Believe it or not
The thing I miss the most
Is Bald Hill Road
I loved a boy named Matt
And he lived
Off Bald Hill Road
He was a little older than me
And he lived with his aunt
Because his mom drank too much
But his aunt was always traveling
She’d go on these long train trips across the country
And once she got exiled…
Well, that was just an excuse to never come home
One day I called his house
And everyone was gone
The phone just rang and rang
A friend drove me to the house
So I could see for myself
Dark windows, no car in the driveway
No Matt
He disappeared
So when the letter came
I disappeared too
Making yourself disappear is the one magic trick
Everybody knows how to do
If I had to go back to Rhode Island
I think the hardest thing
Would be avoiding Bald Hill Road
I mean, everybody avoids Bald Hill Road
Nobody likes Bald Hill Road
But…
The night Matt disappeared
I remember making my friend drive up and down it
Over and over again
Looking out my window
As if I was going to see him
My Matt—walking alongside the road
Near the Barnes and Noble
Or the McDonald’s
Or even further down
Near the movie theaters
I kept thinking he must be here
He must be here
Because—where would he go?
Somebody like that
You worry for them
Because other kinds of people
People with choices
With opportunities
People like that disappear
And you live with it
Because you expect them to
You don’t expect them to hang around
But when it’s someone like Matt—
Someone with nowhere to go
That’s when you know
They’re gone
For good
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