and yanking down ski masks.
238 INTERIOR: THE TOWN MEETING ROOM MORNING.
The last of the people going out are just slipping through the easing clog at the side door. What's left in here are a few people who don't want to quit eating, plus SEVEN MOMMIES and ONE DADDY (JACK CARVER) coping with little kids who are exceedingly reluctant to be left out of the excitement.
RALPHIE
Mommy, please can't I go see?
MOLLY exchanges a look with MELINDA it's exasperated and a-mused at the same time, a look that only the parents of preschool children know.
PIPPA
(picking up on it) Please, Mommy, please can't I?
CHAPTER 22
DON BEALS, meanwhile, is employing a more masterful approach with SANDRA.
240 STEPHEN KING
DON
Put my coat on! I wanna go out! Hurry up, you slowpoke!
MOLLY
(to RALPHIE) Oh ... all right.
(to MELINDA) Hey, I want to see, too.
(to RALPHIE) Come on, Ralphie, let's find your coat.
Most of the other parents LINDA ST. PIERRE, CARLA BRIGHT, JACK CARVER, JILL ROBICHAUX are doing the same. URSULA GODSOE, however, is resisting SALLY'S imploring.
URSULA Mommy can't, honey she's too tired. I'm sorry.
SALLY Daddy will take me . . . Where's Daddy?
URSULA can't think of an answer and is on the verge of tears. The other ladies who overhear are melting with sympathy. SALLY doesn't know yet that her father is dead.
JENNA FREEMAN I'll take you out, hon. If it's okay with your mom.
URSULA nods gratefully.
239 EXTERIOR: THE SIDE LAWN OF THE TOWN HALL MORNING.
About seventy ISLAND RESIDENTS are clustered in a loose line, all standing with their backs to us, all looking toward the ocean. The PARENTS come from the side door, either carrying young, bundled-up children or leading them by the hand. They occasionally sink hip deep in the new snow and have to help each other out of the drifts. There is some LAUGHTER; the excitement has helped to stir them out of their post-dream introspection.
In the foreground, the black barrel of a CANE comes down, burying itself in the snow.
STORM OF THE CENTURY 241
240 EXTERIOR: THE REAR OF THE TOWN HALL MORNING.
LINOGE is standing here, watching the townsfolk through the heavy snow. They don't see him, because their backs are turned.
241 EXTERIOR: HEADLAND AND LIGHTHOUSE, FROM THE TOWN HALL'S POINT OF VIEW MORNING.
From here, the lighthouse is almost obscured by the snow . . . from time to time it will be obscured . . . but right now we can see both it and the GIANT WAVES surging around it.
242 EXTERIOR: MIKE AND HATCH MORNING.
HATCH
Is it gonna go, Mike?
MOLLY and MELINDA, accompanied by RALPH and PIPPA, join their husbands. MIKE bends to pick up RALPHIE without taking his eyes off the lighthouse.
MIKE I think it is.
243 EXTERIOR: HEADLAND AND LIGHTHOUSE, FROM THE TOWN HALL'S POINT OF VIEW.
A huge wave smacks the headland and surges around the lighthouse. Then the WIND HOWLS, the SNOW THICKENS, and the lighthouse is hardly there, only a dim white ghost in the swirling snow.
244 INTERIOR: THE LIGHTHOUSE CONTROL ROOM.
Water POURS IN through the shattered windows and inundates the electronic gear. Sparks fly; the computers SHORT OUT.
245 EXTERIOR: HEADLAND AND LIGHTHOUSE, FROM THE TOWN HALL'S POINT OF VIEW.
Except we really can't see much at all now except for a couple of houses and some ghostly trees down the hill from where the people stand. The snow has thickened and the wind is swirling it up, creating WHITE-OUT CONDITIONS.
242 STEPHEN KING
246 EXTERIOR: THE TOWNSFOLK, A PANNING SHOT MORNING.
We see the little family groups and clusters of friends (SONNY and UPTON BELL are together; KIRK and his younger sister, JENNA accompanied by little SALLY GODSOE are standing near the BEALSES), but some folks stand a bit apart from the others. Behind them all, the snow provides a SHIFTING WHITE BACKDROP. The town hall itself is only a pink shadow.
As we PAN:
KIRK
I can't see a thing!
FERD ANDREWS
It's a damn whiteout!
DON BEALS Daddy, where's the lighthouse?
ROBBIE (to DON) Wait for the wind to drop, honey.
DON
Make it drop now!
DAVEY HOPEWELL
(to MRS. KINGSBURY) Look! There's the light, just coming around! It's still there!
247 INTERIOR: LOOKING INTO THE WHITEOUT, FROM THE ISLANDERS' POINT OF VIEW MORNING.
In all that swirling snow, the SEARCHLIGHT gleams fitfully, brightens, then revolves out of sight again. As it does, we begin to see the headland once more.
248 EXTERIOR: RESUME PANNING TOWNSPEOPLE MORNING.
HATCH
It's lifting!
STORM OF THE CENTURY 243
MRS. KINGSBURY is standing to the left of the HOPEWELLS, her RED HUNTING CAP now turned around so the bill faces front. BRIGHT YELLOW GLOVES (LINOGE must have had another pair of