PAGE FOURTEEN

PANEL ONE

1 CYNTHIA (burst- overlaps top of SFX on page): GOWER!!

PANEL TWO

2 MOTHER: Get out! Both of you GET OUT!

3 MOTHER: You have no RIGHT to BE here!

4 CYNTHIA: Easy! Easy!

PANEL THREE

5 CYNTHIA: We aren’t going to HURT you.

6 CYNTHIA: Let. Me. Have. The. Gun.

7 MOTHER: Let… you… have…

PANEL FOUR

8 CYNTHIA: There! Isn’t that BETTER?

9 CYNTHIA: Now, come and sit down. We only want to ask you some QUESTIONS.

10 GOWER: Like… have you seen your GRANDDAUGHTER lately?

PANEL FIVE

11 MOTHER: Ester?

12 MOTHER: I hadn’t seen her since MALCOLM was born.

PAGE FIFTEEN

PANEL ONE

1 CAPTION: “But she showed up at my door TODAY……

2 CAPTION: “…lookin’ like nothin’ I ever seen on God’s Earth!

PANEL TWO

3 CAPTION: “She was shakin’ an’ sobbin’…

4 CAPTION: “…but she managed to tell me what had happened.

5 CAPTION: “While the whole time Malcolm hung onto her like he was a drownin’ man an’ she was a piece of driftwood.

PANEL THREE

6 CAPTION: “It started with that no-good she’d hooked up with. Crauss.

7 CAPTION: “He came home just before midnight last night.

8 CAPTION: “He was drugged out of his mind.

9 CAPTION: “In a RAGE.

PANEL FIVE

10 CAPTION: “He hit her.

11 CAPTION: “Like he’d done so many times before.

PANEL SIX

12 CAPTION: “But this time it was DIFFERENT.

13 CAPTION: “This time Malcolm tried to PROTECT Ester.

PAGE SIXTEEN

PANEL ONE

1 CAPTION: “Crauss wasn’t havin’ NONE of that.

2 CAPTION: “He told the boy to get OUT of the WAY…

3 CAPTION: “…or he’d get SOME of the SAME.

PANEL TWO

4 CAPTION: “But Malcolm didn’t MOVE.

5 CAPTION: “Instead…”

PANEL THREE - Silent.

PAGE SEVENTEEN

PANEL ONE

1 CAPTION: “Then they RAN.

2 CAPTION: “Back ways. Hiding.

PANEL TWO

3 MOTHER: Till finally… they got here.

4 MOTHER: But I didn’t know what to DO for them.

5 MOTHER: I didn’t know what ANYBODY could DO!

6 CYNTHIA: Shh… shh……

7 CYNTHIA: Easy. WE can do something.

8 CYNTHIA: I PROMISE…

PANEL THREE

9 GOWER: If we get the CHANCE…

PANEL FOUR

10 GOWER (from house): Damn.

11 GOWER: It’s SHARON and her BOYS in BLUE…

PANEL FIVE

12 CYNTHIA: Mrs. Salter… please. You have to LISTEN to me.

13 CYNTHIA: In a few moments the POLICE will be KNOCKING on your DOOR,

14 CYNTHIA: But we can HELP Malcolm. We can get him to a place where he can be TAKEN CARE OF…

15 CYNTHIA: It you’ll just TRUST us.

16 MOTHER: Malcolm? But it isn’t…

17 CYNTHIA: PLEASE Mrs. Salter! Just TELL me where they ARE!

PANEL SIX

18 MOTHER: Where…

19 MOTHER: …they…

20 MOTHER: …are…

PAGE EIGHTEEN

PANEL ONE

1 GOWER: Oh, don’t TELL me...!

2 CYNTHIA: A TRAP DOOR!

PANEL TWO

3 GOWER: They’ve been under the FLOOR the whole…

4 ESTER: STAY AWAY!

PANEL THREE

5 EYES: DON’T…

PANEL FOUR

6 CYNTHIA (burst): NO!

PANEL FIVE

7 CYNTHIA: It’s ALL RIGHT, Ester.

8 CYNTHIA: You and Malcolm are SAFE with us.

9 CYNTHIA: You. Are. SAFE. With. Us.

PANEL SIX

19 CYNTHIA: But the POLICE are at the FRONT DOOR…

20 GOWER: Mrs. Salter! You try to DELAY them.

21 GOWER: We’ll sneak out the…

PANEL SEVEN

22 CAPTION: “Damn!”

PAGE NINETEEN

PANEL ONE

1 ESTER: They’re at the BACK DOOR, too!

2 ESTER: NO!!

PANEL TWO (silent)

PANEL THREE

3 SHARON: What the HELL was THAT?

4 COP 1: Stay BACK, Lieutenant!

5 COP 1: We’ll HANDLE this!

6 COP 2: ‘Scuse us, Ma’am…

PANEL FOUR (silent)

PANEL FIVE

7 SHARON: Everybody…

8 SHARON: FREEZE!!

PAGE TWENTY

PANEL ONE

1 SHARON: What in the name of…??

2 ESTER: St-stay away! Or…

3 CYNTHIA: No! DON’T!

PANEL TWO

4 CYNTHIA: Malcolm… You. Must. Not. Hurt. People.

5 CYNTHIA: Do you UNDERSTAND? Hurting people is BAD!

6 ESTER: Bad…

PANEL THREE

7 ESTER (small lettering, medium sized balloon): …bad…

PANEL FOUR (silent)

PAGE TWENTY-ONE

PANEL ONE

1 CAPTION: Rowayton, Connecticut

2 BUTLER (from house): I’m SORRY, sir, but Miss Carter is not HOME to VISITORS.

3 GOWER (from house): Look, I KNOW she’s here…

4 GOWER (ditto): And we’ve been trying to REACH her for WEEKS…

PANEL TWO

5 BUTLER: I am SORRY you were INCONVENIENCED, sir, but…

6 CYNTHIA: That’s all right, Collins.

7 CYNTHIA: I’ll SEE this gentleman.

PANEL THREE

8 GOWER: “Gentleman”. A PROMOTION!

9 GOWER: Nice little SHACK you got here, Princess. Is the MONEY all YOURS, or…

10 CYNTHIA: I’m not in the MOOD for CHIT CHAT, Gower.

11 CYNTHIA: Come into the drawing room.

PANEL FOUR

12 CYNTHIA: …and as I have told Mrs Smith a DOZEN times, I am NOT coming back.

13 CYNTHIA: My… POWERS compelled that little boy to DESTROY himself and his mother.

14 CYNTHIA: How can I ever come back after THAT?

15 GOWER: How about if I tell you YOU didn’t destroy ANYBODY?

PANEL FIVE

16 CYNTHIA: What??

17 CYNTHIA: What are you SAYING? I SAW them…

PAGE TWENTY-TWO

PANEL ONE

1 GOWER: Oh, you saw them BLOW UP, sure. But you didn’t CAUSE it.

2 GOWER: You were directing your POWER at the kid -- and HE wasn’t the one that made things EXPLODE.

3 GOWER: It took a while, but the BOSSES finally got the whole story out of Mrs. Salter.

4 GOWER: Seems when Ester was just a girl… THINGS started HAPPENING.

PANEL TWO

5 CAPTION: “When she was FIVE, a SCHOOL BULLY suffered an ANEURISM on the playground.

PANEL THREE

6 CAPTION: “Later, a TEACHER she didn’t like had a MASSIVE HEART ATTACK in class.

PANEL FOUR

7 CAPTION: “And when Malcolm was just WEEKS old, his father… disappeared.

PANEL FIVE

8 GOWER: Now we KNOW what HAPPENED to him.

9 GOWER: See, it was ESTER who had the power. Malcolm was just a FOCUS. Somehow he BOOSTED it, without knowing it himself.

10 CYNTHIA: That’s… incredible.

PANEL SIX

11 CYNTHIA: But…

12 CYNTHIA: How did Ester escape DETECTION up till now?

13 GOWER: The early cases were UNDETECTABLE.

14 GOWER: And she and Malcolm’s father were on the BEACH at CONEY ISLAND when she DID AWAY with him.

15 GOWER: No WITNESSES, and the TIDE washed away the EVIDENCE.

PANEL SEVEN

16 GOWER: I guess we were just LUCKY there were no OTHER cases.

17 GOWER: But, c’mon, princess! Whaddaya say?

18 GOWER: I think me an’ you make a pretty good TEAM.

19 GOWER: Come back to WORK!

20 CYNTHIA: On ONE condition.

PANEL EIGHT

21 CYNTHIA: PLEASE stop calling me “princess”!

22 CAPTION: Next: 1985

Seems I forgot to leave this thread unlocked, for comments. Maybe nobody will care after all these years, but I suppose some of you might be seeing it for the first time.

Fire away!