FOR THE STAIRS.
ANGIE
(as if waking up) Buster? Is something wrong with Buster? Buster! Buster!
She is up in a flash, knocking the cup of broth from JACK'S HAND.
JACK Honey, wait
ANGIE
(ignores him) Buster!
290 STEPHEN KING
45 INTERIOR: BUSTER, CLOSE-UP.
He breaks from the circle and runs to the shelf, where the cane hangs by the crook of its neck.
He touches it ... and crumples to the floor as if shot.
46 INTERIOR: THE DAY-CARE AREA, WIDER LATE AFTERNOON.
The rest of the children follow BUSTER'S lead. They are laughing and excited, like kids who have just been given free all-day passes to Disneyland. They reach out to thin air ... or to something only they can see ... and one by one CRUMPLE TO THE FLOOR, joining BUSTER.
CAT
No! Don't let them
A gaggle of FRIGHTENED PARENTS, led by JILL and ANDY, appear at the head of the stairs.
ROBBIE
Get out of my way!
He shoves JILL aside would have knocked her right downstairs, if not for ANDY'S last-second grab and goes pelting down to the basement.
CAT ignores all this and runs across the room. HARRY ROBICHAUX touches thin air and falls down 219
with the others. Now there's only RALPHIE ANDERSON and PIPPA, who is back where the circle was.
PIPPA is struggling in her mother's grip. CAT grabs RALPHIE and pulls him back as he reaches up to touch . . . well, to touch whatever it is he sees.
PIPPA
Let me go! Wanna see doggy! Wanna see DOGGY!!
47 INTERIOR: CAT AND RALPHIE, CLOSE- UP.
CAT doesn't see the cane hanging down from the shelf, but in this shot we do ... and RALPHIE
does, too. He reaches for it ... almost touches it ... and CAT pulls him back out of reach.
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.
