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 246
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.
247
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
248
Couldn't have said it better myself, Lin.
MIKE But
MANY VOICES
Sit down . . . Call the question . . . Let's vote!
(etc.)
STORM OF THE CENTURY 339
ROBBIE
Will somebody move the question of who can vote? It's probably not parliamentary, but we have to move on. I'd prefer to hear from one of the parents.
A moment of TENSE SILENCE, then:
* 1
MELINDA HATCHER
I move everybody votes.
CARLA BRIGHT I second it.
MIKE This isn't
ANGIE Shut up! You've had your say, now just shut up!
ROBBIE
It's been moved and seconded that everyone be allowed to vote on whether or not to give Mr.
Linoge what he has demanded. Those in favor?
Every hand goes up except for MIKE'S. He sees that MOLLY has also raised her hand, sees she won't look at him, and something in him dies a little.
ROBBIE Those opposed?
Not a single hand goes up. MIKE simply sits in the front row, his head dropped.
ROBBIE
(whacks the gavel) The motion carries.
TESS MARCHANT Call the question, Robbie Beals. The real question.
340 STEPHEN KING
118 INTERIOR: THE BASEMENT, WITH LINOGE.
He looks up at the ceiling, EYES GLEAMING in the gloom. They're going to vote, and he knows it.
119 INTERIOR: RESUME TOWN MEETING HALL NIGHT.
JOANNA
For God's sake let's vote and have done!
MIKE
249
My son isn't a part of this. Let's understand that, all right? He's not a part of this . . . obscenity.
MOLLY Yes. He is.
UTTER SILENCE greets this. MIKE stands up and looks unbelievingly at his wife. They face each other that way across the length of the meeting hall.
MOLLY
We've never shirked our duty, Michael, we've taken part in all the life of this island, and we'll take part in this.
MIKE You don't mean it you can't mean it.
MOLLY I do.