Storm of the Century

And Kirk helped . . . didn't you? Of course you did after all, what are friends for?

(back to JOHNNY)

Seventy men lost their jobs, but you got your payback, and that's what matters, isn't it?

Ayuh shoah, deah!

ISLANDERS are staring at JOHNNY as if they have never seen him before . . . and at KIRK.

JOHNNY shrinks under that gaze until he's about a foot high.

KIRK

(to JOHNNY) There now, you dope. Lookit the trouble you got us into!

JOHNNY Shut up!

KIRK does, but it's too late. Smiling, LINOGE walks on toward the stage. Each person he looks at cringes like an oft-kicked dog. No eye will meet his. Every ISLANDER hopes LINOGE will not stop and speak to him or her, as he did to STAN and JOHNNY HARRIMAN.

LINOGE stops one more time, when he reaches JACK CARVER. JACK is sitting flanked by the two men LINOGE also mentioned in connection with the assault on the young gay man. JACK looks up quickly at LINOGE, then looks away. ALEX HABER and LUCIEN FOURNIER are equally uncomfortable.

LINOGE

You boys really ought to go see that gay fellow you beat up. You'd get a kick out of the eye patch he wears. That paisley eye patch.

235

318 STEPHEN KING

84 INTERIOR: ANGIE CARVER.

Frowning, curious. What is LINOGE saying about her husband . . . that he beat someone up?

JACK wouldn't do something like that. Would he?

85 INTERIOR: RESUME CENTER AISLE OF TOWN MEETING HALL.

Shut up.

JACK (hardly more than a whisper)

LINOGE

Fellow's in one of those walk-ups on Canal Street, right behind Lisbon. I could give you the address. I don't know, maybe the three of you would like to take away the rest of his light. What do you think, Lucien, want to poke out his other eye? Finish the job?

(LUCIEN looks down, says nothing) Alex?

(ALEX is also mum) Born in sin, come on in.

LINOGE leaves them, walking toward the front of the hall again.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 319

86 INTERIOR: ROBBIE BEALS.

He's standing between his little town-manager's table and the stage, face still running with sweat, the collar of his shirt now drenched, as well. He is seeing: 87 INTERIOR: THE MEETING HALL, FROM ROBBIE'S POINT OF VIEW.

Coming slowly up the aisle to the stage, still wearing the hospital johnny, her wild white hair spraying out all around her head, is the FALSE MOTHER. It's still LINOGE, of course, and he's still clutching the wolfs head cane.

FALSE MOTHER

Robbie, why did I have to die among strangers? You still haven't explained that. Why did I have to die calling for you? All I wanted was a kiss

88 INTERIOR: THE MEETING HALL, ANGLE ON THE STAGE.

As LINOGE (he is LINOGE, in this shot) approaches, ROBBIE yanks the pistol from his pocket and points it at him.

ROBBIE Stay away! I'm warning you, stay back!

LINOGE Oh, put that down.

ROBBIE'S hand opens. We can see him struggling to keep this from happening, but it's as though a bigger hand one we can't quite see has grabbed his and is bending the fingers back one by one. The pistol THUMPS TO THE STAGE FLOOR just as LINOGE mounts the stairs at center stage.

89 INTERIOR: THE FRONT OF THE STAGE, FROM ROBBIE'S POINT OF VIEW.

It's the FALSE MOTHER mounting those steps, with the hospital johnny flapping around her scrawny body. She points the tip of the cane at ROBBIE; her rheumy old eyes FLASH

MALEVOLENTLY.

FALSE MOTHER

236

Why don't you tell these people where you were and what you were doing when I died, Robbie? I think your wife would be especially interested, don't you?

320 STEPHEN KING

90 INTERIOR: ANGLE ON ROBBIE, LINOGE, AND THE FIRST FEW ROWS

BELOW.

ROBBIE

You keep your mouth shut! Sandra, don't listen to him! It's all lies!

SANDRA BEALS, puzzled and afraid, starts to get up. URSULA seizes her wrist and gets her to sit down again.

On stage, LINOGE reaches one hand out toward ROBBIE'S face, clutching with the fingertips.

LINOGE

Your eyes . . .

91 INTERIOR: THE FALSE MOTHER, FROM ROBBIE'S POINT OF VIEW.

FALSE MOTHER 111 eat your eyes right out of your head . . .

The bony old hand not holding the cane continues to make CLUTCHING GESTURES.

92 INTERIOR: THE STAGE.

ROBBIE stumbles backward, trips over his own feet, and FALLS DOWN. He skitters backward from LINOGE/MOM on his butt, pushing with his feet, finishing up crouched beneath his own small town-manager's table. There he stops, GIBBERING SOFTLY. His gun lies forgotten on the stage some five feet away.

The ISLANDERS MURMUR, FRIGHTENED, as LINOGE steps behind the podium and grips its sides like a confident politician about to orate.

LINOGE

Not to worry, folks he'll recuperate just fine, I'm sure. And in the meantime, it's sort of nice to have him under the table instead of pounding on it, wouldn't you say? Sort of restful. Come on. Tell the truth . . .

(he pauses; smiles) . . . and shame the devil.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 321 They look at him silently, fearfully. He looks back, smiling.

LINOGE

So now we come to it, don't we? I'll lay things out for you, then go downstairs and wait for you to take your decision.

93 INTERIOR: THE ISLANDERS.

SONNY BRAUTIGAN stands. He's scared but determined to speak.

SONNY

Why did you come here? Why us?

94 INTERIOR: MIKE AND MOLLY, CLOSE-UP.

V MIKE

237

(low; almost to himself) I guess there's just something about us that pisses him off.

MOLLY takes his hand. MIKE folds his fingers over hers, raises her hand to his cheek, and rubs it there, taking comfort from her touch.

95 INTERIOR: ANGLE ON THE STAGE AND THE HALL, FEATURES LINOGE

LINOGE

I'm here because island folks know how to pull together for the common good when they need to

... and island folks know how to keep a secret. That was true on Roanoke Island in 1587, and it's true on Little Tall in 1989.

HATCH

(stands) Tell us. Quit dancing around it. Tell us what you want.

HATCH sits down. LINOGE stands at the podium with his head bent, as if in thought. The ISLANDERS wait breathlessly for him to go on. Outside, the WIND MOANS. At last, the stranger raises his head and looks at his audience.

LINOGE

Your children are here with you . . . but they're not. It's the same with me, because part of me is with them.

322 STEPHEN KING

He points to his right, where the room's outer wall is lined with windows. On a nice day, these would give a western view of the slope that runs down to the docks, the reach, and the mainland.

Now the windows are DARK . . . except when LINOGE raises his other hand and points the wolf's head of his cane in that direction.

The windows fill with BRIGHT BLUE LIGHT. The ISLANDERS murmur in FEAR and WONDER.

Several of them actually shade their eyes.

LINOGE Look!

THE CAMERA MOVES IN on the center window. We see BLUE SKY ... we see the CLOUDS BELOW

... we see what could be a V-formation of birds (ducks, perhaps?) winging their way above the clouds. Except those aren't ducks or geese . . . those are . . . are . . .

96 INTERIOR: THE "KIDS' CORNER" OF THE MEETING HALL.

ANDY ROBICHAUX lurches to his feet, eyes never leaving the GLOWING WINDOWS. His face is filled with dismay.

ANDY

Harry . . . oh, my God, that's Harry!

He looks wildly at his sleeping son, reassuring himself that the boy hasn't disappeared, then back at the image in the window. And now ANGIE gets to her feet beside him.

ANGIE

(screams) Buster! Jack, that's Buster!

97 INTERIOR: LINOGE, CLOSE-UP.

LINOGE That's all of them.

98 EXTERIOR: LINOGE AND THE CHILDREN, FLYING DAY.

238

LINOGE is in the lead as he was before, just behind the FLYING CANE. He is holding hands with PIPPA and RALPHIE as before, and

STORM OF THE CENTURY 323

the other kids string out behind them, making that V. The kids are laughing, happy, TOTALLY

BLISSED OUT. Until

LINOGE (voice) And if I drop them there

I '

LINOGE opens his hands, letting go of RALPHIE and PIPPA. Their expressions of happiness immediately turn to terror. SHRIEKING, unlinking from each other, the EIGHT CHILDREN tumble downward and are swallowed in the floor of clouds beneath them.

99 INTERIOR: LINOGE, CLOSE-UP.

LINOGE they die here.

100 INTERIOR: RESUME STAGE AND AUDIENCE, FEATURING LINOGE.

LINOGE lowers his cane, and the BRIGHT BLUE LIGHT leaves the windows; they FADE TO BLACK.

The ISLANDERS are terribly shaken by what they have seen. None, quite understandably, are more shaken than the parents.

LINOGE

You'll see it happen. They'll puff out . . .

He turns slightly to his left, PUFFS WITH HIS LIPS, and several candles (eight, in fact) mounted along the wall GO OUT.

LINOGE

(smiling, continues) . . . like candles in the wind.

URSULA GODSOE totters to her feet. Her once-pretty face is now battered and twisted with grief.

She sways and almost falls. MELINDA HATCHER rises and steadies her. URSULA pleads with all her heart.

URSULA

(through tears)

Please don't hurt my Sally, mister. She's all I got left, now that Peter's gone. We'll give you what you want, if we have it to give. I swear we will. Won't we?

324 STEPHEN KING

101 INTERIOR: TOWN HALL MONTAGE.

CAT WITHERS . . . SONNY . . . BELLA BISSONETTE . . . JENNA FREEMAN . . . JACK, LUCIEN, and ALEX HABER in a guilty little huddle . . . they all nod and MURMUR AGREEMENT. Yes, they will give LINOGE what he wants. They are ready to do that.

102 INTERIOR: THE FRONT ROW.

HATCH

(stands beside his wife) What is it? Tell us.

239

103 INTERIOR: RESUME STAGE AND AUDIENCE, FEATURING LINOGE.

LINOGE

I've lived a long time thousands of years but I'm not a god, nor am I one of the immortals.

LINOGE holds his cane in the middle, raises it above his head, then brings it down horizontally in front of his face. A faint shadow, thrown by CANDLELIGHT, crosses his face from the forehead down.

As it does, the strong and handsome features of a man in early middle age CHANGE . . . AGE.

LINOGE'S face becomes the lined and sagging countenance of a man who is not just old but ANCIENT. The eyes peer out of sagging sockets and from beneath puffy eyelids.

The AUDIENCE GASPS AND MURMURS. Once more, the director will intercut the faces he wants, getting reactions. We see ANDY ROBICHAUX, for instance, sitting beside his son, holding and stroking the boy's small hand.

LINOGE So you see me as I really am. Old. And sick. Dying, in fact.

LINOGE raises his cane again, and as the shadow goes back up, LINOGE'S YOUTH RETURNS. He waits as the AUDIENCE MURMURS.

LINOGE

By the standards of your mayfly existences, I have long to live yet I'll still be walking the earth when all but the freshest and newest among you . . . Davey Hopewell, perhaps, or young Don Beals

. . .

*

We INTERCUT SHOTS of DAVEY with his parents and DON sleeping on his cot.

LINOGE

(continues)

. . . have gone to your graves. But in terms of my own existence, time has grown short. You ask me what I want?

104 INTERIOR: MIKE AND MOLLY ANDERSON.

MIKE already knows, and his face is filling with HORROR and FURIOUS PROTEST. When he begins speaking, his voice rising from a WHISPER TO A SCREAM, MOLLY seizes his wrist . . .

MIKE No, no, no, no ...

105 INTERIOR: LINOGE, AT THE PODIUM.

LINOGE

(ignores MIKE)

I want someone to raise and teach; someone to whom I can pass on all I have learned and all I know; I want someone who will carry on my work when I can no longer do it myself.

106 INTERIOR: MIKE.

He rises to his feet, dragging MOLLY with him.

MIKE

No! No! Never!

240

107 INTERIOR: LINOGE.

LINOGE (ignores MIKE)

I want a child. One of the eight sleeping back there. It doesn't matter which one; all are just as likely in my eyes. Give me what I want give it freely and I'll go away.

326 STEPHEN KING

108 INTERIOR: THE STAGE AND THE AUDIENCE, ANGLE ON MIKE AND

LINOGE.

MIKE

Never! We'll never give you one of our children! Never!

He pulls away from MOLLY and lunges for the stairs leading to the stage, meaning to tackle LINOGE. In his fury, any doubts he might have had about his ability to prevail over LINOGE'S

supernatural powers have disappeared.

LINOGE

Grab him! Unless you want me to drop the children! And I will! I promise you I will!

109 INTERIOR: THE "KIDS' CORNER"

The KIDS are MOANING AND TURNING on their cots, their serenity broken by some interior fear

... or something that's happening to them FAR AWAY and HIGH ABOVE.

JACK CARVER (horror and panic) Get him! Stop him! For God's sake, stop him!

STORM OF THE CENTURY 327

110 INTERIOR: RESUME STAGE AREA.

REV. BOB RIGGINS throws his arms around MIKE'S shoulders before MIKE can do more than reach the foot of the stairs. HATCH joins him and also grabs hold before MIKE can throw off RIGGINS, who is big but a touch on the blubbery side.

HATCH Mike, no we've got to hear him out at least hear him out MIKE

(struggling) No, we don't! Let me go, Hatch! Dammit

He almost gets free, but then he's swamped by LUCIEN, SONNY, ALEX, and JOHNNY. Big boys all, they drag him back to his seat in the first row. We can see they're embarrassed to be doing it, but we can also see that they're determined.

JOHNNY

You just sit tight for a bit, Michael Anderson, and let him have his say. We'll hear him out.

LUCIEN We got to.

MIKE You're wrong. Listening to him is the worst thing we can do.

He looks to MOLLY for help and support, and what he sees there stuns him ... a KIND OF

DESPERATE UNSURETY.

MIKE (horrified) Molly? Molly?

MOLLY I don't know, Mike. I think we better listen.

241

MELINDA Surely it can't hurt to listen.

328 STEPHEN KING

SONNY

He's got us over a stump.

They turn back to LINOGE.

111 INTERIOR: THE ISLANDERS.

All of them turn back to LINOGE, waiting for the bottom line.

112 INTERIOR: RESUME LINOGE.

As he speaks, THE CAMERA MOVES SLOWLY IN TO CLOSE-UP.

LINOGE

In a matter such as this, I cannot take . . . although I can punish; I assure you I can punish. Give me one of the babies sleeping yonder to raise as my own and I'll leave you in peace. He or she will live long long after all the others sleeping there are gone and see much. Give me what I want and I'll go away. Refuse me, and the dreams you shared last night will come true. The children will fall from the sky, the rest of you will walk into the ocean, two by two, and when the storm ends, they will find this island as they found Roanoke Island. Empty . . . deserted. I'll give you half an hour.

Discuss it ... isn't that what a town meeting is for? And then . . .

He pauses. We have reached EXTREME CLOSE-UP.

LINOGE

Choose.

FADE TO BLACK. THIS ENDS ACT 4.

ActS

113 EXTERIOR: THE LITTLE TALL ISLAND TOWN HALL NIGHT.

The wind is still blowing the snow around, but the stuff falling from the sky has stopped. The Storm of the Century Mother Nature's version, anyway has ended.

114 EXTERIOR: THE SKY NIGHT.

The clouds have begun to tatter and pull apart. This time when the FULL MOON appears, it remains in view.

115 INTERIOR: THE TOWN MEETING HALL, FROM THE CORRIDOR.

We're looking in through the glass doors, and running across the bottom of our view, like a super on a newscast, is that motto: LET US TRUST IN GOD AND EACH OTHER.

We can see ROBBIE BEALS getting to his feet (his hair is still mussed from hiding under the table) and crossing slowly toward the podium.

116 OMIT.

117 INTERIOR: THE TOWN MEETING HALL NIGHT.

[The director will shot-block the following as he/she desires, but it should play almost as one big master, which is how it's mostly written.]

242

ROBBIE reaches the podium and looks out over the silent, waiting audience. Below him, on the first bench, MIKE remains seated, but thrums almost visibly, like a high-tension wire. HATCH sits on one side of him, and MOLLY on the other. MIKE is holding her hand, and she is looking at him anxiously. Sitting behind him on the next bench are LUCIEN, SONNY, ALEX, and JOHNNY self-appointed sergeants-at-arms. If MIKE tries to interfere with the decision-making process, they will restrain him.

At the rear of the room, where the KIDS are sleeping, the circle of 329

330 STEPHEN KING

adults has grown. URSULA has joined TAVIA near SALLY GODSOE; both ANDY and JILL are with HARRY; JACK has joined ANGIE to be close to BUSTER . . . although when JACK tries to put an arm around his wife, ANGIE dips her shoulders and slips away from his touch. "Jackie, you got some

'splainin' to do," as Ricky Ricardo might have said. MELINDA is sitting by PIPPA, and next to her, SANDRA is sitting by DON. CARLA and HENRY BRIGHT sit at the foot of FRANK'S cot, holding hands.

LINDA ST. PIERRE is with HEIDI. The attention of all the parents is not on their sleeping children, however, but on ROBBIE, the self-appointed moderator . . . and on their fellow ISLANDERS, who will decide the fate of their children.

Making a tremendous effort to get his act together, ROBBIE looks beneath the podium and brings out a GAVEL old and heavy, a relic that has been handed down from the seventeenth century.

ROBBIE looks at it for a moment as if he's never seen it before, then brings it down with a HARD

BANGING SOUND. Several people jump.

ROBBIE

I call the meeting to order. I think it'll be best if we deal with this matter the way we would any other piece of town business. After all, that's what it is, isn't it? Town business?

SILENCE and strained faces greet this. MIKE looks as if he would like to respond, but doesn't.

MOLLY continues to look at her husband ANXIOUSLY and to caress his hand, which is tightly (painfully, one would think) enfolding hers.

ROBBIE

Any objection to that?

SILENCE. ROBBIE brings the gavel down again WHACK! and once again, people jump. Not the KIDS, though. They are deeply asleep again. Or comatose.

ROBBIE

The item on the floor is whether or not to give this . . . this thing that's come among us ... one of our children. He says he'll go away if we give him what he wants, and kill us all the kids included if we don't. Have I stated it fairly?

SILENCE.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 331

ROBBIE

All right. How say you then, Little Tall? Will you speak of this?

SILENCE. Then CAL FREESE gets slowly to his feet. He looks around at his fellow ISLANDERS.

CAL

I don't see what choice we have, if we believe he can do what he says he can do.

ROBERTA COIGN

243

Do you believe him?

CAL

First thing I asked myself. And . . . ayuh, I do. I've seen enough to convince me. I think we either give him what he wants or he'll take everything we have . . . includin' our kids.

CAL sits down.

ROBBIE

Roberta Coign's got a good point, though. How many of you think Linoge is telling the truth? That he can and will wipe out everyone on the island, if we go against him?

SILENCE. They all believe it, but no one wants to be first to hoist his or her hand.

DELLA BISSONETTE

We all had the same dream . . . and they weren't regular dreams. I know that. We all know that.

He's given us fair warning.

She raises her hand.

BURT SOAMES There's nothin' fair about it, but

One of BURT'S arms is in a makeshift sling, but he raises his unhurt one in the air. Others follow suit, at first just a few, then more, then almost all of them. HATCH and MOLLY are among the last to raise

332 STEPHEN KING

their hands. Only MIKE sits grimly where he is, keeping the hand MOLLY'S not holding in his lap.

MOLLY (low, to MIKE)

It's not a question of what we're going to do, Mike . . . not yet. It's just whether or not we believe

MIKE

I know what the question is. And once we start down this road, every step gets easier. I know that, too.

ROBBIE

(lowering his own hand)

All right, I guess we believe him. That's one issue out of the way. Now, if there's any discussion of the main question

MIKE

(to his feet) I have something to say.

ROBBIE That's fine. You're a taxpayer, sure enough. Have on.

MIKE walks slowly up the stairs to the stage. MOLLY watches apprehensively. MIKE doesn't bother with the podium; he simply turns to his fellow ISLANDERS. We take several beats to FOCUS

and build tension as he thinks about how to begin.

MIKE

No, he's not a man. I didn't vote, but I agree with that, just the same. I've seen what he did to 244

Martha Clarendon, what he did to Peter Godsoe, what he's done to our kids and I don't believe he's a man. I had the same dreams that you had, and I understand the reality of what he's threatening as well as you do. Better, maybe I'm your constable, the man you elected to enforce your laws.

But . . . folks . . . we don't give our kids away to thugs. Do you understand that? We don't give away our children!

At the back of the room, where the children are, ANDY ROBICHAUX steps forward.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 333

ANDY

What's the choice, then? What do we do? What can we do?

A DEEP MURMUR OF AGREEMENT greets this, and MIKE is troubled, we can see that. Because the only answer he has makes no sense. It has only the virtue of being right.

MIKE

Stand against him, side by side and shoulder to shoulder. Tell him no in one voice. Do what it says on the door we use to get in here trust in God and each other. And then . . . maybe ... he goes away. The way storms always do, when they've blown themselves out.

ORV BOUCHER

(stands)

And if he starts pointing his cane around? What then? What about when we start to drop like flies on a windowsill?

MURMUR OF AGREEMENT is louder.

P REV. BOB RIGGINS

(stands)

"Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's." You said that to me yourself, Michael, not an hour ago. Book of Matthew.

MIKE

"Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savorest not the things that be of God." Book of Mark.

(looks around)

Folks ... if we give up a child one of our own how will we live with each other, even if he lets us live?

ROBBIE

Very well, that's how.

MIKE turns to look at him, stunned. At the back of the room, JACK CARVER comes forward to the head of the center aisle. When he speaks, MIKE turns back that way. He's being bombarded from all directions.

334 STEPHEN KING

JACK

We've all got things we live with, Mike. Or maybe you're different.

245

That hits home. We see MIKE remembering. He addresses JACK and all of them.

MIKE

No, I'm no different. But this isn't like trying to live with a test you cheated on, or a one-night stand, or the memory of somebody you hurt when you were drunk and in an ugly frame of mind.

This is a child. Don't you understand that, Jack?

He's maybe getting to them . . . then ROBBIE speaks up.

ROBBIE

Suppose you're right about being able to send him away suppose we just put our arms around each other, gather our will, and give out a big collective "NO!" Suppose we do that and he just disappears? Goes back to wherever he came from?

MIKE looks at him warily, waiting for the hook.

ROBBIE

You saw our children. I don't know what he's actually done with them, but I have no doubt that flying high over the earth is an accurate representation of it. They can fall. I believe that. All he has to do is wave that cane of his, and they fall. How do we live with ourselves if that happens? Do we tell ourselves that we killed all eight of them because we were too good, too holy, to sacrifice one of them?

MIKE

He could be bluffing

MELINDA

(sharp; unfriendly) He's not, Michael, and you know it. You saw it.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 335

TAVIA GODSOE comes hesitantly forward to the head of the center aisle, which seems to be the preferred speaking position for the ISLANDERS. She talks hesitantly at first, then with growing confidence.

*" TAVIA You speak as though he were going to kill the child, Michael ... as though it were some kind of ... of human sacrifice. It sounds more like an adoption to me.

She looks around, smiling tentatively if we have to do this, let's make the best of it. Let's look on the bright side.

JONAS

And a long life, as well! (pause) If you believe him, that is. And after seeing him, I ... actually, I guess I do.

MURMURS of agreement. And approval.

MIKE

Linoge beat Martha Clarendon to death with his cane! Knocked the eyes right out of her head!

We're debating whether or not to give a child to a monster!

SILENCE greets this. Folks drop their eyes to the floor, cheeks red, ashamed. REV. BOB RIGGINS

sits down again. His wife puts a hand on his arm and looks at MIKE resentfully.

HENRY BRIGHT

Maybe that's so, but what about the rest of the kids? Do we say no and then watch them die right 246

in front of us?

KIRK

Yeah, Mike what happened to the good of the most?

MIKE has no real answer for this.

MIKE

He could be bluffing about the kids, too. Satan's the father of lies, and this guy has got to be a close relation.

336 STEPHEN KING

JILL ROBICHAUX (shrill and angry)

Is that a risk you want to take? Fine . . . but take it with your son, not mine!

LINDA ST. PIERRE My sentiments exactly.

HENRY BRIGHT

You want to know the worst thing I can think of, Michael? Suppose you're half right? Suppose we live . . . and they die.

(points to the KIDS)

How will we look at each other then? How will we live with each other then?

JACK And how would we ever live with you?

UGLY ASSENTING MURMURS to this. JACK the gay-basher goes back to his sleeping little boy and sits down beside him. MIKE has no real answer for this, either. We can see him floundering for one and not rinding it.

ROBBIE looks at the clock. It's 9:20.

ROBBIE

He said half an hour. That leaves us ten minutes.

MIKE

We can't do this! Can't you see? Don't you understand? We can't allow him to SONNY

(not unkindly)

I think we've heard your side of it, Mike. Take a seat, why don't you?

MIKE looks at them helplessly. He's not stupid, and he can see which way the wind is blowing.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 337

MIKE

You need to think about this, folks. You need to think about it very carefully.

He goes back down the steps and sits beside MOLLY. He takes her hand. She lets him hold it for a second or two, then draws it away.

MOLLY I want to sit with Ralphie, Mike.

247

She gets up and goes down the center aisle to where the KIDS are sleeping on their cots. She disappears into the circle of parents without a look back.

ROBBIE

Do you have more, folks? What's your pleasure?

A moment of SILENCE.

URSULA

(steps forward)

God help us, but let's give him what he wants. Give him what he wants and send him on his way.

I don't care about my life, but the children . . . even if it's Sally. Better she should live with a bad man than . . . than die . . .

(she looks around, weeping)

My God, Michael Anderson, where's your heart? They're children! We can't let him kill the children!

She goes back to the kids. MIKE, meanwhile, is being isolated in a circle of hostile eyes.

ROBBIE

(glances at the clock) Anyone else?

MIKE starts to get up. HATCH puts his hand on his arm and squeezes. When MIKE looks at him, surprised and questioning, HATCH gives a tiny shake of the head. "Stop," that small headshake says; "you've done all you can do."

338 STEPHEN KING

MIKE shakes him off and stands up again. He doesn't use the stage this time, but addresses his fellow ISLANDERS from where he is.

MIKE

Don't. Please. The Andersons go back to 1735 here on Little Tall. I ask you as an islander and as Ralphie Anderson's father don't do this. Don't give in to this, (pause) This is damnation.

He looks around desperately. None of them, not even his own wife, will meet his eyes. SILENCE

descends again. It's broken only by the WHINE OF THE WIND outside and the TICK OF THE

REGULATOR CLOCK.

MIKE

All right, I move to restrict the vote. Let the parents vote, and the parents only. They're all residents

LINDA ST. PIERRE No, that's not fair.

She touches her sleeping daughter's brow with gentle love.

LINDA ST. PIERRE

I've raised her by myself oh, with plenty of help from folks on the island, including you and your wife, Mike but mostly by myself. I shouldn't have to make a decision like this all by myself. What's a community for, if it isn't to help people when something terrible happens? When none of the choices look good?

ANDY

248

Couldn't have said it better myself, Lin.

MIKE But

MANY VOICES

Sit down . . . Call the question . . . Let's vote!

(etc.)

STORM OF THE CENTURY 339

ROBBIE

Will somebody move the question of who can vote? It's probably not parliamentary, but we have to move on. I'd prefer to hear from one of the parents.

A moment of TENSE SILENCE, then:

* 1

MELINDA HATCHER

I move everybody votes.

CARLA BRIGHT I second it.

MIKE This isn't

ANGIE Shut up! You've had your say, now just shut up!

ROBBIE

It's been moved and seconded that everyone be allowed to vote on whether or not to give Mr.

Linoge what he has demanded. Those in favor?

Every hand goes up except for MIKE'S. He sees that MOLLY has also raised her hand, sees she won't look at him, and something in him dies a little.

ROBBIE Those opposed?

Not a single hand goes up. MIKE simply sits in the front row, his head dropped.

ROBBIE

(whacks the gavel) The motion carries.

TESS MARCHANT Call the question, Robbie Beals. The real question.

340 STEPHEN KING

118 INTERIOR: THE BASEMENT, WITH LINOGE.

He looks up at the ceiling, EYES GLEAMING in the gloom. They're going to vote, and he knows it.

119 INTERIOR: RESUME TOWN MEETING HALL NIGHT.

JOANNA

For God's sake let's vote and have done!

MIKE

249

My son isn't a part of this. Let's understand that, all right? He's not a part of this . . . obscenity.

MOLLY Yes. He is.

UTTER SILENCE greets this. MIKE stands up and looks unbelievingly at his wife. They face each other that way across the length of the meeting hall.

MOLLY

We've never shirked our duty, Michael, we've taken part in all the life of this island, and we'll take part in this.

MIKE You don't mean it you can't mean it.

MOLLY I do.

MIKE It's insane.

MOLLY

Maybe but it's not an insanity we made. Michael

MIKE

I'm leaving. Screw this. Screw all of you. I'm taking my son and leaving.

He gets about three steps before the self-appointed sergeants-at-arms grab him and yank him back to his seat. MOLLY sees MIKE struggling,

STORM OF THE CENTURY 341

sees how rough they're being they don't like his disapproval of this highly questionable decision and runs down the aisle toward him.

MIKE Hatch! Help me!

But HATCH turns away, FACE FLUSHING WITH EMBARRASSMENT. And when MIKE lunges in his direction, LUCIEN smashes him in the nose. Blood flows.

MOLLY Stop it! Stop hurting him! Mike, are you all right? Are you MIKE

Get away from me. You want to do it before I lose control of myself and spit in your face.

She takes a step back from him, eyes huge and shocked.

MOLLY

Mike, if you'd only see . . . this isn't our decision to make alone. This affects the whole town!

MIKE

I know it does what else have I been saying? Get away from me, Molly.

She backs away, GRIEVING and SORROWFUL. SONNY BRAUTIGAN hands MIKE a handkerchief.

MIKE

You can let go. I'll sit.

They let go, but warily. On the podium, ROBBIE looks on with unmistakable satisfaction. "This may be a bad situation," his face says, "but at least our self-righteous prick of a constable is taking a face-washing, and that's something."

250

MOLLY, meanwhile, backs away from MIKE, who won't look at her. Her face twists and crumples.

WEEPING, she walks toward the back of the room. People sitting on the aisle pat her hands and WHISPER COMFORTS and ENCOURAGEMENTS as she goes "That's all right, 342 STEPHEN KING

deah" . . . "He'll come around" . . . "You're doing the right thing." At the back of the room, MELINDA, JILL, and LINDA ST. PIERRE enfold her.

HATCH slides close to MIKE, almost humming with shame.

HATCH Mike, I

MIKE

(doesn't look at him) Shut up. Get away from me.

HATCH

When you've had a chance to think about it, you'll understand. You'll come around. It's the only thing we can do. What else is there? Die for a principle? Every one of us? Including those who're too young to understand why they're dying? You need to think about it.

MIKE at last looks up.

MIKE And if it's Pippa that Linoge ends up taking?

A long silence as HATCH thinks. Then he meets MIKE'S eyes.

HATCH

I'll tell myself she died as an infant. That it was a crib death, something no one could help or foresee. And I'll believe it. Melly and me, we'll both believe it.

ROBBIE hammers on the podium some more with the gavel.

ROBBIE

Oyez, oyez this question has been called. Do we or do we not give Mr. Linoge what he has asked for, pursuant to his promise that he will leave us in peace? How say you, Little Tall? Those in favor, signify in the usual way.

There is a moment of BREATHLESS SILENCE, and then, at the back of the room, ANDY

ROBICHAUX raises his hand.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 343

ANDY I'm Harry's father, and I vote yes.

JILL ROBICHAUX I'm his mother, and so do I.

HENRY Carla and I vote yes.

LINDA ST. PIERRE raises her hand. So does SANDRA BEALS, and at the podium, ROBBIE raises his.

MELINDA (raises her hand) Yes. We have no choice.

HATCH No choice.

He raises his hand.

URSULA I vote yes it's the only way.

251

She raises her hand, and so does TAVIA.

JACK Got to.

Up goes his hand. ANGELA takes a long, loving look at the sleeping BUSTER, then raises her own.

The eyes of everyone in the room turn to MOLLY. She kneels, kisses RALPHIE on the fairy saddle on his nose, then rises to her feet. She speaks to them all ... but in a way, she speaks only to MIKE, her face pleading for understanding.

MOLLY

To lose one in life is better than to lose them all in death. I vote yes.

344 STEPHEN KING

She raises her hand. Soon other hands go up. THE CAMERA RANGES AMONG all the folks we have come to know, watching as every hand goes up ... save one.

ROBBIE draws the moment out, looking at the forest of raised arms and solemn faces. To give these people the credit they're due, they have made a terrible decision . . . and know it.

ROBBIE

(soft) Those opposed?

The raised hands go down. MIKE, still looking at the floor, hoists his hand high in the air.

ROBBIE I count all in favor save one. The motion is carried.

120 INTERIOR: THE REGULATOR CLOCK, CLOSE-UP.

The minute hand reaches 9:30, and the CLOCK CHIMES ONCE.

121 INTERIOR: RESUME TOWN MEETING HALL NIGHT.

The doors open. LINOGE steps in, his cane in one hand, the small chamois bag in the other.

LINOGE

Folks, have you reached your decision?

ROBBIE -j Yes . . . we've voted in favor.

LINOGE

Excellent.

He walks along the back row, then pauses when he reaches the center aisle. He looks at the parents.

LINOGE

You've made the right choice.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 345

MOLLY turns away, sickened by this smiling monster's approval. LINOGE sees her revulsion, and his smile broadens. He makes his way slowly down the center aisle, holding the bag of marbles out before him.

252

He mounts the steps, and ROBBIE moves away from him rapidly, his face full of terror. LINOGE

stands by the podium, looking at his hostages with a kindly smile.

LINOGE

You've done a hard thing, my friends, but despite what the constable may have told you, it's also a good thing. The right thing. The only thing, really, that loving, responsible people could have done, under the circumstances.

He holds out the bag by the drawstring, so it hangs down from his hand.

LINOGE

These are weirding stones. They were old when the world was young, and used to decide great issues long before Atlantis sank into the African Ocean. There are seven white stones in here . . .

and one black one.

LINOGE pauses . . . smiles ... a smile that shows the tips of his fangs.

LINOGE

You're eager for me to be gone, and I don't blame you. Will one parent of each child come forward, please? Let's finish this up.

122 INTERIOR: THE ISLANDERS.

Realizing for the first time on a gut level what they have done. Realizing also that it's too late to turn back.

123 INTERIOR: LINOGE, CLOSE-UP.

Smiling. Showing the tips of his fangs. And holding out the bag. It's time to choose.

FADE TO BLACK. THIS ENDS ACT 5.

Act 6

124 EXTERIOR: THE REACH NIGHT.

The snow has stopped, and now MOONLIGHT beats a gilded track across the reach toward the mainland.

125 EXTERIOR: MAIN STREET NIGHT. Snow-clogged and silent.

126 EXTERIOR: THE TOWN HALL NIGHT.

Dark on the right, BRIGHTLY CANDLELIT on the left, where the meeting hall is.

127 INTERIOR: THE MEETING HALL NIGHT.

Slowly, slowly, the parents come down the center aisle: JILL, URSULA, JACK, LINDA, SANDRA, HENRY, and MELINDA. At the rear of the group is MOLLY ANDERSON. She looks pleadingly at MIKE.

MOLLY

Mike, please try to understand

MIKE

Do you want me to understand? Go back and sit with him, then. Refuse to take part in this obscenity.

MOLLY I can't. If you could only see . . .

253

MIKE is looking down between his legs at the floor. He doesn't want to look at her, doesn't want to look at any of it. She sees this and goes on, sorrowfully, up the steps.

The PARENTS range themselves in a line on the stage. LINOGE looks at them with the benign smile of a dentist assuring a child that this won't hurt, this won't hurt at all.

346

STORM OF THE CENTURY 347

LINOGE

It's perfectly simple. You each draw a stone from the bag. The child whose parent draws the black stone comes with me. To live long . . . see far . . . and know much. Mrs. Robi-chaux? Jill?

Would you start us, please?

He offers her the bag. At first it seems she won't reach into it ... or can't.

ANDY

Go on, honey do it.

She gives him a haunted look, then reaches into the bag, feels around, and comes out with her hand tightly clasped around a stone. She looks as though she might faint.

LINOGE Mrs. Hatcher?

MELINDA takes a stone. SANDRA is next. She reaches toward the bag . . . then draws away.

SANDRA

Robbie, I can't! You!

But ROBBIE doesn't want to be that near LINOGE.

ROBBIE Go on! Draw!

She does, and stands back, little mouth quivering, her hand clasped so tightly around the stone that the fingers are white. Next is HENRY BRIGHT, feeling around a long time, rejecting one (or two) in favor of another. Then JACK. He chooses fast, then steps back and gives ANGIE a desperate, hopeful smile. LINDA ST. PIERRE draws one. That leaves URSULA and MOLLY.

LINOGE

Ladies?

URSULA You go first, Molly.

348 STEPHEN KING

MOLLY No. Please. You.

URSULA plunges her hand into the bag, takes one of the two remaining stones, then steps back, fist clenched. MOLLY steps forward, looks at LINOGE, and takes the last stone. LINOGE tosses the empty bag aside. It flutters toward the stage . . . then DISAPPEARS IN A DIM BLUE GLOW before it ever reaches the boards. No reaction from the ISLANDERS; their silence is so thick and tense you could cut it with a knife.

LINOGE

All right, my friends; so far it's done very well. Now, who has the courage to show first? To put fear aside and let sweet relief rush in to take its place?

No one responds. They stand, eight parents with their hands clenched before them, each in utter 254

white-faced terror.

LINOGE

(genial)

Come, come have you never heard that the gods punish the fainthearted?

JACK

(cries out) Buster! I love you!

He opens his hand. The marble he holds is WHITE. The AUDIENCE MURMURS.

URSULA steps forward. She holds out her closed, trembling fist. She nerves herself up, and her hand springs open. This marble is also WHITE. The AUDIENCE MURMURS AGAIN.

ROBBIE

Let's see, Sandra. Show it.

SANDRA

I ... I ... Robbie, I can't ... I know it's Donnie ... I know it is ... I've never been lucky . . .

STORM OF THE CENTURY 349

Impatient with her, contemptuous of her, in a frenzy to know one way or the other, he goes to her, seizes her hand, and pries the fingers open. We can't see, and at first we can read nothing from his face. Then he seizes what she holds, and lifts it up so they can all see. He's GRINNING

SAVAGELY; looks like Richard Nixon at a political rally.

ROBBIE

White!

He tries to embrace his wife, but SANDRA pushes him away with an expression beyond disgust this is outright revulsion.

Now it's LINDA ST. PIERRE's turn to step forward. She holds out her closed hand, looking down at it, then closes her eyes.

LINDA ST. PIERRE

Please, God, I beg of you, don't take my Heidi away.

She opens her hand, but not her eyes.

ANOTHER VOICE

White!

The AUDIENCE MURMURS. LINDA opens her eyes, sees the stone is indeed WHITE, and begins to WEEP, closing her hand again and holding the precious stone to her breasts.

LINOGE

Jill? Mrs. Robichaux?

JILL ROBICHAUX

I can't. I thought I could go through with it, but I can't. I'm sorry She heads for the stairs, still holding her clenched fist in front of her. Before she can get there, 255

LINOGE points his cane her way. She is driven back at once. LINOGE now dips the silver wolf's head at her hand. She tries to hold the fingers closed and can't. The stone drops to the stage, rolls like a marble (which is what the stones look like), and

350 STEPHEN KING

THE CAMERA TRACKS IT. It finally stops, resting against one of the legs of the town manager's table. It's WHITE.

JILL collapses to her knees, SOBBING. LINDA helps her to her feet and embraces her. Now there is only HENRY, MELINDA, and MOLLY. One of them has the black stone. We INTERCUT their spouses. CARLA BRIGHT and HATCH are watching the stage with passionate, terrorized fascination.

MIKE is still looking at the floor.

LINOGE

Mr. Bright? Henry? Will you favor us?

HENRY steps forward and slowly opens his hand. The stone is WHITE. He all but deflates in his relief. CARLA looks at him, smiling through her tears.

Now it's down to MOLLY and MELINDA, RALPHIE and PIPPA. The two mothers look at each other with LINOGE smiling in the background. One of them is about to cease being a mother, and both of them know it.

128 INTERIOR: MOLLY, CLOSE-UP.

She's imagining:

129 EXTERIOR: BLUE SKY DAY.

Flying high above the clouds is LINOGE, but now the V is very short. Of the eight children, only RALPHIE and PIPPA are left, each gripping one of LINOGE'S hands.

130 INTERIOR: RESUME STAGE NIGHT.

LINOGE

Ladies?

MOLLY looks a thought at MELINDA. MELINDA catches it and nods slightly. The women hold out their closed fists, hand to hand. They look at each other, frantic with love, hope, and fear.

MOLLY

(very soft) Now.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 351

131 INTERIOR: THE CLOSED HANDS, CLOSE-UP.

They open. In one is a white "marble"; in the other is a black. There are MURMURS, GASPS, and CRIES OF SURPRISE from the audience . . . but we can't tell not yet. We see only the stones lying on the open palms.

132 INTERIOR: MOLLY'S FACE, EXTREME CLOSE-UP.

Wide eyes.

133 INTERIOR: MELINDA'S FACE, EXTREME CLOSE-UP. Wide eyes.

134 INTERIOR: HATCH'S FACE, EXTREME CLOSE-UP. Wide eyes.

135 INTERIOR: MIKE, EXTREME CLOSE-UP.

256

Head down . . . but he can't keep it that way, despite his intention not to participate in this, even passively. He raises his face and looks toward the stage. And we must read the loss of his son first on this man's face we see incredulity, then the dawn of a terrible understanding.

MIKE (to his feet)

NO!!! NO!!!

352 STEPHEN KING

SONNY, LUCIEN, and ALEX grab him when he tries to lunge forward, and wrestle him back to his seat.

136 INTERIOR: MOLLY AND MELINDA, ON STAGE.

They continue to face each other, almost forehead to forehead, frozen, their hands now open held out. In MELINDA'S is the seventh white stone. In MOLLY'S is the black one.

MELINDA'S face breaks in delayed reaction. She turns, blinded by tears, and walks toward the edge of the stage.

MELINDA

Pippa! Mummy's coming, love

She stumbles on the stairs and would go headlong, if not for HATCH, who is there to catch her.

MELINDA, hysterical with relief, doesn't even notice. She fights free of her husband's arms and runs up the center aisle.

MELINDA

Pippa, honey! It's all right! Mummy's coming, sweetheart, mummy's coming!

HATCH turns to MIKE.

HATCH Mike, I

MIKE only looks at him a look of pure, poisonous hate. "You condoned this, and it has cost me my son," that look says. HATCH cannot bear it. He goes after his wife, almost slinking.

MOLLY has been stunned through all of this, looking down at the BLACK MARBLE, but now she begins to realize what has happened.

MOLLY No. Oh, no. This isn't . . . This can't be ...

She throws the stone away and turns to LINOGE.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 353

MOLLY

It's a joke! Or a test? It's a test, isn't it? You didn't really mean . . .

But he did really mean it, does really mean it, and she sees that.

MOLLY

You can't have him!

LINOGE

Molly, I feel your grief keenly . . . but you agreed to the terms. I'm sorry.

257

MOLLY

You fixed it somehow! You wanted him all along! Because . . . because of the fairy saddle!

Is this true? We will never know if we imagined the FLICKER in LINOGE'S eyes ... or actually saw it.

LINOGE

I assure you that's not so. The game, as you'd say, was straight. And since I believe that long, drawn-out farewells only add to the pain

He starts toward the stairs, on the way to claim his prize.

MOLLY

No, no, I won't let you

She tries to attack him. LINOGE gestures with the cane, and she is flung backward, hitting the town manager's table and rolling over it. She lands in a SOBBING HEAP on the floor.

LINOGE, at the lip of the stage and the top of the stairs, regards the ISLANDERS who look like people waking up from a communal nightmare in which they have done some terrible, irrevocable thing with BEAMING, SARDONIC PLEASURE.

354 STEPHEN KING

LINOGE

Ladies and gentlemen, residents of Little Tall, I thank you for your attention to my needs, and I declare this meeting at an end . . . with a suggestion that the less you say to the outside world about our . . . our arrangement, the more happy you are apt to be ... although such matters are, of course, ultimately up to you.

Behind his back, MOLLY gets to her feet and comes forward. She looks all but insane with shock, grief, and incredulity.

LINOGE

(pulls on gloves, watch cap)

With that, I'll take my new protege and leave you to your thoughts. May they be happy ones.

He starts down the stairs. His path to the center aisle brings him close to where MIKE sits. MOLLY

rushes forward to the edge of the stage, her eyes so big they seem to fill the whole top half of her face. She sees that MIKE'S guards are no longer doing their job; LUCIEN, SONNY, and the others are sitting back, looking at LINOGE, their jaws agape.

MOLLY

(shrieking) Mike! Stop him! For God's sake, stop him!

MIKE knows what will happen if he goes for LINOGE; a single wave of the cane, and he will be peeling himself off one of the walls. He looks up at his wife his estranged wife now, one supposes with HORRIBLE DEAD EYES.

MIKE Too late, Molly.

She reacts first with dismay, then with CRAZED DETERMINATION. If MIKE will not help her right the mistake they've made, she will do it herself. She looks around . . . and sees ROBBIE'S little pistol, now lying on the podium. She seizes it, whirls, and plunges down the steps to the floor.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 355 MOLLY

258

Stop! I'm warning you!

LINOGE sweeps on, and A CHANGE IS TAKING PLACE as he walks: the pea coat is becoming a robe of royal silver-blue, decorated with suns and moons and other symbols of cabalistic design. The watch cap is becoming the tall, pointed hat of a SORCERER or WIZARD. And the cane is becoming a SCEPTER. The wolf's head is still there, but now it tops a GLOWING WAND worthy of Merlin.

MOLLY either doesn't see or doesn't care. All she wants to do is to stop him. She steps to the head of the center aisle and levels the pistol.

MOLLY Stop, or I'll shoot!

But SONNY and ALEX HABER crowd into the aisle, blocking her off from LINOGE. LUCIEN and JOHNNY HARRIMAN grab her ... and HATCH plucks the gun neatly from her hand. During all this, MIKE only sits with his head down, unable to look.

LUCIEN Sorry, Missus Anderson . . . but we made a deal.

MOLLY

We didn't understand the deal! We didn't understand what we were doing! Mike was right, we didn't. . . didn't . . . Jack, stop him! Don't let him take Ralphie! Don't let him take my son!

JACK I can't do that, Molly.

(then, with some resentment)

And you wouldn't be screaming like that, either, if it'd been me with the black marble.

She looks at him, unbelieving. He holds her eyes for a moment, then wavers. But ANGELA is there to put her arm around him, and ANGIE looks at MOLLY with bright hostility.

ANGIE Can't you be a good loser?

^

356 STEPHEN KING

MOLLY This isn't a ... a baseball game!

137 INTERIOR: THE KIDS' CORNER, WITH LINOGE.

He is now a WIZARD from head to toe, wrapped in a BRIGHT BLUE AURA. We once more see his GREAT AGE. The other parents and friends surrounding the sleeping children draw back from him in fear. He pays them absolutely no notice. He bends down, picks RALPHIE ANDERSON up in his arms, and gazes at the boy raptly.

A

138 INTERIOR: THE FOOT OF THE CENTER AISLE, WITH MOLLY.

In her hysteria, she almost succeeds in struggling free from the big men holding her. She faces LINOGE along the length of the aisle with HYSTERICAL DEFIANCE.

MOLLY

You tricked us!

LINOGE

Perhaps you tricked yourselves.

MOLLY He'll never belong to you! Never!

259

LINOGE lifts the sleeping boy up like an offering. The BLUE GLOW around him INTENSIFIES . . .

and now it begins to STEAL OVER RALPHIE, as well. LINOGE'S age is not kindly but cruel, a thing to be feared. And his smile is horrible in its triumph ... a thing to haunt our dreams.

LINOGE

But he will. He'll come to love me. (pause) He'll come to call me Father.

There is an awful truth to this against which MOLLY cannot hold out. She slumps in the hands holding her back, ceasing to resist. LINOGE holds her gaze a moment longer, then turns, the hem of his silk robe flaring out. He strides for the door. Everyone turns to watch him.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 357

139 INTERIOR: MIKE.

He gets up. That DEAD LOOK is still on his face. HATCH reaches for him.

HATCH Mike, I don't think

MIKE

(pushes his hand off) Don't touch me. Don't ever touch me again. Not any of you.

(looks at MOLLY) Not any of you.

He walks up the side aisle. No one stops him.

140 INTERIOR: THE CORRIDOR OF THE TOWN HALL.

MIKE steps out of the meeting hall just in time to see the hem of LINOGE'S robe going out the front door and into the night. He pauses, then goes after.

141 EXTERIOR: THE FRONT STEPS OF THE TOWN HALL NIGHT.

MIKE comes out and stands looking, his breath PUFFING SILVER in the moonlight.

142 EXTERIOR: LINOGE AND RALPHIE IN FRONT OF THE TOWN HALL NIGHT.

LINOGE is still GLOWING BRIGHT BLUE. THE CAMERA TRACKS WITH HIM as he carries RALPHIE

down the slope toward the street . . . the shore . . . the reach . . . the mainland . . . and all the leagues of Earth beyond. We see LINOGE'S tracks, first quite heavy . . . then light. . . then just faint prints.

As LINOGE passes the cupola with the memorial bell inside, he begins rising into the air. Only an inch or two at first, but the distance between him and the earth is growing. It's almost as if he's climbing stairs we can't see.

143 EXTERIOR: MIKE, ON THE TOWN HALL STEPS NIGHT.

He cries out after his son, putting all his grief and loss into that one shouted word: 358 STEPHEN KING

MIKE Ralphie!

144 EXTERIOR: LINOGE AND RALPHIE NIGHT.

RALPHIE opens his eyes and looks around.

RALPHIE

Where am I? Where's my daddy?

260

MIKE (voice, growing faint) Ralphie . . .

LINOGE

It doesn't matter, fairy-saddle boy. Look down!

RALPHIE looks down. They are flying over the reach now. Their shadows flee across the waves, etched in moonlight. RALPHIE smiles, delighted.

RALPHIE Whoa! Neat! (pause) Is it real?

LINOGE Real as rhubarb.

RALPHIE looks back at:

145 EXTERIOR: LITTLE TALL ISLAND, FROM RALPHIE'S POINT OF VIEW NIGHT.

This is almost a negative image of our introduction to the island night instead of day, going away instead of approaching. In the moonlight, Little Tall looks almost like an illusion. Which, to RALPHIE, it will soon be.

146 EXTERIOR: RESUME LINOGE AND RALPHIE NIGHT.

RALPHIE

(very impressed) Where we going?

LINOGE tosses his scepter into the air ahead of him. It rises and STORM OF THE CENTURY 359

resumes the position it held in the visions of LINOGE and the FLYING CHILDREN. Its shadow, now thrown by the moon instead of by the sun, lies across LINOGE'S face. He bends and kisses the fairy saddle on RALPHIE'S nose.

LINOGE

Anywhere. Everywhere. All the places you ever dreamed of.

RALPHIE What about my mom and dad? When are they coming?

LINOGE

(smiling) Why don't we worry about them later?

Well, he's the grown-up . . . and besides, this is fun.

RALPHIE Okay.

LINOGE turns banks like an airplane, almost and flies away from us.

147 EXTERIOR: MIKE, ON THE TOWN HALL STEPS NIGHT.

He's weeping. JOANNA STANHOPE comes out and puts a hand on his shoulder. She speaks to him with infinite kindness.

JOANNA

Mike. Come in.

He ignores her, going down the steps and stumbling his way into the new snow. It's tough going for folks who aren't wizards, but he flounders ahead just the same, even though it's waist deep at times. He follows LINOGE'S footprints, and THE CAMERA TRACKS WITH HIM, watching as the impressions grow lighter and lighter, less and less tied to the earth where mortals must live.

261

Past the memorial bell, there is one more faint imprint. . . then nothing. Just acres of virgin snow.

MIKE collapses beside that last print, CRYING. He holds his hands up to the EMPTY SKY, the GLOWING MOON.

360 STEPHEN KING

MIKE

(low)

Bring him back. Please. I'll do anything if you bring my son back. Anything you want.

148 EXTERIOR: THE DOORS TO THE TOWN HALL NIGHT.

They are crowded with ISLANDERS who stand there, silently watching. JOHNNY and SONNY, FERD and LUCIEN, TAVIA and DELLA, HATCH and MELINDA.

MIKE (pleading voice) Bring him back!

The faces of the ISLANDERS do not change. We may see sympathy, but we will see no mercy.

Not here; not among these. What's done is done.

149 EXTERIOR: RESUME MIKE, ON THE SNOWFIELD NIGHT.

He huddles in the snow beyond the cupola holding the memorial bell. Holds his arms out to the moon and the light-drenched water one final time, but without hope.

MIKE

(whispers) Please bring him back.

THE CAMERA begins to PULL UP AND AWAY. Little by little, MIKE loses his human dimension and becomes just a black speck on a VAST WHITE SNOWFIELD. Beyond is the headland, the tumbled lighthouse, and the waves of the reach.

FADE TO BLACK.

MIKE (voice) (a final whispered plea) I love him. Have mercy.

THIS ENDS ACT 6.

Act?

150 EXTERIOR: THE REACH A SUMMER MORNING.

The sky is bright blue, and so is the reach. Fishing boats chug stolidly; pleasure boats dash, dragging wakes and whooping water-skiers. Overhead, gulls SWOOP AND CRY.

151 EXTERIOR: A SEACOAST TOWN MORNING. TITLE CARD: MACHIAS, SUMMER OF 1989.

152 EXTERIOR: A SMALL CLAPBOARD BUILDING ON MAIN STREET MORNING.

The sign out front reads SEACOAST COUNSELING SERVICES. And, below this: THERE IS A SOLUTION. WE'LL FIND IT TOGETHER.

THE CAMERA MOVES IN on a side window. A WOMAN sits there, looking out. Her eyes are red, her cheeks wet with tears. Her hair is gray, and at first we do not recognize MOLLY ANDERSON. She has aged twenty years.

153 INTERIOR: THE COUNSELOR'S OFFICE MORNING.

MOLLY sits in a bentwood rocker, looking out at summer and CRYING SOUNDLESSLY. Sitting 262

across from her is her COUNSELOR, a professional woman in a light cream-colored summer skirt and silk summer blouse. Nicely coiffed, nicely turned out, and looking at MOLLY with that kind of sympathy good psychologists show often helpful, but scary in its distance.

The silence spins out. The COUNSELOR is waiting for MOLLY to break it, but MOLLY only sits in the rocker, looking out at summer with her streaming eyes.

COUNSELOR You and Mike haven't slept together in ... how long?

361

362 STEPHEN KING

MOLLY

(looking out the window)

Five months. Give or take. I could tell you exactly, if you thought it would help. The last time was the night before the big storm came. The Storm of the Century.

COUNSELOR

When you lost your son.

MOLLY Correct. When I lost my son.

COUNSELOR

And Mike blames you for that loss.

MOLLY I think he's going to leave me.

COUNSELOR You're very afraid of that, aren't you?

MOLLY

I think he's running out of ways to stay. Do you understand what I mean by that?

COUNSELOR

Tell me again what happened to Ralphie.

MOLLY

Why? What good will it do? For God's sake, what good can it do? He's gone!

The COUNSELOR makes no response. After a bit, MOLLY sighs and gives in.

MOLLY

It was the second day. We were in the town hall where we took shelter, you know. The storm . .

. you can't believe how bad it was.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 363

COUNSELOR I was here. I went through it.

MOLLY

Yes you were here, Lisa. On the mainland. It's different on the island, (pause) Everything's different on the island, (pause) Anyway, Johnny Harriman came rushing in while we were having breakfast and said the lighthouse was going over. Everyone wanted to see, of course . . . and Mike .

. .

263

154 EXTERIOR: THE ANDERSON HOUSE SUMMER MORNING.

There's a SMALL WHITE CAR at the curb with the trunk lid up. There are two or three suitcases in it. Now the door opens and MIKE comes out, carrying two more. He closes the door, descends the porch steps, and goes down the walk. Every motion and gesture, every look back, tells us that this is a man who is leaving for good.

MOLLY (voice-over)

Mike told us it was whiteout, and to stay close to the building. Ralphie wanted to see . . . Pippa and all the kids wanted to go out and see . . . and so we took them. God help us, we took them.

MIKE stops by the WEE FOLKS DAY-CARE sign. It's still chain-hung from a low branch of the yard maple, but now it looks dusty, somehow. Forgotten. Of no importance. MIKE yanks it down, looks at it, then turns and throws it back at the porch, momentarily FURIOUS.

MOLLY (voice-over)

It was a mistake for any of us to go out, especially the children. We underestimated the storm.

Several people wandered away and were lost. Ralphie was one of them. Angie Carver found her way back. None of the others did.

MIKE looks at the porch, where the sign has landed, then turns and walks down to his car. He puts the last couple of bags in and slams the trunk. As he starts around to the driver's side, digging the keys out of his pocket:

HATCH (voice) Mike?

364 STEPHEN KING

MIKE turns. HATCH, looking strange in a T-shirt and Bermuda shorts, walks up to where he stands. He looks painfully unhappy to be here. MIKE looks back at him coolly.

MIKE

If you've got something to say, best say it. Ferry leaves at 11:10, and I don't intend to miss it.

HATCH

Where you going?

(silence from MIKE) Don't, Michael. Don't leave.

(silence from MIKE)

Would it do you any good to tell you I haven't had a decent night's sleep since February?

(no answer from MIKE)

Would it do any good to tell you that . . . we might have been wrong?

MIKE Hatch, I have to get going.

HATCH

Robbie says to tell you the constable's job is yours again whenever you want it. All you have to do is ask.

MIKE

Tell him where he can park his job. I'm done here. I've tried until I can't try anymore.

He starts for the driver's door, and just before he swings in, HATCH touches his arm. MIKE whirls at that touch, eyes burning, as if he means to punch HATCH'S lights out. But HATCH doesn't flinch.

264

Maybe he thinks he deserves it.

HATCH

Molly needs you. Have you seen the way she is, now? Have you even looked?

MIKE You look for me. Okay?

STORM OF THE CENTURY 365

HATCH

(drops his eyes)

Melly isn't doing very well, either. She takes a lot of tranquil-izers. I think she might be hooked on them.

MIKE

Too bad. But . . . you've got your daughter, at least. You may not sleep so well, but you can go into Pippa's bedroom and watch her sleep any night you want. Can't you?

HATCH

You're as self-righteous as ever. Can't see it any way but your way.

MIKE swings behind the wheel and looks bleakly up at HATCH.

MIKE

I'm not anything. I'm empty scooped out as a gourd in November.

HATCH If you could just try to understand

MIKE

I understand that the ferry leaves at 11:10, and if I don't get moving now, I'm going to miss it.

Good luck, Hatch. Hope you catch up on your sleep.

He slams the car door, starts the engine, and pulls out onto Main Street. HATCH helplessly watches him go.

155 EXTERIOR: THE LAWN OF THE TOWN HALL MORNING.

THE CAMERA looks down toward Main Street and picks up MIKE'S car, heading toward the docks where the interisland ferry is backed up, ENGINE RUMBLING. We HOLD for a moment, then PAN

LEFT, to the cupola and the memorial bell. A second plaque has been added, to the right of the war dead. Heading it is this: THOSE LOST IN THE STORM OF THE CENTURY, 1989. Below are the names: MARTHA CLARENDON, PETER GODSOE, WILLIAM SOAMES, LLOYD WISHMAN, CORA STANHOPE, JANE KINGSBURY, WILLIAM TIMMONS, GEORGE KIRBY . . . and, at the very bottom, RALPH

ANDERSON.

I

366 STEPHEN KING

THE CAMERA MOVES IN ON HIS NAME.

156 INTERIOR: THE COUNSELOR'S OFFICE MORNING.

MOLLY has stopped talking and just looks out the window. Fresh tears well in her eyes and spill down her cheeks, but her weeping REMAINS SILENT.

COUNSELOR Molly . . . ?

265

MOLLY

He wandered away into the whiteout. Maybe he wound up with Bill Timmons, the gas station man. I like to think so; that he was with somebody at the end. They must have lost their bearings completely and gone into the water. They were the two who were never found.

COUNSELOR

There's a great deal of this story you haven't told me, isn't there?

(silence from MOLLY) Until you do, until you tell someone, it will keep festering.

MOLLY

It will fester no matter what I do. Some wounds can never be cleaned out. I didn't understand that . . . before . . . but now I do.

COUNSELOR

Why does your husband hate you so, Molly? What really happened to Ralphie?

CAMERA MOVES IN ON MOLLY. She is still looking out the window. It's sunny in the COUNSELOR'S yard; the grass is green and there are flowers . . . but it's SNOWING. The snow falls thickly, coating the grass and the walks, heaping on the leafy branches of the trees.

We MOVE IN ON MOLLY, MOVE IN TO EXTREME CLOSE-UP as she looks out on the falling snow.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 367

MOLLY

He wandered away. People do, you know. They get lost. That's what happened to Ralphie. He was lost in the white-out. He was lost in the storm.

DISSOLVE TO:

157 EXTERIOR: THE FERRY MORNING.

It's trudging its way across the reach to Machias. The cars are parked on the apron at the back, MIKE'S among them. MIKE himself stands alone at the rail, his face up, the ocean breeze blowing his hair back from his forehead. He looks almost at peace.

MIKE (voice-over)

Nine years ago, that was. I just gassed my car and left on the 11:10 ferry. I've never been back.

DISSOLVE TO:

158 INTERIOR: THE COUNSELOR'S OFFICE MORNING.

MOLLY'S session is over. The clock on the wall reads 11:55. She stands at the COUNSELOR'S

desk, writing a check. The COUNSELOR looks at her with a troubled expression, knowing that she has lost, and once again the island has won. The secret whatever it is has been kept.

Neither of them see MIKE'S little white car go by.

MIKE (voice-over) I didn't think about where I was going, at first I just drove.

159 EXTERIOR: MIKE, THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD OF HIS CAR SUNSET.

He's wearing dark glasses against the BRIGHT ORANGE GLOW. Reflected in each lens is a SETTING SUN.

266

MIKE (voice-over)

All I cared about was that I had to wear sunglasses every night when the sun went down. That every mile on the odometer was a mile further away from Little Tall.

160 EXTERIOR: THE AMERICAN DESERT MIDDAY.

Two-lane blacktop runs through the middle of the frame. The white car enters, moving fast, and THE CAMERA SWINGS TO FOLLOW.

368 STEPHEN KING

MIKE (voice-over)

The divorce was no-fault. Moll got the bank accounts, the insurance, the store, the house, and a little piece of land we had in Vanceboro. I got the Toyota and the peace of mind, (pause) What was left of it.

161 EXTERIOR: THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE TWILIGHT.

MIKE (voice-over)

I wound up here . . . back on the water again. Ironic I guess, huh? But it's different, somehow, the Pacific. It doesn't have that hard glow when the days start to run down toward winter, (pause) And it doesn't have the same memories.

162 EXTERIOR: A SKYSCRAPER ON MONTGOMERY STREET, SAN FRANCISCO DAY.

MIKE comes out an older MIKE, with gray at his temples and lines on his face but one who looks as if he's made his peace with the world. Or found some. He wears a suit (casual, no tie) and carries a briefcase. He and the man with him walk to a sedan parked at the curb. It pulls out into traffic, swinging around a cable car. Over this, MIKE talks.

MIKE (voice-over)

I went back to school, got a degree in law enforcement and another one in accountancy. Thought about going after a law degree . . . and then thought again. Started out keeping store on an island off the Maine coast and wound up a federal marshal. How do you like that?

163 EXTERIOR: MIKE, THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD DAY. JL

His partner is driving. MIKE sits quietly in the shotgun seat, his eyes distant. It's the look of a man visiting along memory lane.

MIKE (voice-over)

Sometimes the island seems very far away, and Andre Linoge just a bad dream I had. Sometimes

. . . when I wake up late at night, trying not to scream ... it seems very close. And, as I said way back at the beginning, I keep in touch.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 369

164 EXTERIOR: THE LITTLE TALL GRAVEYARD DAY.

MOURNERS move between the gravestones toward a newly dug grave, bearing a coffin (we see this from the middle distance). Fall leaves rush past in RATTLING BURSTS OF COLOR.

MIKE (voice-over)

Melinda Hatcher died in October of 1990. The local paper said it was a heart attack; Ursula Godsoe sent me the clipping. I don't know if there was more to it or not. Thirty-five's young for your pump to quit, but it happens . . . ayuh. Shoah, deah.

165 EXTERIOR: THE LITTLE TALL METHODIST CHURCH DAY.

267

It's late spring. Cheerful flowers shout color along the walk leading from the front door. Faintly, we can hear the TRIUMPHAL ORGAN STRAINS of "The Wedding March." The doors burst open. Out comes MOLLY, laughing and radiant in her wedding dress. There are still lines on her face, but her graying hair is hidden. Beside her, dressed in a morning coat and clasping her waist, is HATCH. He looks as happy as she does. Behind them, holding up MOLLY'S train with one hand and clutching a bouquet in the other, is PIPPA, now bigger and with beautiful long hair. Her days of getting her head stuck between the banister posts are pretty well behind her. People follow, FLINGING RICE. Among them, smiling like a proud papa, is REV. BOB RIGGINS.

MIKE (voice-over)

Molly and Hatch married in May of '93. Ursula sent me that clipping, too. From what I hear, they've been good for each other . . . and for Pippa. I'm glad. I wish the three of them every happiness. I mean that with all my heart.

166 INTERIOR: A CHEESY RENTED ROOM NIGHT.

MIKE (voice-over) Not everyone from Little Tail's been so lucky.

THE CAMERA TRACKS ACROSS THE ROOM, past a rumpled, unmade bed that looks like it has seen its share of bad dreams. The bathroom door is ajar, and THE CAMERA PUSHES THROUGH.

370 STEPHEN KING

MIKE (voice-over)

Jack and Angie Carver divorced about two months after Hatch and Molly got married. Jack fought for custody of Buster it was pretty bitter, I guess and lost. He moved off-island, to Lewiston, rented a room, and killed himself there one night in the late summer of 1994.

The bathroom window is OPEN. Through it, FAINTLY, we can hear the SOUND of a bar band lashing its way through "Hang On Sloopy." JACK CARVER is lying in a dry bathtub with a plastic bag pulled down over his head. THE CAMERA MOVES IN RELENTLESSLY . . . until we can see the paisley eye patch over one eye.

MIKE (voice-over)

He left what little he had to a fellow named Harmon Brodsky, who lost an eye in a barroom fight back in the eighties.

167 EXTERIOR: LITTLE TALL ISLAND, FROM THE REACH MORNING.

It's still except for the SLOW TOLL OF A BELL BUOY and a little ghostly, misted in shades of gray. We can see that the town dock has been rebuilt, and there's a fish warehouse there, as well . .

. only it's a different color from PETER'S, and the sign along the side reads BEALS FANCY FISH

instead of GODSOE FISH & LOBSTER.

Now, as THE CAMERA BEGINS TO PULL BACK, we also hear THE LAP OF WATER against the side of a boat. It comes into view a small rowboat riding on the swell. During this: MIKE (voice-over)

Robbie Beals rebuilt the old fish house on the town dock, and hired Kirk Freeman to work there.

Kirk said Robbie's wife Sandra came down there one early morning in the spring of 1996, dressed in her yellow slicker and red boots, and told him she wanted to go for a little row. Kirk made her put on a life-preserver ... he said he didn't like the way she looked.

THE CAMERA reaches the boat and RISES, showing us the prow. Neatly folded there is a yellow fisherman's slicker. A pair of red

STORM OF THE CENTURY 371

galoshes stand beside it, and placed around their toes like a collar is a Mae West.

268

MIKE (voice-over)

He said it was like she was dreaming with her eyes open . . . but what could he do? It was a mild morning, no wind, not much of a swell . . . and she was the boss's wife. They found the boat, but they didn't find Sandy. There was one strange thing . . .

CAMERA SLIPS ALONG the length of the boat. Written across the rear seat in either red paint or lipstick is a single word: "CROATON."

MIKE (voice-over)

. . . but they didn't know what to make of it. There were people on the island who maybe could have helped them a little there . . .

168 INTERIOR: THE TOWN OFFICE, WITH URSULA DAY.

A couple of STATE POLICEMEN are talking to her (we don't need to hear them; this can be MOS

[without sound]), no doubt asking questions, and she is shaking her head politely. Sorry, officers . .

. nope . . . can't imagine . . . and so on.

MIKE (voice-over)

. . . but island folk can keep a secret. We kept our share back in 1989, and the people who live there keep them still. As for Sandra Beals, she's presumed drowned, and her seven years are up in 2003. Robbie'11 no doubt have her declared officially dead as soon as '03 comes around on the calendar. Tough, I know, but . . .

169 EXTERIOR: LITTLE TALL ISLAND, FROM THE OCEAN DAY

MIKE (voice-over)

(continues)

. . . this is a cash-and-carry world, pay as you go. Sometimes you only have to pay a little, but mostly it's a lot. And once in a while it's all you have. That's a lesson I thought I learned nine years ago, on Little Tall, during the Storm of the Century . . .

A

372 STEPHEN KING

SLOW DISSOLVE TO:

170 EXTERIOR: SAN FRANCISCO, STOCK SHOT DAY.

MIKE (voice-over)

. . . but I was wrong. I only started learning during the big blow. I finished just last week.

171 EXTERIOR: A BUSY DOWNTOWN STREET DAY.

Lots of folks are shopping. We MOVE IN on an upscale deli one or two storefronts up from the corner, and MIKE comes out. It's his day off, and he's dressed casually light jacket, jeans, and a T-shirt. He's got a couple of shopping bags in his arms, and he juggles them, trying to snag his keys out of his pants pocket as he angles toward the curb and his car.

Coming in the other direction, entering the frame with their backs to us, are a MAN and a TEENAGE BOY. The MAN is dressed in a gray topcoat and homburg hat. He carries a cane with a silver wolf's head. The BOY with him is wearing an Oakland As jacket and jeans. MIKE will pass them on the way to his car, but he takes no particular notice of them at first. He's gotten his keys out; now he's trying to peer at them over one of his bags just enough so he can see which one will unlock the door. Then, just as the MAN and TEENAGE BOY reach MIKE: 269

LINOGE

(sings) "I'm a little teapot, short and stout. . . ."

BOY

(joining in) "Here is my handle, here is my spout. . . ."

MIKE'S face fills with terrible recognition. The keys fall from his fingers and the shopping bags SAG in his arms as he turns and sees:

172 EXTERIOR: LINOGE AND THE BOY, FROM MIKE'S POINT OF VIEW (SLOW MOTION) DAY.

They are already passing MIKE, and there's only time for a glimpse, even in SLOW MOTION. Yes, it's LINOGE beneath the homburg, now looking not like a psychotic fisherman but like a ruthless businessman, and not thirty-five but sixty-five.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 373

The BOY with him smiling up at him and HARMONIZING PRETTILY on the well-loved old nonsense-jingle is a handsome child of fourteen. His hair is MOLLY'S shade. His eyes are MIKE'S

shade. And lying across his nose, faint but still visible, is the fairy-saddle birthmark.

LINOGE AND RALPHIE

(echoing dreamlike voices)

"You can pick me up and pour me out. . . . I'm a little teapot, short and stout!"

During this, we lose our angle on their faces which we have seen for only that heartbreakingly brief moment, anyway. Now they are only a pair of backs: a well-dressed man and the child of his late middle age, heading for the corner. And beyond the corner, for anywhere.

173 EXTERIOR: RESUME MIKE DAY.

He stands where he is, BAGS SAGGING IN HIS ARMS, thunderstruck. His mouth opens and closes soundlessly . . . and then, at last, a whisper comes out. . .

MIKE Rah . . . Rah . . . Ralphie . . . Ralphie? RALPHIE!

174 EXTERIOR: LINOGE AND RALPHIE DAY.

They are beyond the deli. Almost to the corner. They stop. And look back.

175 EXTERIOR: RESUME MIKE DAY.

He drops the bags from his arms stuff inside smashes and RUNS.

MIKE RALPHIE!

176 EXTERIOR: LINOGE AND RALPHIE DAY.

RALPHIE'S mouth opens; he HISSES LIKE A SNAKE. His good looks are gone in an instant, as the FANGS beneath his lips are revealed. His eyes DARKEN and become BLACK, shot through with WRITHING RED LINES. He raises hands that are hooked into talons, as if to claw MIKE'S face open.

374 STEPHEN KING

LINOGE puts an arm around his shoulders and (without taking his eyes away from MIKE) urges RALPHIE to turn. Then they sweep around the corner together.

177 EXTERIOR: RESUME MIKE DAY.

He stops outside the deli, his face filled with DISMAY and SICKENED HORROR. Pedestrians stream 270

around him, some looking at him curiously, but MIKE takes no notice.

MIKE Ralphie!

He dashes for the corner and goes around.

178 EXTERIOR: MIKE DAY.

He comes to a stop, eyes searching.

179 EXTERIOR: THE STREET, FROM MIKE'S POINT OF VIEW DAY.

People come and go on the sidewalks, or dart across the street, or hail taxis, or get newspapers from curbside vending machines. There is no man in a gray topcoat. There is no boy in an Oakland As jacket.

180 EXTERIOR: RESUME MIKE.

LINOGE (voice-over) He'll come to love me. (pause) He'll come to call me Father.

MIKE slumps against the wall and closes his eyes. From beneath one of those closed lids, a single tear slips. A YOUNG WOMAN comes around the corner and looks at him with cautious sympathy.

YOUNG WOMAN

Mister, are you all right?

MIKE

(doesn't open his eyes) Yes. I just need a minute.

YOUNG WOMAN

You dropped your groceries. Some of it's probably okay, but some of the stuff broke.

f

'

STORM OF THE CENTURY 375 MIKE now opens his eyes and does his best to smile at her.

MIKE Ayuh, some of the stuff broke. I heard it.

YOUNG WOMAN

(smiling) What kind of accent is that?

MIKE The kind you learn on the other side of the world.

YOUNG WOMAN

What happened? Did you trip?

MIKE

I thought I saw someone I knew, and I just kind of ... lost my grip for a second there.

He looks down the street one more time. He reached the corner seconds after LINOGE and RALPHIE turned it, they should be right there, but they're not . . . and MIKE isn't really surprised.

YOUNG WOMAN

I could help you pick up the stuff that's still okay, if you wanted. Look, I got this.

271

She reaches into her coat pocket and brings out a crumpled-up net shopping bag. She holds it out to him, smiling tentatively.

*

MIKE That would be very kind.

They go around the corner together.

181 EXTERIOR: MIKE AND THE YOUNG WOMAN, A HIGH ANGLE DAY.

As they approach his car and the spilled groceries, we see them from above . . . then BOOM

HIGHER YET, TURNING AND LOSING THEM. Now we see the bright blue sky and water of San Francisco Bay, with the bridge spanning it like a dream that has begun to rust a little around the edges.

376 STEPHEN KING

There are swooping gulls . . . we track one of them . . . we: DISSOLVE TO:

182 EXTERIOR: SWOOPING GULL DAY.

We follow it, then BOOM DOWN to discover Little Tall Island, and the town hall. There's a car parked at the curb. Three people walk toward the cupola that holds the plaques and the memorial bell. One a WOMAN walks ahead of the other two.

MIKE (voice-over)

I could have written Molly and told her. I thought about it ... I even prayed about it. When every choice hurts, how do you tell which one's the right one? In the end, I kept silent. Sometimes, mostly late at night when I can't sleep, I think that was wrong. But in daylight, I know better.

183 EXTERIOR: THE CUPOLA ON THE TOWN HALL LAWN DAY.

MOLLY approaches it slowly. In her hands she has a bouquet of flowers. Her face is serene and sad and quite beautiful. Behind her, HATCH and PIPPA stand at the edge of the grass, HATCH with his arm around his daughter's shoulders.

MOLLY kneels at the base of the plaque commemorating those lost in the Storm of the Century.

She puts her flowers at the base of this plaque. She is crying a little now. She kisses her fingers, then presses them to her son's name.

She gets up and walks back to where HATCH and PIPPA wait. HATCH puts his arms around her and hugs her.

184 EXTERIOR: LITTLE TALL ISLAND, LONG DAY.

MIKE (voice-over) In daylight I know better.

FADE TO BLACK.