Rooftop Duet / Falling

DEB
Wow.
Look at this view.

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WARREN
I know.
It's stunning.

DEB
I'm stunned.
You live here?

WARREN
I house-sit.
The artist.

DEB
Oh.
He must be successful.

WARREN
Not really.

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

WARREN
Trust fund.

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

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

DEB
Oh, my graduate dissertation.

WARREN
Oh

DEB
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.

WARREN
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

DEB
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

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

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

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

DEB
Wow

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

DEB
Warren, what are you talking about?

WARREN
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 -

DEB
Warren!

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

DEB
What are you doing?

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

DEB
Get down from there!

WARREN
I'd rather see them fly

JASON
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?

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

CLAIRE & JASON
I was stopping at the corner
Feeling tense and all sup
Then for no good reason I look up

JASON
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

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

JASON
Reeeeeeed falling, bluuuuue falling, orange and yellow and greeeeen

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

DEB
Warren, are you crazy? Get down from there.

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

DEB
Did you make these?

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

DEB
Warren.

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

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

DEB & WARREN
Block the view of your dreams!

WARREN
That's mine!

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

WARREN
Keep it. The rest are going over the edge.

DEB
Wait. Warren? Throw my notes, too.

WARREN
But, what about your thesis?

DEB
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 –

WARREN
Life story.

DEB
Yeah.

WARREN
C'mere.

JASON
Dozens of people reach for the pages that rain

DEB
Look how many people are coming over!

JASON
Dozens more looking skyward to see them explain

WARREN
Wave! They're waving!

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

WARREN
Okay.

DEB
Okay.

WARREN
Ready?

DEB
You bet.

WARREN
On your mark –

DEB
On your mark –

DEB & WARREN
Get set
Fly, fly look at them fly

CLAIRE & JASON
We look up into the sky
At the pages that keep falling

ALL
Like a blanket spreading out
High above us, oh

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

JASON
So many people flooding the square
Then through everything

DEB
Warren, it's beautiful.

JASON
My cell phone rings

WARREN
I know.

JASON
It's Claire.

DEB
Look!

JASON
Claire.

DEB
Look!

JASON
Claire...