(not unkindly)
I think we've heard your side of it, Mike. Take a seat, why don't you?
MIKE looks at them helplessly. He's not stupid, and he can see which way the wind is blowing.
STORM OF THE CENTURY 337
MIKE
You need to think about this, folks. You need to think about it very carefully.
He goes back down the steps and sits beside MOLLY. He takes her hand. She lets him hold it for a second or two, then draws it away.
MOLLY I want to sit with Ralphie, Mike.
247
She gets up and goes down the center aisle to where the KIDS are sleeping on their cots. She disappears into the circle of parents without a look back.
ROBBIE
Do you have more, folks? What's your pleasure?
A moment of SILENCE.
URSULA
(steps forward)
God help us, but let's give him what he wants. Give him what he wants and send him on his way.
I don't care about my life, but the children . . . even if it's Sally. Better she should live with a bad man than . . . than die . . .
(she looks around, weeping)
My God, Michael Anderson, where's your heart? They're children! We can't let him kill the children!
She goes back to the kids. MIKE, meanwhile, is being isolated in a circle of hostile eyes.
ROBBIE
(glances at the clock) Anyone else?
MIKE starts to get up. HATCH puts his hand on his arm and squeezes. When MIKE looks at him, surprised and questioning, HATCH gives a tiny shake of the head. 'Stop,' that small headshake says; 'you've done all you can do.'
338 STEPHEN KING
MIKE shakes him off and stands up again. He doesn't use the stage this time, but addresses his fellow ISLANDERS from where he is.
MIKE
Don't. Please. The Andersons go back to 1735 here on Little Tall. I ask you as an islander and as Ralphie Anderson's father don't do this. Don't give in to this, (pause) This is damnation.
He looks around desperately. None of them, not even his own wife, will meet his eyes. SILENCE
descends again. It's broken only by the WHINE OF THE WIND outside and the TICK OF THE
REGULATOR CLOCK.
MIKE
All right, I move to restrict the vote. Let the parents vote, and the parents only. They're all residents
LINDA ST. PIERRE No, that's not fair.
She touches her sleeping daughter's brow with gentle love.
LINDA ST. PIERRE
I've raised her by myself oh, with plenty of help from folks on the island, including you and your wife, Mike but mostly by myself. I shouldn't have to make a decision like this all by myself. What's a community for, if it isn't to help people when something terrible happens? When none of the choices look good?
ANDY
248
Couldn't have said it better myself, Lin.
MIKE But
MANY VOICES
Sit down . . . Call the question . . . Let's vote!
(etc.)
STORM OF THE CENTURY 339
ROBBIE
Will somebody move the question of who can vote? It's probably not parliamentary, but we have to move on. I'd prefer to hear from one of the parents.
A moment of TENSE SILENCE, then:
* 1
MELINDA HATCHER
I move everybody votes.
CARLA BRIGHT I second it.
MIKE This isn't
ANGIE Shut up! You've had your say, now just shut up!
ROBBIE
It's been moved and seconded that everyone be allowed to vote on whether or not to give Mr.
Linoge what he has demanded. Those in favor?
Every hand goes up except for MIKE'S. He sees that MOLLY has also raised her hand, sees she won't look at him, and something in him dies a little.
ROBBIE Those opposed?
Not a single hand goes up. MIKE simply sits in the front row, his head dropped.
ROBBIE
(whacks the gavel) The motion carries.
TESS MARCHANT Call the question, Robbie Beals. The real question.
340 STEPHEN KING
118 INTERIOR: THE BASEMENT, WITH LINOGE.
He looks up at the ceiling, EYES GLEAMING in the gloom. They're going to vote, and he knows it.
119 INTERIOR: RESUME TOWN MEETING HALL NIGHT.
JOANNA
For God's sake let's vote and have done!
MIKE
249
My son isn't a part of this. Let's understand that, all right? He's not a part of this . . . obscenity.
MOLLY Yes. He is.
UTTER SILENCE greets this. MIKE stands up and looks unbelievingly at his wife. They face each other that way across the length of the meeting hall.
