MOLLY
202
And if you go out there, you'll be lost, too. If they're there, they'll come to the horn. Same as in a fog, at sea. You know that.
JACK I'll go out spell Ferd.
MOLLY Hatch said
JACK
Alton Hatcher can't tell me what to do that's my wife out there!
She can't stop him this time, so she gets up with him. Behind them, SANDRA comes in from the town office area, looks around, spots her husband and son.
MOLLY
Go to the truck, then, but just to the truck. Don't go wandering off on your own.
But JACK can promise her no such thing. He's totally distracted. MOLLY watches sadly as he goes up the aisle, then follows herself. SANDRA, meanwhile, is looking around. She doesn't see MOLLY
yet.
264 STEPHEN KING
SANDRA (to DON) Where's Ralphie?
DON
(munching his doughnut) I dunno. !
SANDRA
But didn't he come upstairs with you?
MOLLY is in time to hear this and is of course immediately concerned.
DON
Nah, he 'us pickin up with the rest of 'em. Dad, can I have another doughnut?
MOLLY (to SANDRA)
He's not down there? What are you saying, that he's not with the others?
SANDRA
(flustered)
I didn't see . . . Cat started to cry . . . she dropped her cup and broke it ...
MOLLY You were supposed to be watching them!
SANDRA winces. She's been married to ROBBIE for ten years and is used to being blamed when things go wrong.
ROBBIE
(the usual bluster) I hardly think that tone is
MOLLY
(ignores him) You were supposed to be watching them!
(she breaks for the stairs) Ralphie! Ralphie!
203
STORM OF THE CENTURY 265
7 EXTERIOR: THE ISLAND MARKET AFTERNOON.
The men are clustered at the Sno-Cat, handing loaded cartons to MIKE, who stows them in the back. MIKE SHOUTS TO BE HEARD over the storm as the last box goes in.
MIKE
One more trip! Sonny, you and Henry get the bread and rolls! Everything on the shelves! Kirk, you want to grab at least a hundred pounds of potatoes! I'll get the milk! Let's go I want to get back as soon as we can!
They go single file into the cut in the drift, SONNY and HENRY BRIGHT first, followed by MIKE and KIRK. SONNY and HENRY go inside. MIKE is about to follow, then stops so suddenly that KIRK just about runs into him.
KIRK
What the hell?
MIKE has stopped at the mannequin set up on the porch HATCH'S joke at ROBBIE BEALS'S
expense. The mannequin is now almost completely buried, and although the face is covered with wind-driven snow and the figure is still dressed in the lobsterman's slicker, we can see it's not the same figure.
266 STEPHEN KING
MIKE brushes FROZEN SNOW away from the face. It's MRS. KINGS-BURY. She's frozen solid.
KIRK stares in dismay as MIKE digs into the snow around the dummy's neck and pulls out a new joke sign . . . only now the joke is on them. "GIVE ME WHAT I WANT AND I'LL GO AWAY," it says.
The two men stare at each other in horror.
8 EXTERIOR: THE TOWN HALL AFTERNOON.
SOUND OF HORN CONTINUES EVEN, REGULAR BLASTS.
MOLLY (voice-over) Ralphie! Ralphie!
9 INTERIOR: THE DAY-CARE AREA OF THE BASEMENT AFTERNOON. SOUND OF HORN, MUFFLED.
MOLLY is frantic, looking everywhere for RALPHIE, who isn't here. CAT and UPTON BELL have drawn together in fright. ROBBIE, DON, TESS MARCHANT, and TAVIA GODSOE are on the stairs.
SALLY GODSOE sees her aunt and runs to her. The other children huddle, dismayed.
PIPPA
I said he didn't go with Don
All the other adults are gathering some from the seats around the now-useless TV, some from upstairs, some from the sleeping area. One is URSULA GODSOE, looking blasted with grief.
URSULA Oh, God, what now?
MOLLY ignores her. She goes to PIPPA, kneels in front of her, and grasps her gently by the arms.
She peers into PIPPA'S frightened face.
MOLLY Where was Ralphie when you saw him last, Pippa?
PIPPA thinks about it, then points to the area between the stairs and the wall. MOLLY looks in that direction, and sees the door marked CUSTODIAN. There is TOTAL SILENCE except for the 204
MUFFLED,
IL
STORM OF THE CENTURY 267
REGULAR BLASTS OF THE HORN as MOLLY goes toward that door, afraid of what she may find.
She reaches for the knob but can't bring herself to touch it, let alone turn it.
MOLLY
Ralphie? Ralphie, are you
RALPHIE (voice)
Mommy? Mom?
Oh, boy, the relief. It's as if somebody let the air out of everyone in the room, KIDS included.
MOLLY'S reserves of strength are gone. She begins to cry as she tears the door open.
RALPHIE is standing there in the custodian's closet, happy, excited, unhurt, and unaware there's been any fuss about him. His expression turns to one of puzzlement as his mother sweeps him up into her arms. In the general excitement we may or may not notice that RALPHIE has a SMALL
LEATHER BAG in one hand, the kind with a drawstring at the top.
RALPHIE
Hey, Mom wassup?
MOLLY What are you doing in there? You scared the life out of me!
.<- RALPHIE
The man was in there. He wanted to see me.
MOLLY
Man ?
RALPHIE
The one Daddy arrested. Except I don't think he's a bad man, Mom, because MOLLY sets RALPHIE down and sweeps him behind her so hard and fast that he almost falls over.
UPTON grabs the kid and hands him to JONAS STANHOPE and ANDY ROBICHAUX, who have pushed their way to the front of the semicircle of watching adults. MOLLY takes two steps into the doorway of the custodian's closet and looks at:
268 STEPHEN KING
10 INTERIOR: CUSTODIAN'S CLOSET, FROM MOLLY'S POINT OF VIEW.
There's plenty of cleaning gear on the shelves, plus the usual complement of brooms, mops, extra fluorescent lightbars, and there's no other exit. . . but there's no man.
11 INTERIOR: RESUME MOLLY.
She starts to turn back to RALPHIE, then stops as something catches her eye. She goes into the closet, instead.
12 INTERIOR: THE CUSTODIAN'S CLOSET, WITH MOLLY.
In the far corner is a piece of GREEN PAPER. It's a flyer for the Anderson's Market, advertising this week's specials. She picks it up and turns it over. Printed in red letters on the back is "GIVE ME
205
WHAT I WANT AND I'LL GO AWAY."
ANDY ROBICHAUX has stepped into the closet. She hands him the flyer.
MOLLY But what does he want?
ANDY can only shake his head. MOLLY leaves the closet.
13 INTERIOR: THE BASEMENT DAY-CARE AREA.
MOLLY goes to RALPHIE, who is standing with the other kids. They shrink back from him, thinking he's in trouble. RALPHIE looks up at his mom, clutching the little drawstring bag and hoping like mad that he's not in trouble.
MOLLY
Where did he go, Ralphie? Where did the man go?
RALPHIE peers past her, into the closet.
RALPHIE I
I don't know. He must have disappeared when I turned my I back. |
,*
DON
(from the stairs) There's no door in there for a guy to go out of, dumbkins.
STORM OF THE CENTURY 269 MOLLY
Shut up, Don Beals.
DON, unaccustomed to such real sharpness from MOLLY, shrinks back against his dad. ROBBIE
opens his mouth to say something reproving, then decides this might not be the best time.