Stan.

Before he answers a question, Stan taps three times with his middle finger on whatever is in front of him: the lid of a chest, the sorting counter, the metal panel on the cart, the door frame. He goes so fast that nobody manages to count the taps, and while he does it his ears swing round toward the spot he has just struck. Then he answers, and he answers short. Nobody in the crew has ever asked him why he does it and he has never asked himself either. He has been doing it since before he can remember doing it.

The sliver he lifts the rostellum with is the same one his father gave him when he was eleven. It is worn smooth by so much thumb and a little shorter than it was. He carries three more in his pocket, new, never used, and he still uses the old one. With that and whatever turns up along the way he gets through the whole season. The beanie with the skull his sister embroidered is another matter: that one does not go in any bag, that one goes on.