A Story About Love
Chapter
Five - All You Need is Love
Musicals are hard to make into short stories. (How many more times will I have to mention that before this is over? LOL)
So, for the sake of my own sanity -- this chapter will have special markings for the lyrics.
--- Chloe sings.
+++ Brady sings.
*** They sing together.
I hope that makes sense, because it's important to know who is singing what in this particular chapter.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter Five: All You Need is Love
Above Brady's head, in the apartment upstairs, a celebration raged on through out the night. The bohemians and the dancers from the club celebrated the beginning of the bohemian revolution. But, Brady did not take part. He sat in his own apartment trying to write, but all he could think about was her. The way she smiled, the glow in her eyes, her beauty, her spirit, the secret part of her soul that she hid from everyone.
He walked away from the typewriter and stood at his window. Brady could see her from his window, she was sitting in front of her vanity mirror staring into it. He wondered what she saw when she looked in to the mirror. Did she see what the others saw? A beautiful woman who sold herself to survive. Or, was she seeing what Brady saw? A woman who deserved far more than the lot she had been given in life. A woman who deserved to be more than just wanted and desired, she deserved to be loved.
+++How wonderful life is...+++
He wondered if she was thinking about him too. If she was feeling the same as he was. Although she was the kind of woman who wasn't allowed to love, who would probably claim she didn't know what love is, he knew she had felt it too. There was something magical happening between them on this night, and Brady knew that she was truly the mate to his soul. He had known it from the first moment he had laid eyes upon her. But, a woman like Chloe would probably need more convincing. Brady was a dreamer who believed in love, but Chloe was a woman who had been hurt by men her entire life. It wasn't easy for her to open her heart to anyone, because she wasn't sure if she had one anymore.
But, all Brady wanted was to keep her safe, protect her and give her his love. And he sensed that she needed him desperately.
+++Now you're in the world...+++
Chloe stood from her vanity table and turned around. She could see him across the street, staring out the window of his apartment. His words kept echoing in her head over and over. "It's about love! It's about love overcoming all obstacles."
But what did love mean to her? It wasn't something she was allowed to have, but it was something that she secretly desired. Chloe had always wanted to know the rush of a kiss from a person who truly cared for her. She longed for the day when someone could look at her and not just see her as the beautiful courtesan. The day when someone would see who she was on the inside, the woman who hurt, who sometimes cried, and most of all wanted to know one moment of true happiness.
She stood out on her balcony, staring into Brady's window. Her heart wanted to love this man, but her brain knew that love could only bring heartache and suffering to both of them.
Chloe saw him sit down at his typewriter, and he saw her too. Their eyes communicated volumes even at this distance. He tried to focus on his typewriter, on his work, anything to keep his mind off her. Chloe leaned up against the edge of the balcony and kept her eyes glued on Brady.
---I follow the night
Can't stand the light
When will I begin to live again?
One day I'll fly away!---
Brady turned his gaze back to her, and she wondered if he could hear her song all the way across the street.
---Leave all this to yesterday...
What more could your love do for me?
When will love be through with me?---
Brady stood and pushed his chair in. The writing would have to wait, he could not possibly focus on anything but her tonight. He walked towards his window, observing her as she sang out to the night sky.
---Why live life from dream to dream
>
And dread the day when dreaming ends?---
+++How wonderful life is now you're in the world.+++
He just had to see her again. Brady had to find out if she felt for him the way he felt for her. Did the magic he saw in her eyes mean that she loved him too? He quickly left his apartment and dashed across the street, climbing up the side of the elephant to find her.
Chloe walked up the steps to the roof of her apartment, and continued her song. Hoping that the heavens above could grant her wishes for her.
---One day I'll fly away
Leave all this to yesterday
Why live life from dream to dream
And dread the day when dreaming ends?
One day I'll fly away...
Fly, fly away.---
Chloe sighed softly, allowing the wind to blow her long dark hair away from her face. She turned around and jumped with shock, coming face to face with Brady.
He apologized nervously. "Sorry, I'm sorry... I didn't mean... I saw -- I saw your light on. I climbed up the..."
Chloe looked at him in confusion. "What?"
Brady tried to think of something to say. So, instead of saying what was really on his mind, he stammered out a different reply. "I couldn't sleep and... I -- I wanted to thank you for helping me get the job."
Chloe had a feeling that wasn't really why he was there, but she went along with it anyway. Hoping to quickly escape the glare of his blue eyes, eyes that were more beautiful than any song. "Oh, of course. Yes...Toulouse -- Toulouse was right. You are -- you're very talented. It's going to be a wonderful show. Anyway, I -- I better go because we -- we both have a big day tomorrow."
Chloe smiled politely and turned to leave, but Brady pleaded with her to stop. "Wait... No, please wait."
Chloe turned around and looked at him curiously. He had to know, he would not be able to sleep until he knew why the air between them was so alive with electricity. "Before when we were -- when we... When you thought I was the Duke, and you said that you loved me. And I -- I wondered if..."
"If it was just an act?"
"Yes..."
Chloe felt terrible about what she was going to have to say to him. She had no other choice. Her head nodded confidently, although her heart disagreed with her actions. "Of course."
Brady looked completely crestfallen, like a child who was just told that his puppy had died. "Oh. It just felt real..."
Chloe sighed softly, her blue eyes turning dark as she tried to turn him away. "Brady, I'm a courtesan, I'm paid to make men believe what they want to believe."
Brady nodded in understanding. He was, after all, a penniless writer, clearly not someone that a woman like Chloe could ever dream of being in love with. "Yes... Silly of me, to think that you could fall in love with someone like me..."
Chloe laughed softly. He thought it was because of him, but it wasn't. It was because of what she was. "Oh... I can't fall in love with anyone."
"Can't fall in love? But a life without love... That's terrible!"
She stared at him with shock. Chloe had spent her entire life without love, how was she to know that not having it would be terrible. "No, being on the street, that's terrible."
Brady shook his head insistently. Love, above all things, was what made life worth living. "No! Love... is like oxygen. Love is a many splendored thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. All you need is love.
Chloe rolled her eyes, he certainly did love the idea of being in love. "Please, don't start that again."
+++All you need is love!+++
Chloe crossed her arms over her chest, not understanding how someone could get by on only love. "A girl has got to eat."
+++All you need is love!+++
"Or, she'll end up on the street!"
+++All you need is love...+++
The writer was naive, optimistic, and believed in love, the kind of person that Chloe had never been. She looked into his eyes sadly and returned his song with her own.
---Love is just a game...---
+++I was made for loving you baby,
You were made for loving me!+++
Chloe shook her head, there was no love for her, only sex.
---The only way of loving me baby is to pay a lovely fee.---
Brady looked at her pleadingly, hoping to convince her that just because she didn't understand, love did exist.
+++Just one night, give me just one night!+++
---There's no way 'cause you can't pay.----
Brady circled around her. He was most definitely persistent, and Chloe couldn't help but laugh at his wide-eyed insistence.
+++In the name of love,
One night in the name of love.+++
---You crazy fool, I won't give into youu.---
Chloe turned away from him and tried to walk away, but he stopped her from going.
+++Don't... leave me this way.+++
Chloe stopped in her tracks and turned back towards him. She realized that to him this wasn't a joke, he was dead serious.
+++I can't survive without your sweet love,
Oh baby...don't leave me this way.+++
---You think that people
Would have had enough of silly love songs.---
+++I look around me and I see it isn't so...+++
---Some people want to fill the world&nbbsp;
With silly love songs.---
+++Well, what's wrong with that?
I'd like to know...+++
Brady leaned in closer to her, gently brushing her cheek with the tips of his fingers. He moved in as if to kiss her, but instead, continued his song.
+++Cause here I go again!+++
Brady ran up to the highest point on the room, poised at the round top of the elephant's head. Chloe cringed nervously, shouting for him to get down.
+++Love lifts us up where we belong!
Where eagles fly, on a mountain high!+++
Brady got down from the head of the elephant and walked back towards Chloe, who was shaking her head in disagreement.
---Love makes us act like we are fools.&
Throw our lives away for one happy day.---
+++We can be heroes! Just for one day...+++
Chloe turned away from him, heading down the stairs towards her apartment.
---You, you will be mean.---
+++No I won't!+++
---And I... I'll drink all the time!---&
The two of them made their way back in to her room and stood in front of the large window.
+++We should be lovers!+++
---We can't do that.---
+++We should be lovers! And that's a fact.+++
Her lips said one thing to him, but her heart and soul were saying something else. She did love him, and here in front of him at this moment, she finally knew what the definition of the word 'love' was.
---Though nothing would keep us togetherr...---
+++We could steal time...+++
***Just for one day.***
Chloe and Brady stood face to face with each other, singing from their hearts, two sets of blue eyes locked in one moment together.
***We can be heroes, forever and ever.
We can be heroes forever and ever.
We can be heroes just because...***
They moved closer to each other. Brady could have sworn that the walls around them dissolved, and fireworks started going off over their heads.
+++I... will always love you!+++
---I...!---
***Can't help loving...***
+++You...+++
---How wonderful life is...---
>
***Now you're in the world...***
Chloe smiled sweetly at him. No matter how much she resisted it, he had broken down the walls she had built around her heart. It didn't matter what the costs were or what obstacles they would have to overcome, love had to be worth it. She sighed softly and moved closer to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "You're going to be bad for business, I can tell."
Brady smiled back at her and captured her lips with his, embracing her tightly. They kissed and held on to each other for what seemed like an eternity, as the heavens above sang out with joy.
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This is both easy and hard to write at the same time if that's possible. Easy because the plot, characters and the dialogue are pretty much in place. But, very hard to transfer a movie that is extremely reliant on sound and visuals into just black words on a white background. (And I really don't consider myself a visual writer, so I apologize for not being able to capture the true spirit of Moulin Rouge.)