MELINDA
What's going on?
280 STEPHEN KING
CAT I don't know ... I guess they want to sing.
KIDS
". . . Here is my handle, here is my spout. You can pick me up and pour me out. . . . I'm a little teapot, short and stout."
MOLLY doesn't like it. There's a shelf with a few books on it to her right. Also on it is the chamois bag with the MARBLES in it. MOLLY glances at this, then goes quietly upstairs.
f
32 INTERIOR: THE TOWN MEETING HALL AFTERNOON.
ANGIE CARVER is sitting on one of the front benches. She has been bundled into a warm, quilted housecoat, and there's a towel over her wet hair. JACK sits solicitously beside her, helping her with a cup of steaming broth. She can't seem to manage it herself, because her hands are shaking badly.
Sitting on the edge of the stage, facing her, is MIKE ANDERSON. Behind them, on the other benches (and on the edge of their seats, you could say) are most of Little Tail's storm refugees.
HATCH weaves his way to the front among them, and sits down next to MIKE. HATCH looks pretty well exhausted.
HATCH
213
(eyeing the onlookers) You want me to move them out?
MIKE
Think you could?
He's got a point, and HATCH knows it. MOLLY comes in, slips through the crowd, goes to MIKE, and sits beside him on the stage, attempting to have a private moment in a very public place.
MOLLY
(low) The kids're acting funny.
STORM OF THE CENTURY 281
MIKE (also low) Funny how?
MOLLY
Singing. Cat was reading them a story, and they just stood up and started singing.
(sees MIKE'S puzzlement) I know it doesn't sound like much . . .
MIKE
If you say it's funny, it's funny. I'll come and take a look as soon as I finish here.
He tips his eyes in ANGIE'S direction. ANGIE speaks . . . but not to MIKE or JACK or anyone in particular.
ANGIE
Now I know how easy it is to just get. . . yanked out of the world. I wish I didn't, but I do.
JACK offers her the cup of broth again, but when ANGIE puts her hands on it, they're shaking so badly she spills it and CRIES OUT when the liquid scalds her. MOLLY takes a handkerchief from her pocket, sits down beside her, and wipes the hot broth from her fingers. ANGIE looks at her gratefully and takes MOLLY'S hand. She grips it hard. It's comfort she needs, not a cleanup.
ANGIE
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 282 STEPHEN KING
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
214
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.
215
284 STEPHEN KING
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.