. . . but I was wrong. I only started learning during the big blow. I finished just last week.
171 EXTERIOR: A BUSY DOWNTOWN STREET DAY.
Lots of folks are shopping. We MOVE IN on an upscale deli one or two storefronts up from the corner, and MIKE comes out. It's his day off, and he's dressed casually light jacket, jeans, and a T-shirt. He's got a couple of shopping bags in his arms, and he juggles them, trying to snag his keys out of his pants pocket as he angles toward the curb and his car.
Coming in the other direction, entering the frame with their backs to us, are a MAN and a TEENAGE BOY. The MAN is dressed in a gray topcoat and homburg hat. He carries a cane with a silver wolf's head. The BOY with him is wearing an Oakland As jacket and jeans. MIKE will pass them on the way to his car, but he takes no particular notice of them at first. He's gotten his keys out; now he's trying to peer at them over one of his bags just enough so he can see which one will unlock the door. Then, just as the MAN and TEENAGE BOY reach MIKE: 269
LINOGE
(sings) 'I'm a little teapot, short and stout. . . .'
BOY
(joining in) 'Here is my handle, here is my spout. . . .'
MIKE'S face fills with terrible recognition. The keys fall from his fingers and the shopping bags SAG in his arms as he turns and sees:
172 EXTERIOR: LINOGE AND THE BOY, FROM MIKE'S POINT OF VIEW (SLOW MOTION) DAY.
They are already passing MIKE, and there's only time for a glimpse, even in SLOW MOTION. Yes, it's LINOGE beneath the homburg, now looking not like a psychotic fisherman but like a ruthless businessman, and not thirty-five but sixty-five.
STORM OF THE CENTURY 373
The BOY with him smiling up at him and HARMONIZING PRETTILY on the well-loved old nonsense-jingle is a handsome child of fourteen. His hair is MOLLY'S shade. His eyes are MIKE'S
shade. And lying across his nose, faint but still visible, is the fairy-saddle birthmark.
LINOGE AND RALPHIE
(echoing dreamlike voices)
'You can pick me up and pour me out. . . . I'm a little teapot, short and stout!'
During this, we lose our angle on their faces which we have seen for only that heartbreakingly brief moment, anyway. Now they are only a pair of backs: a well-dressed man and the child of his late middle age, heading for the corner. And beyond the corner, for anywhere.
173 EXTERIOR: RESUME MIKE DAY.
He stands where he is, BAGS SAGGING IN HIS ARMS, thunderstruck. His mouth opens and closes soundlessly . . . and then, at last, a whisper comes out. . .
MIKE Rah . . . Rah . . . Ralphie . . . Ralphie? RALPHIE!
174 EXTERIOR: LINOGE AND RALPHIE DAY.
They are beyond the deli. Almost to the corner. They stop. And look back.
175 EXTERIOR: RESUME MIKE DAY.
He drops the bags from his arms stuff inside smashes and RUNS.
MIKE RALPHIE!
176 EXTERIOR: LINOGE AND RALPHIE DAY.
RALPHIE'S mouth opens; he HISSES LIKE A SNAKE. His good looks are gone in an instant, as the FANGS beneath his lips are revealed. His eyes DARKEN and become BLACK, shot through with WRITHING RED LINES. He raises hands that are hooked into talons, as if to claw MIKE'S face open.
374 STEPHEN KING
LINOGE puts an arm around his shoulders and (without taking his eyes away from MIKE) urges RALPHIE to turn. Then they sweep around the corner together.
177 EXTERIOR: RESUME MIKE DAY.
He stops outside the deli, his face filled with DISMAY and SICKENED HORROR. Pedestrians stream 270
around him, some looking at him curiously, but MIKE takes no notice.
MIKE Ralphie!
He dashes for the corner and goes around.
178 EXTERIOR: MIKE DAY.
He comes to a stop, eyes searching.
179 EXTERIOR: THE STREET, FROM MIKE'S POINT OF VIEW DAY.
People come and go on the sidewalks, or dart across the street, or hail taxis, or get newspapers from curbside vending machines. There is no man in a gray topcoat. There is no boy in an Oakland As jacket.
180 EXTERIOR: RESUME MIKE.
LINOGE (voice-over) He'll come to love me. (pause) He'll come to call me Father.
MIKE slumps against the wall and closes his eyes. From beneath one of those closed lids, a single tear slips. A YOUNG WOMAN comes around the corner and looks at him with cautious sympathy.
YOUNG WOMAN
Mister, are you all right?
MIKE
(doesn't open his eyes) Yes. I just need a minute.
YOUNG WOMAN
You dropped your groceries. Some of it's probably okay, but some of the stuff broke.
f
'
STORM OF THE CENTURY 375 MIKE now opens his eyes and does his best to smile at her.
MIKE Ayuh, some of the stuff broke. I heard it.
YOUNG WOMAN
(smiling) What kind of accent is that?
MIKE The kind you learn on the other side of the world.
YOUNG WOMAN
What happened? Did you trip?
MIKE
I thought I saw someone I knew, and I just kind of ... lost my grip for a second there.
He looks down the street one more time. He reached the corner seconds after LINOGE and RALPHIE turned it, they should be right there, but they're not . . . and MIKE isn't really surprised.
YOUNG WOMAN
I could help you pick up the stuff that's still okay, if you wanted. Look, I got this.
271
She reaches into her coat pocket and brings out a crumpled-up net shopping bag. She holds it out to him, smiling tentatively.
*
