An alternative story, that I always wonder about since childhood, The narrator helped Billy Joe fake his suicide to escape from a abusive home. They were throwing ‘evidence’ of his suicide off the bridge before he left for parts unknown. She never heard from him again and can only hoped their desperate plan worked. The abusive situation was an open secret (Momma says “nothing ever comes of no good on Chockta Ridge”) but no adult was willing to step in. Yes, I was a rather depressive kid.