Joe 4

There are five characters in the fictions identified only as "Joe." This one has the most significant role to play as the unlikely agent of justice in "Hand upon the Waters." He is “a man not large, but with tremendous arms and shoulders; an adult, yet with something childlike about him” (68). Like Lonnie Grinnup, Joe has severe mental disabilities, being “deaf and dumb” (68). Joe, an “orphan” (70, 71), was “adopted” by Lonnie Grinnup, and he remains fiercely loyal to Lonnie after Lonnie's death.