Jude is my only friend here apart from my mother and my grandfather. But Jude is my best friend and no one ever bothers me when I am with him. Still, I must be careful because Jude is two people. He is a tender sailor whose hands seem too rough and large for the delicate way he makes me feel watched over. But he keeps this version of himself locked behind his ribcage until he sees me. The rest of the time he is somebody else. He is a man who lives here and so fills his mouth with all the cheap and garbled words in this town.
