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 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
(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.
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