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 292 STEPHEN KING
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
220
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
No! No! NO!
He picks her up in his arms, looks at the place where her hand touched, and sees nothing but thin air. He turns around with her, unbelieving.
50 INTERIOR: THE BASEMENT OF THE TOWN HALL LATE AFTERNOON.
Total pandemonium as choreographed by our fearless director reigns as ISLANDERS continue to push down the stairs and crowd into the makeshift day-care space. The dominant note is CONFUSED TERROR.
ROBBIE is shaking DONNIE, trying to wake him up. HATCH stands up with PIPPA in his arms, beginning to WEEP. MIKE pushes through the cluster of people at the foot of the stairs and looks with unbelief at the TANGLE OF TINY BODIES.
DELLA BISSONETTE They're dead! He's killed them!
STORM OF THE CENTURY 293
URSULA No! Oh, God, please no! Not Sally! Not my Sally!
She pushes her way through the people in her way, actually knocking a couple of them over. She is maddened with grief and terror . . . this lady lost her husband just the day before, remember.
Shoving down the stairs almost masking down the stairs comes ANDY ROBICHAUX, dragging JILL by the hand. ANDY knocks old BURT SOAMES down on the stairs. There's a CRUNCH as BURT'S
ARM BREAKS. The old guy SCREAMS WITH PAIN.
BETTY SOAMES
(shrieking) You're trampling him! Stop! You're killing him!
ANDY and JILL take no notice. They don't care about BURT SOAMES; they care about HARRY, who is lying with the others.
Meanwhile, DELLA'S hysterical cry has been picked up by the others, and it jumps from person to person like a virulent flu germ: they're dead; the kids are dead; LINOGE has somehow killed the children.
51 INTERIOR: MIKE, MOLLY, RALPHIE.
As MOLLY arrives, CRYING WITH TERROR, MIKE is gently lifting RALPHIE into a sitting position and dropping one ear to the boy's face and chest.
221
MOLLY
Is he
MIKE takes her hand and holds it in front of RALPHIE'S nose and mouth. She feels his breath going in and out. An expression of deep relief comes over her face. Her shoulders sag.
MOLLY Thank God. Is he asleep, or
MIKE I don't know.
He scoops RALPH into his arms and stands up.
294 STEPHEN KING
52 INTERIOR: THE BASEMENT DAY-CARE AREA, ANGLE ON THE STAIRS.
ROBBIE has DONNIE in his arms now. He runs for the stairs, with his BEWILDERED, TERRIFIED
wife tumbling along in his wake. His way is blocked by the SOAMESES; BETTY is just helping BURT
to his feet. Also nearby are JOHNNY HARRIMAN, SONNY BRAUTIGAN, and UPTON BELL. But the SOAMESES, unlucky parents of the late BILLY, are ROBBIE'S first obstacle.
ROBBIE
(no great diplomat he) Outta my way!
He shoves BURT, whose broken arm smashes against the side of the stairs. BURT SCREAMS
AGAIN, and BETTY grabs him again. JOHNNY, outraged, blocks ROBBIE'S path.
JOHNNY HARRIMAN
Here, here, now! That's an old man you're pushing around! Where do you think you're going, anyway?
ROBBIE Let me by! I have to get him to a doctor!
SONNY
Good luck to you, Robbie Beals closest one's across the reach in Machias, and the wind's blowin'
a hurricane.
ROBBIE looks at him, wide-eyed, some semblance of sanity dawning. SONNY is right, of course.
SANDRA joins ROBBIE and brushes DONNIE'S hair gently back from his brow. BETTY SOAMES, hugging her WEEPING HUSBAND, glares at them.
53 INTERIOR: THE BASEMENT DAY-CARE AREA, ANGLE ON THE ANDERSONS.
MIKE is aware of the panic in the parents, which is bad, and the panic of the ISLANDERS in general, which could be even worse. He draws in a deep breath, and lets loose the LOUDEST SHOUT
he can manage.
MIKE
Everybody JUST. . . SHUT. . . UP!!!
STORM OF THE CENTURY 295
Some people in their immediate vicinity quiet down . . . and that quiet SPREADS OUTWARD. Only ROBBIE BEALS doesn't turn toward the constable, and by now that shouldn't much surprise us.
ROBBIE
Where's Ferd? He's got EMT training, at least . . . Ferd Andrews, where the hell are you?
222
FERD
(lost in the back of the crowd) Here
We see him struggling to get through.
ROBBIE Get your ass down here! Folks, let him pass! My boy HATCH That's enough. Shut up.
ROBBIE
Don't you tell me to shut up, fatso. I've had all the crap out of you I'm going to take.
The two men face each other, each with an UNCONSCIOUS CHILD in his arms, but ready to brawl, just the same.
MIKE
Stop it. Both of you. Robbie, I don't think Don's in any immediate danger. Or Pippa, or Ralphie, or any of them.
URSULA has been kneeling over SALLY, keening to her. Now MOLLY whispers something in her ear, and URSULA stands up.
MARY HOPEWELL Then . . . they're not dead?
The ISLANDERS are all quiet now, watching and hoping. ANDY has got his son HARRY in his arms.
JILL is standing next to them. Nearby, JACK is holding BUSTER while his wife the haggard, newly gray-haired ANGIE kisses the boy's cheek and whispers in his ear.
296 STEPHEN KING
ANDY
I think . . . he's sleeping.
URSULA This isn't sleep. If they were asleep, we could wake them up.
FERD
(finally at the front of the crowd) Then what is it?
MIKE I don't know.
He looks down into RALPHIE'S serene face, as if trying to read whatever is happening behind the boy's closed eyes. THE CAMERA FOLLOWS HIS GAZE, moving in and in on RALPHIE'S face, from MEDIUM SHOT to CLOSE-UP, from CLOSE-UP to EXTREME CLOSE-UP. And as it does, we: SLOWLY DISSOLVE TO: