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.

And I said yes. Because I knew if I said no, or even asked him to explain anything, he'd drop me the way he dropped George. He didn't have to tell me. I just knew. Then we stopped going up. We did a rollover in the air, and my stomach went way up in my throat, like it was a county fair carnival ride we were on instead of being way up in the air . . . and I fainted again, I guess. Or maybe he did something to me. I don't know. The next thing I was sure of, I was stumbling around in the snow . .

. the whiteout . . . and I could hear a horn ... I thought, 'The lighthouse must not have blown down after all, because I can hear the

STORM OF THE CENTURY 285

foghorn ...' I tried to go toward it ... and I saw someone coming out of the snow . . . and I thought it was him . . . him again, meaning to take me back into the air again . . . only this time he'd drop me . . . and I tried to run . . . but it was you, Jack. It was you.

She puts her head against his shoulder, exhausted by the effort this has taken. There is a beat of silence. Then:

JILL ROBICHAUX

(shrill) Why us? Why us?

Several beats of silence. Then:

4

TAVIA GODSOE Maybe because he knows we can keep a secret.

35 INTERIOR: THE BASEMENT DAY-CARE AREA LATE AFTERNOON.

KIDS

(sing) 'I'm a little teapot, short and stout '

216

CAT WITHERS is still standing in the middle of the circle, holding her place in The Little Puppy.

We can see that she's freaked but is trying to hide this from the KIDS. MELINDA and JOANNA are still on the stairs. Now, joining them, is KIRK FREEMAN, still dressed for outdoors and with a pile of the toys and puzzles he

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