of what we're going to do, Mike . . . not yet. It's just whether or not we believe
MIKE
I know what the question is. And once we start down this road, every step gets easier. I know that, too.
ROBBIE
(lowering his own hand)
All right, I guess we believe him. That's one issue out of the way. Now, if there's any discussion of the main question
MIKE
(to his feet) I have something to say.
ROBBIE That's fine. You're a taxpayer, sure enough. Have on.
MIKE walks slowly up the stairs to the stage. MOLLY watches apprehensively. MIKE doesn't bother with the podium; he simply turns to his fellow ISLANDERS. We take several beats to FOCUS and build tension as he thinks about how to begin.
MIKE
No, he's not a man. I didn't vote, but I agree with that, just the same. I've seen what he did to Martha Clarendon, what he did to Peter Godsoe, what he's done to our kids and I don't believe he's a man. I had the same dreams that you had, and I understand the reality of what he's threatening as well as you do. Better, maybe I'm your constable, the man you elected to enforce your laws. But . . . folks . . . we don't give our kids away to thugs. Do you understand that? We don't give away our children!
At the back of the room, where the children are, ANDY ROBICHAUX steps forward.
STORM OF THE CENTURY 333
ANDY
What's the choice, then? What do we do? What can we do?
A DEEP MURMUR OF AGREEMENT greets this, and MIKE is troubled, we can see that. Because the only answer he has makes no sense. It has only the virtue of being right.
MIKE
Stand against him, side by side and shoulder to shoulder. Tell him no in one voice. Do what it says on the door we use to get in here trust in God and each other. And then . . . maybe ... he goes away. The way storms always do, when they've blown themselves out.
ORV BOUCHER
(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
We've all got things we live with, Mike. Or maybe you're different.
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