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?
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.
RALPHIE Whoa! Neat! (pause) Is it real?
LINOGE Real as rhubarb.
RALPHIE looks back at:
145 EXTERIOR: LITTLE TALL ISLAND, FROM RALPHIE'S POINT OF VIEW NIGHT.
This is almost a negative image of our introduction to the island night instead of day, going away instead of approaching. In the moonlight, Little Tall looks almost like an illusion. Which, to RALPHIE, it will soon be.
146 EXTERIOR: RESUME LINOGE AND RALPHIE NIGHT.
RALPHIE
(very impressed) Where we going?
LINOGE tosses his scepter into the air ahead of him. It rises and
STORM OF THE CENTURY 359
resumes the position it held in the visions of LINOGE and the FLYING CHILDREN. Its shadow, now thrown by the moon instead of by the sun, lies across LINOGE'S face. He bends and kisses the fairy saddle on RALPHIE'S nose.
LINOGE
Anywhere. Everywhere. All the places you ever dreamed of.
RALPHIE What about my mom and dad? When are they coming?
LINOGE
(smiling) Why don't we worry about them later?
Well, he's the grown-up . . . and besides, this is fun.
RALPHIE Okay.
LINOGE turns banks like an airplane, almost and flies away from us.
147 EXTERIOR: MIKE, ON THE TOWN HALL STEPS NIGHT.
He's weeping. JOANNA STANHOPE comes out and puts a hand on his shoulder. She speaks to him with infinite kindness.
JOANNA
Mike. Come in.
He ignores her, going down the steps and stumbling his way into the new snow. It's tough going for folks who aren't wizards, but he flounders ahead just the same, even though it's waist deep at times. He follows LINOGE'S footprints, and THE CAMERA TRACKS WITH HIM, watching as the impressions grow lighter and lighter, less and less tied to the earth where mortals must live.
Past the memorial bell, there is one more faint imprint. . . then nothing. Just acres of virgin snow. MIKE collapses beside that last print, CRYING. He holds his hands up to the EMPTY SKY, the GLOWING MOON.
360 STEPHEN KING
MIKE
(low)
CHAPTER 33
Bring him back. Please. I'll do anything if you bring my son back. Anything you want.
148 EXTERIOR: THE DOORS TO THE TOWN HALL NIGHT.
They are crowded with ISLANDERS who stand there, silently watching. JOHNNY and SONNY, FERD and LUCIEN, TAVIA and DELLA, HATCH and MELINDA.
MIKE (pleading voice) Bring him back!
The faces of the ISLANDERS do not change. We may see sympathy, but we will see no mercy. Not here; not among these. What's done is done.
149 EXTERIOR: RESUME MIKE, ON THE SNOWFIELD NIGHT.
He huddles in the snow beyond the cupola holding the memorial bell. Holds his arms out to the moon and the light-drenched water one final time, but without hope.
MIKE
(whispers) Please bring him back.
THE CAMERA begins to PULL UP AND AWAY. Little by little, MIKE loses his human dimension and becomes just a black speck on a VAST WHITE SNOWFIELD. Beyond is the headland, the tumbled lighthouse, and the waves of the reach.
FADE TO BLACK.
MIKE (voice) (a final whispered plea) I love him. Have mercy.
THIS ENDS ACT 6.
Act?
150 EXTERIOR: THE REACH A SUMMER