“Jonah told me that he could talk to ghosts.”

June 11, 2022 4:07 AM

Jonah disappeared in the early 2000s. When I say disappeared, I mean vanished: No sightings, no social media, no work history, no criminal record, no glimpses of him in the background of a party photo. His family went to great lengths to find him; they found nothing. I have been searching for the past five years, on and off; what I haven’t tried, they tried first.

Rage USA is an essay by Jude Doyle about their high school friend who vanished, and what it’s like to live and grow up queer in the US, and is a part of their Twelve Genders, Full Moon Mixtape series.
posted by Kattullus (9 comments total)

wow. thank you for sharing this.
posted by kokaku at 5:29 AM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

That is a great essay, thank you for posting. Reading it makes me hope that their friend is out there living life, doing well, under an entirely new identity, but that seems sadly unlikely.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:48 AM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Oh, this broke my heart. What a powerful essay.
posted by MarianHalcombe at 9:42 AM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

That was beautiful. Thanks for posting.
posted by bleep at 1:00 PM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

This is almost certainly the best thing Jude's ever written.
posted by babelfish at 1:03 PM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Yes. Really beautiful essay. Jonah, if you're out there, please get in touch with Jude at least to say you're OK. He misses you.
posted by potrzebie at 2:12 PM on June 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

Beautifully heartbreaking. I'm so glad I read it. Even though it brought tears to my eyes.
posted by annieb at 4:18 PM on June 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

This hit me really hard. Does anyone know if what he said about people disappearing obviously not being safe is... True-ish? Or does it only apply to professionals searching, with their specialist resources?

Because I have a dear, beloved friend who decided ten odd years ago that they didn't want to speak to me any more. Cut off cold. And it broke my heart but I can respect that, but now every so often I just want to know they're okay. And so I search for them online, but there's no trace. Surely that's not so unusual.... Right?
posted by stillnocturnal at 2:56 AM on June 12, 2022 [2 favorites]

I made a comment yesterday saying how much I loved this essay and I fucked it up. I misspelled the authors name. And in doing so I misgendered the author. I apologize to Jude Doyle and to anyone else. I am very sorry. I would never intentionally misgender anyone.
posted by shmurley at 11:29 AM on June 12, 2022 [4 favorites]