Aftermath Lyrics > Caroline, or Change

ROSE
Hello I?m back!
Back from shopping!
Caroline? Noah! Is anyone home?
Noah, help grandpa with the groceries.
Where?s Caroline, darling?

NOAH
Caroline left.

ROSE
She left?

NOAH
Yes.

ROSE
Why? Is anything wrong?

NOAH
No, she just left.

ROSE
?with the laundry still on?
Noah is there something you aren?t telling me?

NOAH
And the next day day day Caroline stayed away ?way-way
And she didn?t come back back back
And she didn?t come back back back.
And the next day day day Caroline stayed away ?way-way
And she didn?t come back back back
And she didn?t come back back back.
And the next day day day Caroline stayed away ?way-way
And she didn?t come back back back
And she didn?t come back back back.

ROSE
Stuart, I?m worried,
she left in a hurry,
I call her at home,
she won?t come to the phone,
her kids say she?s out,
but I have my doubts.
I think she?s there;
this isn?t like her.
Stuart!

STUART
Maybe she?s ill.

ROSE
And look, in the bleach cup:
A twenty dollar bill.

ROSE AND STUART
Noah, please, no monkey biz:
Tell us whose this twenty is.

STUART
Noah?

ROSE
Did Caroline find this money in your patns?

MR. STOPNICK
No, Rose, I think the twenty is mine.
I thought I?d lost it.
Now everything?s fine.

NOAH
And the fourth day day day Caroline stayed away ?way-way
And she didn?t come back back back
And she didn?t come back back back.
I did it. I killed her. I did it. She died.

ROSE
Dotty? Rose Gellman.
Is Caroline?oh.
Well why didn?t she call and tell me so?
I?m glad she?s fine, but?
I?ve been worried, a lot,
I couldn?t imagine,
for five days and not?
If she needed time off,
if it?s family stuff,
and things around here have been
sort of tough,
well, not tough, more like tense,
but it doesn?t make sense,
to just up and vanish without an adieu,
I thought maybe she?d gotten the Spanish flu.
Tell her to call.
That?s all that I ask.
I won?t take her to task,
just tell me what?s what.
I worry a lot.
Thanks, Dotty,
You?re swell.

You can all go to Hell!
I?m not the enemy!

MR. STOPNICK
No, you?re the boss.

ROSE
Oh, shut up, papa. Forget it. Her loss.

STUART
I have to go practice.

ROSE
Great. Thanks a lot, Stu.

STUART
No, really. I do.

MR. STOPNICK
So what else is new?
Here?s how I see it:

ROSE
I didn?t ask.

MR. STOPNICK
Nonetheless. You want that boy to love you.

ROSE
I guess, yes of course. And I?ve tried!
At bedtime he?ll only let Stu tuck him in,
if I try to do it ? well, somehow I blew it!

MR. STOPNICK
And his mother is dead?

ROSE
Forget it!

MR. STOPNICK
And everything?s wrong.

ROSE
No-win.

MR. STOPNICK
Then you marry his father but you don?t belong.

ROSE
But how he misses Caroline?
Caroline!

MR. STOPNICK
Caroline.
Given the givens she?s in perfect position
for the boy to adore her.
She?s competition.

ROSE
Competition! Oh, yes! And I mean to destroy
the silly attachment of that little boy
for the maid.
Oh I?m the oppressor, right? I?m the employer!

MR. STOPNICK
I don?t mean you consciously planned to destroy her
in Noah?s affections?

ROSE
OK fine.

MR. STOPNICK
Well, not by design.
But maybe you had to?
one way or another.
It?s hard, but not mean.
You got in between.
Maybe Rosie, now you can be his mother.

ROSE
It figures you figure in three seconds flat
how to make me the villain?

MR. STOPNICK
I didn?t say that.

ROSE
I?m glad you came down, now go home, keep in touch,
you?ve made me feel awful, thanks ever so much!
And while you were giving me this third degree
perhaps you neglected to notice that he still won?t let me near him ? so I?ve failed.

MR. STOPNICK
Wait and see.

ROSE
Just stop it Papa, stop picking a fight!

MR. STOPNICK
I didn?t mean to upset you, Rosie. Honor bright.

ROSE
I?m not the boss.
Her loss.
Leave it be and let it end.
It?s just no way to treat a friend.

Last Update: June, 10th 2013