[Intro: 6am café, accordion sigh, coffee grinder, door bell, male baritone spoken] Another morning. Same rain. [Verse 1 - Male, barista Lucien, intimate, upright bass + accordion, 88bpm waltz] Six o'clock, the rue's still grey I unlock the doors to rue de Seine Same two sugars on table three Where monsieur left Sunday at eight-fifteen Same blue ribbon where mademoiselle Dropped her poems when she fell For a man with silver at the temple And a wife at home named Claire [Pre-Chorus - gypsy guitar enters] Claire is sick, this much I know Not dead, just not expected to grow Old, not cold, he told me so last spring Before she ever walked in to sing [Chorus - Male, waltz blooms, brushed drums, to audience] Will she come Sunday? It's not for me to say Will he come Sunday? It's not for me to say I make the coffee, I wash the cups I watch them fall, I watch them get back up Or not get up, it's not for me to say [Verse 2 - Male, walking bass, setting two tables] He is fifty-three, she is nineteen She thinks that's love, he knows what love means To stay when staying breaks your heart To leave when leaving is the kindest part He hasn't been since Sunday night She hasn't either, not in daylight But his shadow past the quai at three Her blue bike chained by the bakery [Bridge 1 - Male breakdown, solo accordion, holds blue flower in water] I have been here forty years Seen a thousand girls with ink and tears Every time I think I know how it ends I am wrong. So I make the coffee. [Time Jump SFX: vinyl crackle, 20 years later, bookstore bell, music shifts to 78bpm] [Verse 3 - Female, Amélie age 39, warm alto, piano vibraphone muted trumpet, nostalgic] Twenty years later, same rainy street My name in the window of Librairie Verte An Evening with Poems the poster says A crowd inside, but my mind replays A café table, a blue pressed flower A man with silver at the temple hour A girl who was nineteen with ribbon and pen Writing your name over and over again [Pre-Chorus - Female, strings enter gentle] They ask me to read the one about you The poem that made my first book come true I clear my throat and the room goes still And my heart goes boom-boom-boom, softer still [Chorus 2 - Female, wistful, tambourine light] Oh Mister Silver, are you somewhere Reading these pages I laid so bare? I wrote you into every line And I'm falling deeper, yeah-yeah Not into sorrow, but into time [Verse 4 - Female + Male ghost duet, warm but aged] After the reading, a girl comes near Your eyes, your smile, I hold back a tear Says I'm Amélie, you knew my grandfather well Your book was on his nightstand when he fell She hands me a photo, worn at the edge You in that café on that same ledge Holding my notebook you found that day Smiling like you knew I'd be okay [Bridge 2 - Female half-spoken over cello + piano, bookstore bell] She said He included your name in his prayers each night Grand-mère's name and then yours burning bright He told me you were both his spring, his reason to fight To stay I stepped out to rue de Seine in the neon light And felt nineteen again and for once I saw the light [Final Chorus - Full Company, triumphant tender, both voices, horn hits, major key lift] Oh Mister Silver, look what we made Two lives, one Sunday, that never fades Your winter became my spring So I'm falling deeper, yeah-yeah-yeah Into the song I'll always sing Mister Silver, my everything Lives in each page, yeah-yeah-yeah [Outro - Male spoken, espresso machine hiss, 20 years later] But come Sunday... order early. It will be crowded.
