It was a mistake for any of us to go out, especially the children. We underestimated the storm.
Several people wandered away and were lost. Ralphie was one of them. Angie Carver found her way back. None of the others did.
MIKE looks at the porch, where the sign has landed, then turns and walks down to his car. He puts the last couple of bags in and slams the trunk. As he starts around to the driver's side, digging the keys out of his pocket:
HATCH (voice) Mike?
364 STEPHEN KING
MIKE turns. HATCH, looking strange in a T-shirt and Bermuda shorts, walks up to where he stands. He looks painfully unhappy to be here. MIKE looks back at him coolly.
MIKE
If you've got something to say, best say it. Ferry leaves at 11:10, and I don't intend to miss it.
HATCH
Where you going?
(silence from MIKE) Don't, Michael. Don't leave.
(silence from MIKE)
Would it do you any good to tell you I haven't had a decent night's sleep since February?
(no answer from MIKE)
Would it do any good to tell you that . . . we might have been wrong?
MIKE Hatch, I have to get going.
HATCH
Robbie says to tell you the constable's job is yours again whenever you want it. All you have to do is ask.
MIKE
Tell him where he can park his job. I'm done here. I've tried until I can't try anymore.
He starts for the driver's door, and just before he swings in, HATCH touches his arm. MIKE whirls at that touch, eyes burning, as if he means to punch HATCH'S lights out. But HATCH doesn't flinch.
264
Maybe he thinks he deserves it.
HATCH
Molly needs you. Have you seen the way she is, now? Have you even looked?
MIKE You look for me. Okay?
STORM OF THE CENTURY 365
HATCH
(drops his eyes)
Melly isn't doing very well, either. She takes a lot of tranquil-izers. I think she might be hooked on them.
MIKE
Too bad. But . . . you've got your daughter, at least. You may not sleep so well, but you can go into Pippa's bedroom and watch her sleep any night you want. Can't you?
HATCH
You're as self-righteous as ever. Can't see it any way but your way.
MIKE swings behind the wheel and looks bleakly up at HATCH.
MIKE
I'm not anything. I'm empty scooped out as a gourd in November.
HATCH If you could just try to understand
MIKE
I understand that the ferry leaves at 11:10, and if I don't get moving now, I'm going to miss it.
Good luck, Hatch. Hope you catch up on your sleep.
He slams the car door, starts the engine, and pulls out onto Main Street. HATCH helplessly watches him go.
155 EXTERIOR: THE LAWN OF THE TOWN HALL MORNING.
THE CAMERA looks down toward Main Street and picks up MIKE'S car, heading toward the docks where the interisland ferry is backed up, ENGINE RUMBLING. We HOLD for a moment, then PAN
LEFT, to the cupola and the memorial bell. A second plaque has been added, to the right of the war dead. Heading it is this: THOSE LOST IN THE STORM OF THE CENTURY, 1989. Below are the names: MARTHA CLARENDON, PETER GODSOE, WILLIAM SOAMES, LLOYD WISHMAN, CORA STANHOPE, JANE KINGSBURY, WILLIAM TIMMONS, GEORGE KIRBY . . . and, at the very bottom, RALPH
ANDERSON.
I
366 STEPHEN KING
THE CAMERA MOVES IN ON HIS NAME.
156 INTERIOR: THE COUNSELOR'S OFFICE MORNING.
MOLLY has stopped talking and just looks out the window. Fresh tears well in her eyes and spill down her cheeks, but her weeping REMAINS SILENT.
COUNSELOR Molly . . . ?
265
MOLLY
He wandered away into the whiteout. Maybe he wound up with Bill Timmons, the gas station man. I like to think so; that he was with somebody at the end. They must have lost their bearings completely and gone into the water. They were the two who were never found.
COUNSELOR
There's a great deal of this story you haven't told me, isn't there?
(silence from MOLLY) Until you do, until you tell someone, it will keep festering.
MOLLY
It will fester no matter what I do. Some wounds can never be cleaned out. I didn't understand that . . . before . . . but now I do.
COUNSELOR
Why does your husband hate you so, Molly? What really happened to Ralphie?
CAMERA MOVES IN ON MOLLY. She is still looking out the window. It's sunny in the COUNSELOR'S yard; the grass is green and there are flowers . . . but it's SNOWING. The snow falls thickly, coating the grass and the walks, heaping on the leafy branches of the trees.
We MOVE IN ON MOLLY, MOVE IN TO EXTREME CLOSE-UP as she looks out on the falling snow.
STORM OF THE CENTURY 367
MOLLY
He wandered away. People do, you know. They get lost. That's what happened to Ralphie. He was lost in the white-out. He was lost in the storm.
DISSOLVE TO:
157 EXTERIOR: THE FERRY MORNING.
It's trudging its way across the reach to Machias. The cars are parked on the apron at the back, MIKE'S among them. MIKE himself stands alone at the rail, his face up, the ocean breeze blowing his hair back from his forehead. He looks almost at peace.
MIKE (voice-over)
Nine years ago, that was. I just gassed my car and left on the 11:10 ferry. I've never been back.
DISSOLVE TO:
158 INTERIOR: THE COUNSELOR'S OFFICE MORNING.
MOLLY'S session is over. The clock on the wall reads 11:55. She stands at the COUNSELOR'S
desk, writing a check. The COUNSELOR looks at her with a troubled expression, knowing that she has lost, and once again the island has won. The secret whatever it is has been kept.
Neither of them see MIKE'S little white car go by.
MIKE (voice-over) I didn't think about where I was going, at first I just drove.
159 EXTERIOR: MIKE, THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD OF HIS CAR SUNSET.
He's wearing dark glasses against the BRIGHT ORANGE GLOW. Reflected in each lens is a SETTING SUN.
266
MIKE (voice-over)
All I cared about was that I had to wear sunglasses every night when the sun went down. That every mile on the odometer was a mile further away from Little Tall.
160 EXTERIOR: THE AMERICAN DESERT MIDDAY.
Two-lane blacktop runs through the middle of the frame. The white car enters, moving fast, and THE CAMERA SWINGS TO FOLLOW.
368 STEPHEN KING
MIKE (voice-over)
The divorce was no-fault. Moll got the bank accounts, the insurance, the store, the house, and a little piece of land we had in Vanceboro. I got the Toyota and the peace of mind, (pause) What was left of it.
161 EXTERIOR: THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE TWILIGHT.
MIKE (voice-over)
I wound up here . . . back on the water again. Ironic I guess, huh? But it's different, somehow, the Pacific. It doesn't have that hard glow when the days start to run down toward winter, (pause) And it doesn't have the same memories.
162 EXTERIOR: A SKYSCRAPER ON MONTGOMERY STREET, SAN FRANCISCO DAY.
MIKE comes out an older MIKE, with gray at his temples and lines on his face but one who looks as if he's made his peace with the world. Or found some. He wears a suit (casual, no tie) and carries a briefcase. He and the man with him walk to a sedan parked at the curb. It pulls out into traffic, swinging around a cable car. Over this, MIKE talks.
MIKE (voice-over)
I went back to school, got a degree in law enforcement and another one in accountancy. Thought about going after a law degree . . . and then thought again. Started out keeping store on an island off the Maine coast and wound up a federal marshal. How do you like that?