nd 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.

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

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

(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.

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.

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!

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.

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.