Minutes of the Lovecraft Studies Institute (# 6, Part 2) [Cthulhu]

PATRICK: It's getting late by the time the group finally arrives in Dunwich, and everyone is cold and tired. After the Bicks help unload gear, they immediately set off for Aylesbury (they're kind enough to take the orphaned girl with them back to Aylesbury, where they've promised to notify the authorities of what happened at the farmhouse). Their former passengers are left standing in the middle of a dirt road in front of a run-down building (clearly an old church) that has a homemade sign "Osborn's General Store" nailed to it. The store is closed, but the proprietor, one Joe Osborn, seems friendly enough and suggests several residents who have rooms to let. With only minor difficulty, arrangements are made: Dr. Konig will be staying in a room let by "Widow Morgan", a somewhat lascivious older woman; Wanjiku and Barnabus stay with the Ames family, a younger couple and their teenage son; and Symmes and Warren are put up (in separate rooms, of course) with the Jacksons, devout followers of a certain Minister Simon Teeples. Symmes remains enmeshed in his book, but seems to be nearing the end of that particular tome . . .

JOSHI: I was intrigued by Lovecraft's depiction of the villagers the protagonists speak to that night and the next morning. They seem, for the most part, reasonably polite and even helpful. Exceptions clearly exist, but I must confess the village seems underwhelming compared to the image evoked in one's mind by the constant warnings the protagonists received in Aylesbury about dangerous, "backwards" Dunwich. Can these differing portraits be reconciled?

CANNON: I agree with you, Joshi. Lovecraft carefully paints a picture of a village gradually falling into decay and ruin: lots overgrown with weeds, abandoned houses with broken windows, trash heaps in every backyard, rutted dirt roads, and the persistent smell of mold and decay. One expects something out of Deliverance, with backwoods local yokels suspicious of "yankees" and "foreigners". Instead, the protagonists encounter . . . cooperation. Dr. Konig learns from Widow Morgan that the missing Sister Francesca Olivetti boarded at the house during her stay in Dunwich, and was seen with all sorts of digging and climbing equipment; Ellen Hobbes, another local, reveals that Gabriel Knight and Basil Bathingwaite stayed in her house, until Bathingwaite received a phone call from New Orleans and left suddenly (Knight disappearing sometime later); Joe Osborn confirms the sale of tools, and is quite willing to help the protagonists purchase some of their own; and even Squire Whateley reluctantly consents to an interview with Scarlett Warren on the subject of underground caverns in Dunwich (in which she learns of two possible entrances, one on the Prescott farm and the other on the abandoned former estate of the now-dead Wilbur Whateley).

KING: I think Lovecraft is lulling the reader into a sense of complacency; if the villagers of Dunwich seem too nice, it might mean there's a reason for their behavior--one the protagonists aren't going to like! But in any event, it's not like they've received a welcome gift from the chamber of commerce. The local constable, Tristram Whateley, chews Warren out and strongly "suggests" she and the others leave. Worse, Warren and the others hear tell of the Potter boys, a vicious trio of brothers as likely to shoot a visitor as ask him in for tea. Near the end of the chapter, Gallowsong and Warren are forced to leap into a ditch to avoid being run down by a truck driven, no doubt, by the Potter boys. The boys' reckless driving runs another car off the road, which turns out to contain Dr. Littlestreet and his graduate assistant, Malcolm. Fortunately, they're unharmed in the crash, even if their vehicle will have to be towed out of the ditch.

PATRICK: Well, the chapter ends on an exciting note. The investigators have purchased spelunking equipment and plan to enter the foreboding caverns underneath Dunwich, hoping to find Sister Olivetti alive. Next time, I'm guessing we'll learn exactly what Lovecraft has in store for them down there.

KING: And I'd wager it won't be anything good . . .

MOTION TO ADJOURN [UNANIMOUS].