where the kitchen would be, he found the trapdoor, but when he tried to push it open, it wouldn’t budge. He tried again, ramming it with his shoulder. Someone had nailed it shut.
How had he gotten so off course? It wasn’t Tory Ventura he wanted to punish. Jude sat panting in the dirt. Tory wasn’t the one who’d killed Teddy. He dug his fingers into the cool dirt. He clawed at it, the dirt coating his hands, rimming his fingernails, his tears coming in heaves, burning his face. He wiped a muddy track of snot across his cheek.
When Jude returned home, worn-out, filthy, there was no sign of anyone, but he was quiet anyway, treading softly up the stairs. He washed his hands and his face. Then he went to his sister’s room and tapped on the door. No answer. Slowly he pushed it open.
What day was it? Sunday? Monday? The bed was unmade, sheets spilling in a spiral to the floor. And what was that smell? On the floor were a pair of jeans, a pair of shoes, a towel. It took Jude a moment to realize that the things were not his sister’s, but Eliza’s. Did he smell pot?
He rifled through Prudence’s backpack hanging on the chair and the first few drawers of her dresser before he thought to check the fire escape. As he crossed the room, he thought of something Eliza had told him once. The second time she was kicked out of school, when she was caught with drugs in the pool, she had been alone. This had depressed Jude greatly. Before that, he had imagined that she’d been partying with friends, maybe skinny-dipping, maybe with a guy. Now he pictured her floating on her back in the Olympic-size pool, at sea.
He found her behind the curtain, on the other side of the open window, wearing a pair of acid-washed cutoffs, a polka-dot bikini top, her white-framed sunglasses, and her headphones. A sun-darkened line orbited the planet of her belly, plunging south from her navel. She was smoking a joint in the early summer sun, and on her face drifted an expression of overdue bliss.
Sixteen
ON THE EDGE
XXX Fanzine XXX
FALL 1988, 2.50$
Interview with Jude Green and Mr. Clean of the Green Mountain Boys
ON THE EDGE: Your new seven inch [Army of Four] is totally hard. My favorite song is “Str8 or Die.”
MR. CLEAN: Thanks man.
JUDE GREEN: We all worked on that one.
OTE: What are you guys up to now?
JG: We’ve been touring all up and down the coast this summer. We were in New York for a little bit, we played a matinee with Youth of Today and Uniform Choice and Army of One at CB’s, that was a beautiful experience.
OTE: Your songs seem to promote a pretty strict straight edge lifestyle. And I heard about the fight at 9:30. Would you say your intolerant of other hardcore bands and fans that aren’t straight?
MC: No were certainly not intolerant. Were friends with some guys who are straight and some who aren’t. Were about inclusion, not exclusion. Yes there have been fights but there sort of typical. The thing at CB’s was just one of those things where some guy kicks you in the face and there was good-natured dancing and Kram just gets sort of sensitive. Well you’ve seen Kram, he’s our drummer, you don’t want to mess with him.
OTE: Do you think the incident contributed to the rumors about closing down the hardcore matinees?
JG: That’s not going to happen. Let’s face it the scene will never be without violence. If some guy isn’t respectful of us and he’s blowing smoke in our faces and that’s only happened two or three times, yeah, there will be some shit going down. Look at our song “Blowing Smoke.” I mean frankly you should know better than to start shit with us.
OTE: When did you start going by Jude Green?
JG: That started I think at CB’s, too, sort of as a joke you know like Kevin Seconds of 7 Seconds, but it stuck.
MC: Its not like I call him Jude Green or anything.
OTE: And how’d you get your name, Mr. Clean?
MC: Yea, some guys started that when I shaved my head. But I’m not really into nicknames. The way I look at it is, the atman in all of us is a pure force, without ego.
OTE: Is that Krishna consciousness or something?
JG: Yea, you know, like Ray Cappo’s into.
MC: Krishna isn’t a trend. He’s the Supreme Godhead, is the