Willem Listening to Jude Tell a Story, Greene Street, has such an intense effect on Jude for multiple reasons. First, and most obviously, it depicts a hyper-realistic rendering of Willem as he appeared just before he died. Second, the painting’s subject—not just Willem, but Willem listening to Jude tell him a story—gets at the heart of what was so special, painful, and irreplaceable about Willem and Jude’s relationship: Willem was the only person around whom Jude felt comfortable to divulge the secrets of his past. And seeing this uncanny rendering of Willem now, as though poised to take in all of Jude’s secrets, is a direct, unfiltered reminder of all that Jude has lost in Willem’s death, and all that he believes he’ll never experience with anyone else.