Rooftop Duet / Falling

Wow.
Look at this view.

I know.
It's stunning.

I'm stunned.
You live here?

I house-sit.
The artist.

Oh.
He must be successful.

Not really.

No?
Well, what'd he do to score this view?

Trust fund.

Trust fund.
There you go.
Hey, thanks for getting me back my
Notes. Don't know if I ever said that to you.

You didn't, but it's okay. What're they for, anyway?

Oh, my graduate dissertation.

Oh

Sounds more impressive than it is.
In fact, it sucks.
At least that's what my professor
Told me at our meeting the other day.

If you come up here every day
And you look out at the buildings
You start to notice how the view's always changing
New curtains on the windows, right there, fifth floor
That flowerpot, that was not there before
So I come up here every day
And I watch the landscape shifting
A coat of paint, a bar that's changed its name
Nothing ever stays the same

When I was just a little girl
I'd look out my bedroom window
And see this skinny little tree out in the garden
And season after season it grew and grew
And I surmised, though toddler-sized, that I would, too
And now here I am with you
As we overlook the city
And I think I'm still that girl, staring out her window
Seeing things much bigger than she is
And I know that I'll never grow
As tall as these buildings
I'll never quite reach the sky
But God, Warren, I want to try.
Don't ask me why.
Warren, tell me about your big picture
How you came to New York to begin it
I mean, somehow, you found this big picture

But the trouble is finding the right way to paint myself in it

What do you mean,
Aren't we all just little specks all huddled together?

I mean, look at me here with my bag full of pages
Pages like these

Wow

These backpacks of pages, mountains of pages, that nobody sees

Warren, what are you talking about?

I come here every day
And see the world evolving from the curtains on the windows to the sky
But I stay just the same and no one ever sees me
Because I -

Warren!

I know that I'll never stand
As tall as these buildings

What are you doing?

I'll never quite reach the sky
These pages I made are just a charade

Get down from there!

I'd rather see them fly

I was walking down sixteenth street
I decided it was time
Got my stuff from her apartment
All the clothes I just moved in there
Bunch of books, the tie she made me wear
Did her dishes, left my key
It had been days and where was she?

I couldn't call or even show
I thought it would be best to let him go

I was stopping at the corner
Feeling tense and all shook up
Then for no good reason I look up

I see a piece of paper falling from the sky
It makes me stop because it's falling from so high
Dancing on the wind, all on its own

But it is not alone
There's a swarm, a storm of

Reeeeeeed falling, bluuuuue falling, orange and yellow and greeeeen

Red and gold and brown and crimson, blue and violet,
Pink and amber, orange emerald, yellow, white and green
Churning like a cloud

Warren, are you crazy? Get down from there.

Look at how far they go when there's nothing to stop them

Did you make these?

Yeah. It's sort of a project. But no one ever took them.

Warren.

No, they're much better off out there. You gotta see this.

Warren, look. I kept this in my bag. Never let tall buildings –

Block the view of your dreams!

That's mine!

It's a little precious, but it spoke to me.

Keep it. The rest are going over the edge.

Wait. Warren? Throw my notes, too.

But, what about your thesis?

It's all wrong. This whole thing is wrong. Look at this.
I don't even like Virginia Woolf.
Her life is depressing. This isn't right,
It's not me. It's not my –

Life story.

Yeah.

C'mere.

Dozens of people reach for the pages that rain

Look how many people are coming over!

Dozens more looking skyward to see them explain

Wave! They're waving!

A small piece of paper comes floating my way
It says, "Don't worry, everything will be okay."

Okay.

Okay.

Ready?

You bet.

On your mark –

On your mark –

Get set
Fly, fly look at them fly

We look up into the sky
At the pages that keep falling

Like a blanket spreading out
High above us, oh

Fly, look at them fly
Tumbling past windows
And through the air
I stop and stare
Seeing them there
I can see

So many people flooding the square
Then through everything

Warren, it's beautiful.

My cell phone rings

I know.

It's Claire.

Look!

Claire.

Look!

Claire...