Jud

"El Gallo?" Jud demanded, not expecting him to be back so soon.

The man in the smokehouse turned to face him. "Who's El Gallo?" Curly asked, calm as anything.

"Uh, I buy postcards from him sometimes" Jud mumbled, not liking already being at a disadvantage in his own house. "What do you want? Ain't got nothin' to sell you."

"Just wanted to talk." Curly sat down on one of the mismatched chairs.

"Don't reckon we got much to talk about."

"You really takin' Laurey to the social?"

"Yeah, we're goin' together. Got a right to take her, don't I?"

"Well, uh, sure. I just wouldn't want you gettin' too used to the idea."

Jud swallowed the scream in his throat and sat across from him, leaning forward just enough to show he wasn't intimidated, wasn't going to back down. "How do you mean, friend?"

"I understand why she's started to get a little sweet on you. Any girl would. But it ain't gonna last, not once she finds out what kind of man you are."

Jud scoffed, trying to sound nonchalant. "Reckon Laurey knows what kinda man I am. We've been spendin' enough time together lately." He considered elaborating, implying at all sorts of improprieties, but figured word would get back to her if he gave any details.

Curly clenched his jaw, clearly mulling over the implications on his own. "She know about your friend, this, uh, El Gallo feller?"

"Ain't none of your business." Jud shot back, wanting to get off the topic of El Gallo as fast as possible. He'd been so stupid to say the name out loud, but at least Laurey couldn't associate the name with what had happened to her.

"Tell me, has Laurey started wonderin' what you were doin' outside the window? Me and Aunt Eller were wonderin' about the other day."

"Got a bad feelin', that's all. Wanted to make sure she was safe."

"You get a bad feelin' like that often? Have to look in Laurey's window a lot at night? 'Specially when she's gettin' undressed? She told me you do that. Told me a lot of things about you. Might've forgot 'em right now, but I remember, and soon she's gonna remember too. Can't be the hero forever. She's gonna remember and she's gonna come back to me."

Jud couldn't take any more. He stood up and pounded his fists on the table. "You better leave right now, cowboy. You get out right now, 'fore I blow your fuckin' head off." He pulled out his Colt .45, barely able to stop himself from pulling the trigger. Curly stood up slowly, maddeningly calm.

"Yeah, I'll leave. Said everythin' I had to anyway. 'Least now I'm sure of what kinda man you are."

Jud watched him go, then banged his fist against the wall, taking shallow, stuttering breaths. Eventually, he did the only thing that ever made him feel better, thinking about Laurey. He didn't want to tell her what had happened, didn't want her to confront Curly and have some of those questions of his put in her head again. But he could let himself imagine her response. "C'mon, Jud, you know he's just jealous. No way some smart-alecky cowboy can compare with you. Just tryin' to get a rise out of you, get you mad. But you're better'n he is, and he knows it. Everybody knows it."

Soothed, he sat on his bed, instinctively reaching for his postcards, letting the smiles of the girls reassure him further, until he drifted off to sleep.