NGIE

I was just standing there, you see, watching the lighthouse. And then ... I was his.

MOLLY

Shhh. It's over.

ANGIE

I feel like I'll never be warm again. I've burned my fingers . . . see, they're red . . . but they're still cold. I feel like he turned me to snow.

MOLLY Mike's got to ask you some questions, but it doesn't have to

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be here do you want to go somewhere more private? Because you can, if you want to.

She looks to MIKE for confirmation, and MIKE nods. ANGIE, meanwhile, gathers herself with an effort.

ANGIE

No . . . this is for everyone. Everyone should hear.

Fascinated and frightened at the same time, the ISLANDERS move in closer.

REV. BOB RIGGINS What happened to you, Angie Carver?

During what follows, THE CAMERA PUSHES SLOWLY IN ON ANGIE, moving to CLOSE-UP. Intercut with this, let us see as many ISLANDER FACES as possible. On each we see the horror, the terror, and the growing belief in what she's saying, strange as it is. There are supposedly no atheists in the foxholes, and maybe no disbelievers when the Storm of the Century is huffing and puffing and threatening to blow the house down. This is a quasi-religious experience, and by the end we see one solidified idea that really doesn't need verbal expression: when LINOGE shows up, they'll give it to him. Whatever it is he wants, they will give it to him. "Ayuh, deah shoah!" as the ISLANDERS themselves might say.

ANGIE

We were watching the lighthouse fall down, and then I went flying backward into the snow. At first I thought it was somebody's idea of a joke, but then I turned around and what had me ... it wasn't a man. It wore a man's clothes and had a man's face, but there was just blackness where its eyes should have been blackness and little red twisting things, like snakes on fire. And when it smiled at me and I saw its teeth ... I fainted. First time in my life. I fainted.

She sips from the cup. The room is completely silent. MOLLY and JACK sit with their arms around her. ANGIE is still clutching MOLLY'S hand.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 283

ANGIE

When I came to, I was flying. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true. Me and George Kirby, we were both flying. It was like Peter Pan, with me as Wendy and old George as John. That . . . that thing had us, one under each arm. And right ahead of us, as if it was leading us or holding us up, there was a cane. A black cane with a silver wolfs head. As fast as we flew, that cane always stayed ahead of us.

MIKE and HATCH lock eyes.

ANGIE (continues)

It was the island we saw. The storm was over and the sun was out, but there were cops on snowmobiles everywhere. Mainland cops, state cops, even game wardens. News people, too, from the local stations and the networks. They were all looking for us. Only we were gone . . . gone where nobody could ever find us ...

ORV BOUCHER

Like in the dreams . . .

ANGIE

Yes, like that. Then it got dark again. At first I thought it was night, but it wasn't. It was the storm clouds. They were back and the sunshine was gone. Pretty soon it started snowing again, and I understood what was happening. I said, "You showed us the future, didn't you? Like the last ghost showed Mr. Scrooge the future in A Christmas Carol." And he said, "Yessum, that's very smart of you. Now you best hang on tight." We started to go up, and the snow got thicker, and old George started to cry and talk about how he couldn't stand it because of his arthritis, he had to get down . . . although it wasn't cold a bit; at least it didn't seem that way to me. And then the man laughed and said that was fine, George could go down right away if he wanted to, and by the express route, too . . . because he only needed one of us, really, to come back and tell. We were just going into the clouds by then

JONAS STANHOPE It was a dream, Angie; it must have been.

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ANGIE

I tell you it wasn't. I could feel the clouds, not cold the way you'd think snow clouds would be, but damp, like wet cotton. And George saw what it meant to do, and he screamed, but the thing that had us opened its right arm ... it had me in its left . . . and . . .

33 EXTERIOR: OLD GEORGE KIRBY NIGHT.

He FALLS AWAY FROM THE CAMERA, SCREAMING and waving his arms. He disappears into the dark and the snow.

34 EXTERIOR: RESUME ANGIE AND THE GATHERED ISLANDERS LATE AFTERNOON.

JACK Then what happened?

ANGIE

He told me he was bringing me back. Back through time, and back through the storm. He was letting me live to tell you to tell everyone that we have to give him what he wants when he comes tonight.

ROBBIE

If we have something this man Linoge wants, why doesn't he just take it?

ANGIE

I don't think he can. I think we have to give it to him. (pause) He told me to tell you that he'll only ask once. He asked me if I'd remember Roanoke, and Croaton, and that he'll only ask once. And I said yes. Because I knew if I said no, or even asked him to explain anything, he'd drop me the way he dropped George. He didn't have to tell me. I just knew. Then we stopped going up. We did a rollover in the air, and my stomach went way up in my throat, like it was a county fair carnival ride we were on instead of being way up in the air . . . and I fainted again, I guess. Or maybe he did something to me. I don't know. The next thing I was sure of, I was stumbling around in the snow . . . the whiteout . . . and I could hear a horn ... I thought, "The lighthouse must not have blown down after all, because I can hear the

STORM OF THE CENTURY 285

foghorn ..." I tried to go toward it ... and I saw someone coming out of the snow . . . and I thought it was him . . . him again, meaning to take me back into the air again . . . only this time he'd drop me . . . and I tried to run . . . but it was you, Jack. It was you.

She puts her head against his shoulder, exhausted by the effort this has taken. There is a beat of silence. Then:

JILL ROBICHAUX

(shrill) Why us? Why us?

Several beats of silence. Then:

4

TAVIA GODSOE Maybe because he knows we can keep a secret.

35 INTERIOR: THE BASEMENT DAY-CARE AREA LATE AFTERNOON.

KIDS

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

CAT WITHERS is still standing in the middle of the circle, holding her place in The Little Puppy. We can see that she's freaked but is trying to hide this from the KIDS. MELINDA and JOANNA are still on the stairs. Now, joining them, is KIRK FREEMAN, still dressed for outdoors and with a pile of the toys and puzzles he and MIKE picked up at Wee Folks.

CAT

If you want to sing, kids, maybe we could sing something else for a change? "London Bridge" or "The Farmer in the Dell" or ...

She gives up. They're not listening. They hardly seem there. Once normal, happy preschool children, they have become spookily distant.

KIDS

(sing) " Here is my handle, here is my spout. You can pick "

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They stop on the word "pick," and they do it all at the same time, as neat as a lock of hair snipped by a barber's shears. Now they just stand in a circle around CAT.

KIRK

I brought these games and What? What's going on?

36 INTERIOR: CAT AND THE CHILDREN, CLOSER LATE AFTERNOON.

Oh, this is freaky. She looks from one to the next, and the normal vivacity of young children has left their faces; they are Cult City. Eyes like big zeros. Just standing there.

CAT

Buster?

(no answer) Heidi?

(no answer) Pippa?

(no answer) Ralphie? Are you all right?

(no answer)

STORM OF THE CENTURY 287

MELINDA HATCHER hurries into the circle, almost knocking SALLY GODSOE and HARRY ROBICHAUX over. She kneels by PIPPA and grabs her arms.

MELINDA Pippa, what's wrong, honey?

CAT bursts out of the circle. She's had enough.

37 INTERIOR: ON THE STAIRS, WITH CAT, JOANNA, AND KIRK FREEMAN.

KIRK

What is it? What's wrong with them?

CAT

(starting to cry)

I don't know . . . but their eyes . . . oh, God, there's nothing there.

38 INTERIOR: MELINDA AND PIPPA, CLOSE-UP.

CAT is right PIPPA'S eyes are scary in their emptiness, and although her mother shakes her harder and harder this is panic, not anger there is no result.

MELINDA

Pippa, wake up! Wake up!

She tries chafing PIPPA'S hands. No result. She looks around wildly.

MELINDA All of you, wake up!

39 INTERIOR: RALPHIE, CLOSE-UP.

His head turns a little, and the life comes back into his eyes. He smiles. It's almost as if he's heard her and is responding . . . except he's not even looking in MELINDA'S direction.

RALPHIE Look!

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He points toward the shelf with the bag of marbles on it.

40 INTERIOR: THE BASEMENT DAY-CARE CENTER LATE AFTERNOON.

Everyone looks. The KIDS light up, just as RALPHIE did. What are they looking at that pleases them so? The marbles? No, that doesn't seem to be it. Their eyes are fixed a little lower . . . but there's nothing there.

HEIDI

(delighted) It's got a doggy head! A silver doggy head! How cool!

CAT suddenly understands and is horrified.

CAT

(to KIRK) Go get Mike.

JOANNA STANHOPE I don't understand what

CAT Right now.

KIRK turns and does what she says, dropping the games and puzzles heedlessly on the stairs.

41 INTERIOR: DON REALS, CLOSE-UP.

DON

A doggy head! Yeah!

42 INTERIOR: THE SHELF, FROM DON'S POINT OF VIEW.

Hanging from the shelf is LINOGE'S cane. The SILVER SNARLING WOLF'S HEAD is now a FRIENDLY, GRINNING SAINT BERNARD.

43 INTERIOR: RESUME THE CIRCLE OF KIDS.

MELINDA still kneels in front of PIPPA, but PIPPA is looking over her head, like the others.

STORM OF THE CENTURY 289

PIPPA

A doggy! A doggy!

Bewildered and afraid, MELINDA turns to look. Nothing there.

44 INTERIOR: THE TOWN MEETING HALL LATE AFTERNOON.

MIKE is just getting up from the stage. The interview with ANGELA is over.

f.

MIKE (to JACK)

Why don't you see if you can get her to lie down for a little while?

JACK That's a good

KIRK comes bursting through the clustered ISLANDERS.

KIRK Mike! Mike, there's somethin' wrong with the kids!

FRIGHTENED MURMURS from the ISLANDERS ... but some do more than just MURMUR JILL and ANDY, MIKE and MOLLY, ROBBIE and SANDY, the BRIGHTS, HATCH, URSULA ... the parents BOLT FOR THE STAIRS.

ANGIE

(as if waking up) Buster? Is something wrong with Buster? Buster! Buster!

She is up in a flash, knocking the cup of broth from JACK'S HAND.

JACK Honey, wait

ANGIE

(ignores him) Buster!

290 STEPHEN KING

45 INTERIOR: BUSTER, CLOSE-UP.

He breaks from the circle and runs to the shelf, where the cane hangs by the crook of its neck. He touches it ... and crumples to the floor as if shot.

46 INTERIOR: THE DAY-CARE AREA, WIDER LATE AFTERNOON.

The rest of the children follow BUSTER'S lead. They are laughing and excited, like kids who have just been given free all-day passes to Disneyland. They reach out to thin air ... or to something only they can see ... and one by one CRUMPLE TO THE FLOOR, joining BUSTER.

CAT

No! Don't let them

A gaggle of FRIGHTENED PARENTS, led by JILL and ANDY, appear at the head of the stairs.

ROBBIE

Get out of my way!

He shoves JILL aside would have knocked her right downstairs, if not for ANDY'S last-second grab and goes pelting down to the basement.

CAT ignores all this and runs across the room. HARRY ROBICHAUX touches thin air and falls down with the others. Now there's only RALPHIE ANDERSON and PIPPA, who is back where the circle was. PIPPA is struggling in her mother's grip. CAT grabs RALPHIE and pulls him back as he reaches up to touch . . . well, to touch whatever it is he sees.

PIPPA

Let me go! Wanna see doggy! Wanna see DOGGY!!

47 INTERIOR: CAT AND RALPHIE, CLOSE-UP.

CAT doesn't see the cane hanging down from the shelf, but in this shot we do ... and RALPHIE does, too. He reaches for it ... almost touches it ... and CAT pulls him back out of reach.

CAT

Ralphie, what do you see?

STORM OF THE CENTURY 291

RALPHIE

(struggling wildly) Let me go! Let me go!

He reaches again . . . CAT pulls him back again . . . and then ROBBIE BEALS comes cannonading into her, wanting only to reach DON, who is lying in the pile of tangled limbs with his eyes closed and doughnut crumbs still on his mouth. CAT, meanwhile, loses her grip on RALPHIE and goes sprawling.

ROBBIE

(to his knees) Donnie!

RALPHIE is free. He lunges forward and touches the cane. For a moment we see a DEEP AND PERFECT BLISS on his face.

RALPHIE

Neat!

His eyes roll up to whites, and he sprawls with the others.

48 INTERIOR: PIPPA AND MELINDA, CLOSE-UP.

PIPPA is now the only child left-. She struggles furiously with her mother, tearing her shirt in her efforts to get free, her eyes continually turning to the area above the tangle of KIDS.

MELINDA Pippa . . . Pippa, no ...

PIPPA Let me go!

HATCH comes pelting down the stairs and runs toward his wife and his daughter.

HATCH

Pippa! What's wr

MELINDA turns some of her attention toward her husband. A bad

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mistake. PIPPA'S sweet little face twists into an expression of rage, and she claws at her mother's cheek, drawing blood in three lines.

PIPPA

Let me go you BITCH!

Stunned both by the pain and by the word her daughter has used, MELINDA loosens her grip. Only a little, and only for a moment, but it's enough. PIPPA tears out of her grasp and races across the room.

HATCH

Honey, no!

He goes after her.

49 INTERIOR: PIPPA, CLOSE-UP.

HATCH loses the race. PIPPA touches the cane an instant before he can grab her around the waist. We see that same BLISSFUL EXPRESSION on her face, and then she SWOONS AWAY with the others.

HATCH