(stands)
And if he starts pointing his cane around? What then? What about when we start to drop like flies on a windowsill?
MURMUR OF AGREEMENT is louder.
P REV. BOB RIGGINS
(stands)
'Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's.' You said that to me yourself, Michael, not an hour ago. Book of Matthew.
MIKE
'Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savorest not the things that be of God.' Book of Mark.
(looks around)
Folks ... if we give up a child one of our own how will we live with each other, even if he lets us live?
ROBBIE
Very well, that's how.
MIKE turns to look at him, stunned. At the back of the room, JACK CARVER comes forward to the head of the center aisle. When he speaks, MIKE turns back that way. He's being bombarded from all directions.
334 STEPHEN KING
JACK
We've all got things we live with, Mike. Or maybe you're different.
245
That hits home. We see MIKE remembering. He addresses JACK and all of them.
MIKE
No, I'm no different. But this isn't like trying to live with a test you cheated on, or a one-night stand, or the memory of somebody you hurt when you were drunk and in an ugly frame of mind.
This is a child. Don't you understand that, Jack?
He's maybe getting to them . . . then ROBBIE speaks up.
ROBBIE
Suppose you're right about being able to send him away suppose we just put our arms around each other, gather our will, and give out a big collective 'NO!' Suppose we do that and he just disappears? Goes back to wherever he came from?
MIKE looks at him warily, waiting for the hook.
ROBBIE
You saw our children. I don't know what he's actually done with them, but I have no doubt that flying high over the earth is an accurate representation of it. They can fall. I believe that. All he has to do is wave that cane of his, and they fall. How do we live with ourselves if that happens? Do we tell ourselves that we killed all eight of them because we were too good, too holy, to sacrifice one of them?
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
