back and tell. We were just going into the clouds by then
JONAS STANHOPE It was a dream, Angie; it must have been.
284 STEPHEN KING
ANGIE
I tell you it wasn't. I could feel the clouds, not cold the way you'd think snow clouds would be, but damp, like wet cotton. And George saw what it meant to do, and he screamed, but the thing that had us opened its right arm ... it had me in its left . . . and . . .
33 EXTERIOR: OLD GEORGE KIRBY NIGHT.
He FALLS AWAY FROM THE CAMERA, SCREAMING and waving his arms. He disappears into the dark and the snow.
34 EXTERIOR: RESUME ANGIE AND THE GATHERED ISLANDERS LATE AFTERNOON.
JACK Then what happened?
ANGIE
He told me he was bringing me back. Back through time, and back through the storm. He was letting me live to tell you to tell everyone that we have to give him what he wants when he comes tonight.
ROBBIE
If we have something this man Linoge wants, why doesn't he just take it?
ANGIE
I don't think he can. I think we have to give it to him. (pause) He told me to tell you that he'll only ask once. He asked me if I'd remember Roanoke, and Croaton, and that he'll only ask once. And I said yes. Because I knew if I said no, or even asked him to explain anything, he'd drop me the way he dropped George. He didn't have to tell me. I just knew. Then we stopped going up. We did a rollover in the air, and my stomach went way up in my throat, like it was a county fair carnival ride we were on instead of being way up in the air . . . and I fainted again, I guess. Or maybe he did something to me. I don't know. The next thing I was sure of, I was stumbling around in the snow . . . the whiteout . . . and I could hear a horn ... I thought, "The lighthouse must not have blown down after all, because I can hear the
STORM OF THE CENTURY 285
foghorn ..." I tried to go toward it ... and I saw someone coming out of the snow . . . and I thought it was him . . . him again, meaning to take me back into the air again . . . only this time he'd drop me . . . and I tried to run . . . but it was you, Jack. It was you.
She puts her head against his shoulder, exhausted by the effort this has taken. There is a beat of silence. Then:
JILL ROBICHAUX
(shrill) Why us? Why us?
Several beats of silence. Then:
4
TAVIA GODSOE Maybe because he knows we can keep a secret.
35 INTERIOR: THE BASEMENT DAY-CARE AREA LATE AFTERNOON.
KIDS
(sing) "I'm a little teapot, short and stout "
CAT WITHERS is still standing in the middle of the circle, holding her place in The Little Puppy. We can see that she's freaked but is trying to hide this from the KIDS. MELINDA and JOANNA are still on the stairs. Now, joining them, is KIRK FREEMAN, still dressed for outdoors and with a pile of the toys and puzzles he and MIKE picked up at Wee Folks.
CAT
If you want to sing, kids, maybe we could sing something else for a change? "London Bridge" or "The Farmer in the Dell" or ...
She gives up. They're not listening. They hardly seem there. Once normal, happy preschool children, they have become spookily distant.
KIDS
(sing) " Here is my handle, here is my spout. You can pick "
286 STEPHEN KING
They stop on the word "pick," and they do it all at the same time, as neat as a lock of hair snipped by a barber's shears. Now they just stand in a circle around CAT.
KIRK
I brought these games and What? What's going on?
36 INTERIOR: CAT AND THE CHILDREN, CLOSER LATE AFTERNOON.
Oh, this is freaky. She looks from one to the next, and the normal vivacity of young children has left their faces; they are Cult City. Eyes like big zeros. Just standing there.
CAT
Buster?
(no answer) Heidi?
(no answer) Pippa?
(no answer) Ralphie? Are you all right?
(no answer)
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MELINDA HATCHER hurries into the circle, almost knocking SALLY GODSOE and HARRY ROBICHAUX over. She kneels by PIPPA and grabs her arms.
MELINDA Pippa, what's wrong, honey?
CAT bursts out of the circle. She's had enough.
37 INTERIOR: ON THE STAIRS, WITH CAT, JOANNA, AND KIRK FREEMAN.
KIRK
What is it? What's wrong with them?
CAT
(starting to cry)
I