[DEB]
Wow
Look at this view

[WARREN]
I know
It’s stunning

[DEB]
I’m stunned
You live here?

[WARREN]
Well, 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

(spoken)
Hey, thanks for getting me back my notes. Don’t know if I ever said that to you

[WARREN, spoken]
You didn’t, but it’s okay. What’re they for, anyway?

[DEB, spoken]
Oh, my graduate dissertation

[WARREN, spoken]
Oh

[DEB, spoken]
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 flower pot
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, spoken]
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, spoken]
Wow

[WARREN]
These backpacks of pages
Mountains of pages
That nobody sees

[DEB, spoken]
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, spoken]
Warren!

[WARREN]
I know that I’ll never stand
As tall as these buildings

[DEB, spoken]
What are you doing?

[WARREN]
I’ll never quite reach the sky
These pages I made
Are just a charade

[DEB, spoken]
Get down from there!

[WARREN]
I’d rather see them fly!

[JASON]
I was walking
Down Sixteenth Street
I'd decided
It was time
Got my stuff
From her apartment
All the clothes
I'd 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 shook up
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]
Red, falling
Blue, falling
Orange and yellow and green

[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, spoken]
Warren, are you crazy? Get down from there!

[WARREN, spoken]
Look at how far they go when there’s nothing to stop them

[DEB, spoken]
Did you make these?

[WARREN, spoken]
Yeah. It’s sort of a project. But no one ever took them

[DEB, spoken]
Warren...

[WARREN, spoken]
No, they’re much better off out there. You gotta see this...

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

[DEB & WARREN, spoken]
Block the view of your dreams!"

[WARREN, spoken]
That’s mine!

[DEB, spoken]
It’s a little precious. But it spoke to me

[WARREN, spoken]
Keep it. The rest are going over the edge

[DEB, spoken]
Wait. Warren? Throw my notes, too

[WARREN, spoken]
But what about your thesis?

[DEB, spoken]
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, spoken]
Life story

[DEB, spoken]
Yeah

[WARREN, spoken]
C’mere

[JASON]
Dozens of people
Reach for the pages that rained

[DEB, spoken]
Look how many people are coming over!

[JASON]
Dozens more looking skyward
To see them explained

[WARREN, spoken]
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, spoken]
Ready?

[DEB, spoken]
You bet

[WARREN]
On your mark –

[DEB]
On your mark –

[DEB & WARREN]
Get set...
Fly!

[CLAIRE & JASON]
We look up into the sky
At the pages that keep falling
Like a blanket spreading out

[DEB & WARREN] (overlapping)
Fly
Look at them fly

[ALL]
High above us, oh
Fly, look at them fly

[CLAIRE & JASON]
Tumbling past windows
And through the air

[WARREN] (overlapping)
Fly
Look at them tumbling
Look at them tumbling

[DEB] (overlapping)
Fly
So beautiful
Look at them tumbling

[CLAIRE & JASON]
I stop and stare

[DEB & WAREN]
Everywhere

[CLAIRE & JASON]
Seeing them there

[DEB & WARREN]
Everywhere

[ALL]
I can see

[JASON]
So many people flooding the square
Then through everything

[DEB, spoken]
Warren, it’s beautiful!

[JASON]
My cellphone rings

[WARREN, spoken]
I know

[JASON]
It’s Claire

[DEB, spoken]
Look!

[JASON]
Claire

[DEB, spoken]
Look!

[JASON]
Claire...