Interlude (Rodney Lake)
Hudson begins questioning Rod after emerging from the basement. Rod appears badly rattled, traumatized and injured . . . he stumbles and holds himself up only by hanging desperately onto Hudson’s shoulder.
Though coherent, he struggles to keep a steady train of thought, he answers questions in a generally unresponsive manner and continuously makes frantic, non-sensical and absurd statements: “They control everything Hudson! Even the Sun is round!!”
In a shattered whisper, he insists: “Hastur is coming.”
Hudson questions him: “Rod, did you have anything to do with what’s under our house? Did you get the book? Do you know a ‘John Q. Publius’? Did you know anything about a spider creature? Who are the blue clowns? Who are ‘they’ that control everything? Where have you been these past weeks?
Rod, tries his best to respond: “Book?” [confusedly] “John . . . yes . . . yes, John knows everything. J-John’s handling everything.” Regarding the spiders: “Don’t wake them” [in a whisper]. In response to the clowns: “They’re following us Hudson.” And, in disclosure of where he’s been these past weeks: “Edgewater.”
Finally, in response to Hudson’s question of who it is that controls everything, Rod can only respond:
Though the man looks too far gone to provide much else, Hudson tries for a little more: “Brother, why did you want me to wear that hat at the game? What was the blue paint under our house?”
To these, Rod only responds about the hat: “To protect you,” and, regarding the blue paint: “They knew that I knew.”
Then, while standing and listening, something occurs to Dr. Madison, who then interjects with a question of his own: “Rodney, are you an Explorer?”
Rod then slowly turns to meet Madison’s eyes responding calmly, “No . . . by the time I understood . . . it was already too late.”
