I wanted to be his escape plan. I thought I could write it myself.

[“SOMETHING ELSE”]

TINY:

If you’re tired of feeling,

tired of fighting,

I understand.

If you’re tired of twisting,

exhausted by existing,

I understand.

Sometimes it takes all your strength

to get up in the morning,

only to face a day

that seems aimless and boring.

But don’t despair

because I’ll be there

to lead you away.

I’ll be your weekend,

your fire escape,

the dream you never leave—

I’ll be your day off,

your stopped clock,

your glorious reprieve.

Let me be your something else.

Let me put your past up on a shelf.

Let me unfold you from your problems

and let you be yourself.

If you’re tired of the mess,

tired of the stress,

I understand.

If you’re tired of every thought,

sick of feeling caught,

I understand.

Sometimes it takes all of your strength

to make it through the night,

only to wake up

and find little that feels right.

But don’t despair

because I’ll be there

to lead you away.

I’ll be your weekend,

your fire escape,

the dream you never leave—

I’ll be your day off,

your stopped clock,

your glorious reprieve.

Let me be your something else.

Let me put your past up on a shelf.

Let me unfold you from your problems

and let you be yourself.

Just come away with me.

Come away with me.

Put all the rest of it aside

and come away with me.

We all miss our heavens

and we all fight our hells.

So please let me be there

to be your something else.

The end of the song lulls them together. It’s almost possible to believe they’ve made it to something else. It’s almost possible to believe they’ve made it to where they need to be.

This is hard to write. Please know this is hard to write.

Lights out.

ACT II, SCENE 11

A few more weeks pass. If you ask Tiny, he’ll tell you he’s never been happier. But every time he says this, every time he proclaims it, there’s a little piece that feels hollow.

There’s a lot he’s trying to balance. His relationship with Will. The creation of this musical. Phil Wrayson’s ongoing drama/comedy with Djane.

There isn’t much time to think about love. And of course that means it’s all he thinks about.

TINY:

Miracles and curses. Curses and miracles. It’s the same magic, played different ways.

So it is with love. Or our attempt at love. The exhilaration and the disappointment. The quiet and the noise. The passionate disagreement and the passionate agreement. The same magic, played different ways.

There’s a reason that, when we remember relationships, most of the time the most intense memories are from the beginning or the end. Because that’s when we’re most aware of the magic. Positive, negative. Rise, fall.

There were times while I was writing this musical over the past few weeks that I thought it might have a happy ending. I thought I was writing about me at first, then I realized I was writing about love. I thought I could give both of us a happy ending.

But it’s not so simple.

A few days ago, I said something to one of Will’s former friends that maybe I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry about it, but I wasn’t sorry about it quick enough. Again, I’m not going to go into it, because that’s his story and not mine.

It’s not a happy ending, but I’m not convinced it’s a sad one either.

Some things end. Some things stay.

We’re going to start the scene with Will madder at me than he’s ever been.

Will storms onto the stage, angry and distressed. He and Tiny plunge right into the fight. Like most couples’ fights, it starts being about one thing, but soon becomes about a lot more.

WILL:

You really shouldn’t have done that.

TINY:

Why?

WILL:

Why? Because it’s my life, my problem. And you can’t fix it. When you try, it only makes it worse.

TINY:

Stop it.

WILL:

Stop what?

TINY:

Stop talking to me like I’m stupid. I’m not stupid.

WILL:

I know you’re not stupid. But you sure as hell did a stupid thing.

TINY:

This isn’t how the day was supposed to go.

WILL:

Well, you know what? A lot of the time, you have no control over how your day goes.

TINY:

Stop. Please. I want this to be a nice day. Let’s go somewhere you like to go. Where should we go? Take me somewhere that matters to you.

WILL:

Like what?

TINY:

Like . . . I don’t know. For me, if I need to feel better, I go alone to Super Target. I don’t know why, but seeing all of those things makes me happy. It’s probably the design. I don’t even have to buy anything. Just seeing all the people together, seeing all the things I could buy—all the colors, aisle after aisle—sometimes I need that. For Djane, it’s this indie record store we’ll go to so she can look at old vinyl while I look at all the boy band CDs in the two-dollar bin and try to figure out which one I think is the cutest. Or for Phil there’s this park in our town, where all the Little League teams play. And he loves the dugout, because when no one else is around, it’s really quiet there. When there’s not a game on, you can sit there and all that exists are the things that happened in the past. I think everyone has a place like that. You must have a place like that.