wore hand me downs and always had crusty shit on the sides of his mouth.

He never said a whole lot, and to be honest no one ever really asked him much. Then one day, during the summer before my eighth grade year, my mom asked my brother and I if we had seen him. She told us that he had disappeared. His father, who was the only parent he lived with, called a neighborhood meeting. There were some cops there and all the parents agreed to help him put up posters and do a walking search of all the local wooded areas.

During that search Justin’s body was found in some waist-high weeds at a local nature preserve. This was the first time I’d ever known somebody my age that died. His father didn’t have a funeral though, at least not one that was listed, and my Mom didn’t allow me or my brother to leave our yard for the rest of that summer or fall. As far as I know his killer was never found.