Douglas Duddits Cavell was a supposedly retarded boy, rescued by four boys during his childhood in Derry, Maine. But when he granted them supernatural powers, it became apparent that he wasn't like anybody else at all. When Gary Jones (as an adult) is struck down and nearly killed by a speeding car, he sees an apparition of the young Duddits from his childhood, which smiles and says watch out for Mr Grey! Later on, in a flashback, Duddits is confused as having said save the world another day when he in fact asks save the world from Mr Grey? When the aliens crash land on the Jefferson Tract, Jonesy is possessed by an alien lifeform that takes on the mantle of Mr Grey, and so everything begins to come together. All out of options, Henry and Owen visit Duddits at his home to ask for his help, when they discover that he is dying of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (Leukemia).It is played out like this is Duddits' calling, to go out saving the world. In the movie, it turns out that he was a benevolent alien sent to Earth to protect it from Mr Grey, which was why he granted the boys' powers. In the novel, however, as Duddits is the literal Dreamcatcher that bonds the friends together, it is he that grants them the power to kill Mr Grey, save Jonesy and save the world, and gives his life in that one final act. Show less «