ll 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.]

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

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 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

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

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 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.

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

Couldn't have said it better myself, Lin.

MIKE But

MANY VOICES

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