(shrieking) Mike! Stop him! For God's sake, stop him!
MIKE knows what will happen if he goes for LINOGE; a single wave of the cane, and he will be peeling himself off one of the walls. He looks up at his wife his estranged wife now, one supposes with HORRIBLE DEAD EYES.
MIKE Too late, Molly.
She reacts first with dismay, then with CRAZED DETERMINATION. If MIKE will not help her right the mistake they've made, she will do it herself. She looks around . . . and sees ROBBIE'S little pistol, now lying on the podium. She seizes it, whirls, and plunges down the steps to the floor.
STORM OF THE CENTURY 355 MOLLY
258
Stop! I'm warning you!
LINOGE sweeps on, and A CHANGE IS TAKING PLACE as he walks: the pea coat is becoming a robe of royal silver-blue, decorated with suns and moons and other symbols of cabalistic design. The watch cap is becoming the tall, pointed hat of a SORCERER or WIZARD. And the cane is becoming a SCEPTER. The wolf's head is still there, but now it tops a GLOWING WAND worthy of Merlin.
MOLLY either doesn't see or doesn't care. All she wants to do is to stop him. She steps to the head of the center aisle and levels the pistol.
MOLLY Stop, or I'll shoot!
But SONNY and ALEX HABER crowd into the aisle, blocking her off from LINOGE. LUCIEN and JOHNNY HARRIMAN grab her ... and HATCH plucks the gun neatly from her hand. During all this, MIKE only sits with his head down, unable to look.
LUCIEN Sorry, Missus Anderson . . . but we made a deal.
MOLLY
We didn't understand the deal! We didn't understand what we were doing! Mike was right, we didn't. . . didn't . . . Jack, stop him! Don't let him take Ralphie! Don't let him take my son!
JACK I can't do that, Molly.
(then, with some resentment)
And you wouldn't be screaming like that, either, if it'd been me with the black marble.
She looks at him, unbelieving. He holds her eyes for a moment, then wavers. But ANGELA is there to put her arm around him, and ANGIE looks at MOLLY with bright hostility.
ANGIE Can't you be a good loser?
^
356 STEPHEN KING
MOLLY This isn't a ... a baseball game!
137 INTERIOR: THE KIDS' CORNER, WITH LINOGE.
He is now a WIZARD from head to toe, wrapped in a BRIGHT BLUE AURA. We once more see his GREAT AGE. The other parents and friends surrounding the sleeping children draw back from him in fear. He pays them absolutely no notice. He bends down, picks RALPHIE ANDERSON up in his arms, and gazes at the boy raptly.
A
138 INTERIOR: THE FOOT OF THE CENTER AISLE, WITH MOLLY.
In her hysteria, she almost succeeds in struggling free from the big men holding her. She faces LINOGE along the length of the aisle with HYSTERICAL DEFIANCE.
MOLLY
You tricked us!
LINOGE
Perhaps you tricked yourselves.
MOLLY He'll never belong to you! Never!
259
LINOGE lifts the sleeping boy up like an offering. The BLUE GLOW around him INTENSIFIES . . .
and now it begins to STEAL OVER RALPHIE, as well. LINOGE'S age is not kindly but cruel, a thing to be feared. And his smile is horrible in its triumph ... a thing to haunt our dreams.
LINOGE
But he will. He'll come to love me. (pause) He'll come to call me Father.
There is an awful truth to this against which MOLLY cannot hold out. She slumps in the hands holding her back, ceasing to resist. LINOGE holds her gaze a moment longer, then turns, the hem of his silk robe flaring out. He strides for the door. Everyone turns to watch him.
STORM OF THE CENTURY 357
139 INTERIOR: MIKE.
He gets up. That DEAD LOOK is still on his face. HATCH reaches for him.
HATCH Mike, I don't think
MIKE
(pushes his hand off) Don't touch me. Don't ever touch me again. Not any of you.
(looks at MOLLY) Not any of you.
He walks up the side aisle. No one stops him.
140 INTERIOR: THE CORRIDOR OF THE TOWN HALL.
MIKE steps out of the meeting hall just in time to see the hem of LINOGE'S robe going out the front door and into the night. He pauses, then goes after.
141 EXTERIOR: THE FRONT STEPS OF THE TOWN HALL NIGHT.
MIKE comes out and stands looking, his breath PUFFING SILVER in the moonlight.
142 EXTERIOR: LINOGE AND RALPHIE IN FRONT OF THE TOWN HALL NIGHT.
LINOGE is still GLOWING BRIGHT BLUE. THE CAMERA TRACKS WITH HIM as he carries RALPHIE
down the slope toward the street . . . the shore . . . the reach . . . the mainland . . . and all the leagues of Earth beyond. We see LINOGE'S tracks, first quite heavy . . . then light. . . then just faint prints.
As LINOGE passes the cupola with the memorial bell inside, he begins rising into the air. Only an inch or two at first, but the distance between him and the earth is growing. It's almost as if he's climbing stairs we can't see.
143 EXTERIOR: MIKE, ON THE TOWN HALL STEPS NIGHT.
He cries out after his son, putting all his grief and loss into that one shouted word: 358 STEPHEN KING
MIKE Ralphie!
144 EXTERIOR: LINOGE AND RALPHIE NIGHT.
RALPHIE opens his eyes and looks around.
RALPHIE
Where am I? Where's my daddy?
260
MIKE (voice, growing faint) Ralphie . . .
LINOGE
It doesn't matter, fairy-saddle boy. Look down!
RALPHIE looks down. They are flying over the reach now. Their shadows flee across the waves, etched in moonlight. RALPHIE smiles, delighted.
