"Tim, listen!" His voice cracks. "It's not like I was--was consciously thinking, 'Yeah, wow, this condescending stranger two separate people warned me about? He's definitely the authority here.'"

Tim needs to understand. He needs to understand.

"Look, I was just gathering information. I wanted to see what he said."

That's not true, is it? He remembers drowning, hissing desperately through his teeth: Tell me what you know! Not what you think you know. What you know.

"But when he started talking about, y'know, that? Something--something went..." It wasn't all in his head. It couldn't have been. "I just went along with it. It was like I didn't get a choice. People--can't--do that."