Storm of the Century
Page 18
112 EXTERIOR: THE PARKING LOT, WITH URSULA AND LUCIEN. They reach one of the snowmobiles. LUCIEN gets on the front.
URSULA
(shouts to be heard) Don't you dump me in a snowbank, Lucien Fournier!
LUCIEN
No, ma'am.
URSULA studies him for a moment, as if to make sure he is telling the truth, then gets on the snowmobile. LUCIEN turns the key. The headlight and the rudimentary dashboard lights come on.
He pushes the starter. The ENGINE CRANKS but does not immediately start.
URSULA What's wrong?
STORM OF THE CENTURY 185
154
LUCIEN Nothing, she's just bein' grumpy.
He yanks the choke and prepares to start again.
JOANNA (faint voice) Hey! Help! HELP!
URSULA puts her hand over LUCIEN's before he can punch the starter, and now they both hear.
They turn toward:
113 EXTERIOR: JOANNA, FROM URSULA AND LUCIEN'S POINT OF VIEW NIGHT.
She conies struggling and floundering through the drifts, reaching the parking lot, waving one hand like a drowning woman. She is snow-covered (has taken at least one tumble, I'd guess) and GASPING FOR BREATH.
114 EXTERIOR: AN ANGLE ON THE PARKING LOT NIGHT.
LUCIEN gets off the snowmobile and makes his way to JOANNA. He's just in time to catch her before she can fall again. He helps her back toward the snowmobile and URSULA joins them, very concerned.
URSULA Jo, what's wrong?
JOANNA
Billy . . . dead . . . back there!
(points) Katrina Withers killed him.
URSULA Cat?
JOANNA
She's sitting in the corner ... I think she tried to tell me she hit him with a cane . . . but there's so much blood . . . When I left, I think she was singing . . .
186 STEPHEN KING
Shocked and bewildered reactions from URSULA and LUCIEN. URSULA recovers a little more quickly.
URSULA Are you really saying Cat Withers killed Billy Soames?
(JOANNA nods violently) Are you sure? Jo, are you sure he's dead?
JOANNA
(nodding)
She covered him with a tarp, but I'm sure ... so much blood . . .
LUCIEN
We better go back and look.
JOANNA
(terror)
I'm not going back there! I'm not going anywhere near there! She's in the corner ... if you'd seen her . . . the look on her face . . .
URSULA Lucien, can I drive this thing?
155
LUCIEN
If you take it slow, sure, I guess. But
URSULA
I'll take it slow, believe me. Jo and I are going to drive downstreet and talk to Mike Anderson.
Aren't we, Jo?
JOANNA nods with pitiful eagerness and climbs on the back of LUCIEN'S snow machine. She'll agree to go anywhere before she agrees to go back to the supply shed.
URSULA (to LUCIEN)
Get a couple of guys, go out to the supply shed, and see what's what, okay? But don't broadcast it ... and play it smart.
STORM OF THE CENTURY 187
LUCIEN
What's going on here, Ursula?
She goes to the snowmobile, gets on the front, and thumbs the starter button. Now that the engine's been choked, it starts easily. She guns the throttle, then settles her gloved hands on the handgrips.
URSULA I have no clue.
She drops the snowmobile in gear and drives away in a spume of snow, with JOANNA clinging to her. LUCIEN stands and watches them go, a picture of bewilderment.
115 EXTERIOR: THE ISLAND MARKET NIGHT.
It's now little more than a drifted-in shape in the blizzard. The few lights seem feeble and forlorn.
116 EXTERIOR: THE LOADING DOCK BEHIND THE STORE NIGHT.
The snowmobile on which JACK CARVER and KIRK FREEMAN arrived is almost buried in snow. On the loading dock itself, we see a shape that is PETER GODSOE. His body has been wrapped in a blanket and then secured with rope. He looks like a corpse that's ready for burial at sea.
117 INTERIOR: LINOGE, CLOSE.
His face is wolfish, intent. The eyes are bright and interested.
THE CAMERA DRAWS SLOWLY BACK through the bars. As our view of LINOGE widens, we see he has resumed his favorite position back to the wall, heels on the edge of the cot, peering through his slightly spread knees.
118 INTERIOR: THE CONSTABLE'S OFFICE, ANGLE ON THE DESK.
Here are MIKE, HATCH, ROBBIE, HENRY BRIGHT, KIRK FREEMAN, and JACK CARVER. The latter five look at LINOGE with a mixture of distrust and fear. MIKE is looking at him with perplexity.
188 STEPHEN KING
KIRK I never seen anyone throw a fit like that in my life.
HENRY
(to MIKE) No ID of any kind?
MIKE
156
No ID, no wallet, no money, no keys. No clothing tags, either, not even on his blue jeans. He's just . . . here. And that's not all.
(to ROBBIE)
Did he tell you anything? When you went into Martha's house, Robbie, did he tell you anything he had no business knowing?
ROBBIE is immediately nervous. He does not, as they say, want to go there. But: LINOGE (voice)
You were with a whore in Boston when your mother died in Machias.
MIKE Robbie?
119 INTERIOR: MARTHA CLARENDON'S LIVING ROOM (flashback).
LINOGE PEEPS ROGUISHLY around one wing of MARTHA'S chair, his face streaked with MARTHA'S
blood.
LINOGE
She's waiting for you in hell. And she's turned cannibal. Hell is repetition, Robbie. Isn't it? Born in sin, come on in ... CATCH!
DAVEY HOPEWELL'S bloodstained basketball FLIES AT THE CAMERA.
120 INTERIOR: RESUME CONSTABLE'S OFFICE NIGHT.
ROBBIE flinches as if the basketball were flying at his head; that's how strong the memory is.
STORM OF THE CENTURY 189 MIKE
He did, didn't he?
ROBBIE
He ... said something about my mother. You don't need to know.
His eyes turn mistrustfully to LINOGE, who sits watching. LINOGE shouldn't be able to hear what they're saying their voices are low-pitched, and they're most of the way across the room but ROBBIE thinks (almost knows) that he can. He knows something else, as well. LINOGE could tell the others what he told ROBBIE: that ROBBIE was rolling around with a prostitute when his mother died.
HATCH I don't think he's human.
He looks at MIKE almost pleadingly, as if asking him to contradict this. But MIKE doesn't.
MIKE Neither do I. I don't know what he is.
JACK God help us all.
121 INTERIOR: LINOGE, CLOSE-UP.
Watching them with wide-eyed intensity while the STORM HOWLS outside.
FADE TO BLACK. THIS ENDS ACT 3.
Act 4
122 EXTERIOR: THE TOWN STORE NIGHT.
157
We are looking up Main Street toward the center of town. A headlight appears, and we hear the WASP WHINE of an approaching snowmobile. It's URSULA, with JOANNA hanging on for dear life.
123 INTERIOR: THE DOORWAY OF THE SUPPLY SHED NIGHT.
CAT (voice)
"I'm a little teapot, short and stout. . . . Here is my handle, here is my spout. . . .
LUCIEN FOURNIER stands in the doorway. Behind him are UPTON BELL, JOHNNY HARRIMAN, old GEORGE KIRBY, and SONNY BRAUTIGAN. All of the men wear similar expressions of SHOCKED
HORROR.
124 INTERIOR: CAT, IN THE CORNER OF THE SUPPLY SHED NIGHT.
She's rocking back and forth, fingers in her mouth, blood-spattered face blank.
CAT
"You can pick me up and pour me out. . . . I'm a little teapot, short and stout."
125 INTERIOR: RESUME THE MEN IN THE DOORWAY.
LUCIEN (with an effort) Come on. Help me get her inside.
126 INTERIOR: THE CONSTABLE'S OFFICE, WITH MIKE AND TH
E OTHERS.
KIRK That fit he threw . . . what was that about?
MIKE shakes his head. Doesn't know. Turns to ROBBIE.
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STORM OF THE CENTURY 191
MIKE Did he have a cane when you saw him?
ROBBIE
You bet. It had a big silver wolfs head on top. It was bloody. I had an idea that was what he used to ... to ...
SOUND: The snowmobile. LIGHT FLASHES across the barred window high up in the cell. URSULA is driving down the alley to the back. MIKE returns his attention to LINOGE. As always, he addresses LINOGE with the calm of a police officer, although we can tell this is getting harder and harder to maintain.
MIKE Where's your cane, sir? Where is it now? > (no response) What is it you want?
LINOGE still won't say. JACK CARVER and KIRK FREEMAN move toward the back door to see who's coming. HATCH has done an admirable job of handling himself, but he's getting more and more scared all the time, and we can see it. Now he turns to MIKE.
HATCH
We didn't take him out of Martha's . . . did we? He let himself be taken. Maybe he wanted to be taken.
ROBBIE We could kill him.
HATCH is shocked, wide-eyed. MIKE looks less surprised.
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ROBBIE
Nobody would have to know. Island business is island business, always has been and always will be. Like whatever Dolores Claiborne did to her husband during the eclipse. Or Peter and his marijuana.
MIKE We'd know.
192 STEPHEN KING
ROBBIE
I'm just saying we could . . . and maybe we should. Tell me the idea hasn't already crossed your mind, Michael An-derson.
127 EXTERIOR: BEHIND THE STORE NIGHT.
LUCIEN'S snowmobile pulls up beside the half-buried one JACK and KIRK came on. URSULA gets off and helps JOANNA off. Above them, the door between the constable's office and the loading dock is open. JACK CARVER stands in the light.
JACK
Who's there?
URSULA
Ursula Godsoe and Joanna Stanhope. We have to talk to Mike. Something's happened at the . . .
She's climbing the steps to the loading dock, and now she sees the WRAPPED SHAPE that has been put out here where it's cold. JACK and KIRK exchange a dismayed "Ah, shit" look. JACK
reaches forward, attempting to take her arm and help her in before she gets too good a look.
JACK Ursula, I wouldn't look at that, if I were you . . .
She pulls free and sinks to her knees beside the wrapped corpse of her husband.
KIRK
(back over his shoulder) Mike! You better come here!
URSULA pays no mind. PETER'S green rubber boots are still sticking out, boots she knows well and may have patched herself. She touches one of them and begins CRYING SOUNDLESSLY.
JOANNA stands behind her in the BLOWING, SWIRLING SNOW, not knowing what to do.
MIKE appears in the doorway, with HATCH behind him. MIKE understands the situation at once, and speaks with great gentleness.
STORM OF THE CENTURY 193 MIKE
Ursula. I'm sorry.
She takes no notice, only kneels in the snow, holding the patched boot and crying. MIKE bends, gets his arm around her shoulders, and helps her to her feet.
MIKE
Come on in, Urse. Come on in where there's light and it's warm.
He leads her in past JACK and KIRK. JOANNA follows, with one quick, shying look down at the bundle with the boots sticking out of it. JACK and KIRK follow, and KIRK closes the door behind him against the night and the storm.
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128 EXTERIOR: THE TOWN HALL NIGHT.
Wrapped in thick clouds of BLOWING SNOW.
129 INTERIOR: THE TOWN HALL KITCHEN, WITH CAT WITHERS.
She sits on a stool, wrapped in a blanket, her eyes staring emptily. MELINDA HATCHER leans into the frame. She's got a damp cloth and begins to wipe the SPATTERS OF BLOOD from CAT'S face.
She does this gently and kindly.
SONNY BRAUTIGAN
I don't know as you're supposed to do that, Mrs. Hatcher. It's evidence, or somethin'.
During this, THE CAMERA PULLS BACK, and we see a crowd of lookie-loos lined up against the kitchen walls and crowding in through the door. Next to SONNY an aspiring Archie Bunker with a big belly and a sour disposition is his friend UPTON BELL. We also may see LUCIEN FOURNIER and the others from the shed, plus JONAS STANHOPE and young ANNIE HUSTON. MELINDA looks at SONNY for a moment in wordless contempt, then goes on cleaning the eerily silent CAT'S FACE.
MRS. KINGSBURY is at the stove, ladling broth into a coffee mug. Now she crosses with it to where CAT sits.
194 STEPHEN KING
MRS. KINGSBURY Katrina, have a little broth. It'll warm you up.
UPTON BELL
Ought to spike it with rat poison, Missus Kingsbury . . . that'd warm her up, all right.
There's a little RUMBLE OF AGREEMENT . . . and SONNY laughs out loud at his friend UPTON'S
sophisticated wit. MELDINDA gives them both a smoking look.
MRS. KINGSBURY Upton Bell, you shut up your ignorant mouth!
SONNY
(sticking up for his pal)
You're treatin' her like she saved his damn life instead of sneakin' up behind him and bashin' his brains out!
Another RUMBLE OF AGREEMENT. MOLLY ANDERSON pushes through the crowd. She looks at SONNY with a withering contempt he can't stand up to, then at UPTON, then at the others.
MOLLY Get out of here, all of you! This isn't a sideshow!
They shift around a little, but don't really move.
MOLLY
(a little more reasonable)
Come on you've known this girl all your lives. Whatever she did, she deserves a chance to breathe a little.
JONAS STANHOPE
Come on, folks. Let's go. They've got it in hand.
JONAS is some sort of professional man a lawyer, perhaps and has enough moral weight to get them moving. SONNY and UPTON resist the tide for a moment.
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1
STORM OF THE CENTURY 195
JONAS STANHOPE Come on, Sonny . . . Upton. There's nothing here you can do.
SONNY
Can take her down to the constable's and throw her murder-in' ass in jail!
UPTON BELL
(what a great idea) Yeah!
JONAS STANHOPE
I think they've already got a guy in there . . . and she doesn't exactly look like she's going to break loose, now does she?
He gestures to the girl, who is (pardon the pun) just about CATatonic. She has totally ignored the whole thing, may not even know it's happening. SONNY sees what STANHOPE means, and shuffles out, UPTON after him.
MOLLY
Thank you, Mr. Stanhope.
MRS. KINGSBURY, meanwhile, sets the cup of broth aside it's a lost cause and looks at CAT
with tired perplexity.
JONAS STANHOPE
(to MOLLY) Not a problem. Where's my mom, have you seen her?
MOLLY
I think she's getting ready for bed.
JONAS STANHOPE Good. Good.
He leans back against the wall, his face and body language saying, "Good God, what a day."
130 INTERIOR: THE TOWN MEETING HALL NIGHT.
The benches and the speaker's podium are empty, but a few people in nightwear are going up and down the side aisle. The only woman is old
196 STEPHEN KING
CORA STANHOPE, Little Tail's self-appointed queen. She has an overnight bag in one hand.
^
An older gent named ORVILLE BOUCHER passes her going the other way. He's wearing a bathrobe, slippers, white socks. In one hand he's got his plastic toothbrush case.
ORVILLE
Say, there, Cora! Just like camp, ain't it? Someone oughtta put a bedsheet up on the wall and show cartoons!
CORA sniffs, raises her nose slightly into the air, and passes by without a word . . . although she cannot hel
p a horrified glance at ORV'S white and hairy old-man's shins, a generous portion of which are on view above the tops of his socks and below the hem of his robe.
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131 EXTERIOR: REAR OF THE TOWN HALL NIGHT.
There's a small brick structure in the foreground, and the ENGINE ROAR identifies it as the generator shed. All at once the STEADY ROAR FALTERS; the engine COUGHS.
132 INTERIOR: RESUME TOWN MEETING HALL SIDE AISLE, WITH ORV AND CORA.
The lights FLICKER ON AND OFF; we see the two old folks looking up (any others that have been using the town hall's bathroom facilities, as well) through intervening shutters of darkness.
ORV Relax, Cora, it's just the gennie clearing her throat.
133 EXTERIOR: THE GENERATOR SHED NIGHT. Settles down to a STEADY ROAR again.
134 INTERIOR: RESUME MEETING HALL SIDE AISLE, WITH ORV AND CORA.
ORV
See? Bright as you could ever want!