1. The Drive

The car is loaded with Tommy guns and provisions for the journey to the distillery. Declan tops the packing off with a satchel containing $5000 to be used in negotiations with the Carmodys.

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The drive through the Massachusetts's countryside is like driving into another country entirely. You travel down back roads and dirt tracks, even occasionally having to traverse dry creek beds to jump to the next road. The journey is difficult on the car as it bottoms out occasionally, resulting in everyone having to get out and push to get past tricky spots.

On one occasion, the car is passing through a squat settlement of two to three houses along the road into the Miskatonic Valley, about 3 miles west of the village of Dunwich. The tire catches a nasty rut and pulls the car to the side and lodges it against the bank.


Watching the accident are two men sitting on a porch. By the placement of their chairs and their ambivalent attitude, it would seem this is how these people pass the time. Casually, one of them calls out, Stuck, huh? The man who called out wears overalls and a straw hat, he has a piece of grass dangling from his lip. His cheeks are sunken with age. His friend looks like a brute of a man with a perpetual scowl and/or confusion. After the first calls his question, the brute replies simply Stuck. in response to his friend.

The old man pauses chewing on his grass for a moment as he stares at Manny. He then continues chewing and says, Can’t… too busy… The brute looks on and responds after a moment. Busy As the group looks on the two men sit quietly and stare, apparently busy with sitting and staring.

The old man lifts his chin slightly, sucking on the grass and squinting at Manny before he turns to the larger man and nods subtly. The brute stands and shows himself to be more imposing in a standing position. The man pulls some boards and a small jack from behind the bench he had been sitting on with the ease and familiarity that speaks to a regular practiced action. The brute moves to the side of the car and immediately drops to his belly as he positions boards and the jack to lift the car off of the high spot in the road. The old man stands and walks to the edge of the road where he snatches the dollars from the lawyer. The man hooks his thumbs in his overalls as he asks Where you feller’s headed?

The man looks at Lenny with one eye slightly squinted. If ye've friends in these parts, I s'pose that makes sense. The man pulls the grass out of his mouth and spits a wad of chewed green mass onto the side of the road. Though, I feel I'd be a bad man if I didn't warn you. Out here, city boys can get swallowed up real quick. There's places ye'll get stuck without good sama'tins to help. And none out here're too fond of civilized folk interruptin our day to day. He puts the grass back in his mouth and resumes chewing while the brutish man jacks the car.

There is a moment where the man stops chewing his grass and the brute laying on his belly pauses his work to look at the old man. It passes in a heartbeat as the old man smiles and continues Twern’t no threat, sir. Truth be tole there’ve been a number of people comin and goin lately down to Blackwater. More’ve em goin, then comin. Moose an I jus’ helped some university types not that long ago. Were just a word o warnin that sumfin’s keepin those that go by down there. Mebbe it’s the beauty of the Valley…

The old man smiles a gap toothed smile as Moose finishes jacking the car and pushes it forward past the high spot on the road. The old man puffs a sigh and says to the group, If yer findin yerselves comin back through here, take the car up the bank there to get around the high spot. Now that the man points it out, Lenny can see how he might have avoided the high spot in the road.

The old man and brute moved back to resume their seats on the porch. Best’f luck to yers. Moose quietly echoes Luck. The two take postures that are almost identical to how you first met them, the old man idly chewing his grass and the large man vacantly staring off into space.