Better Than Before

(album: Next To Normal (Original Broadway Cast Recording) - 2009)

[Dr. Madden:]
The memories are there somewhere
Find some pictures you can share
Keepsakes of the life that's there behind her
Keep it light at first that's best
Careful that she's not distressed
When the time's right tell the rest
Remind her, you'll find her

[Dan:]
So let's start with something small
Something personal and pretty
I bet you'll know these shiny things

[Diana:]
They must be tacky trinkets from, I guess, Atlantic City?

[Dan:]
No, actually, Di, they're our wedding rings

[Natalie:]
It's going well

[Dan:]
Here's a flower from our wedding
It was such a sight to see
And the ceremony everything we'd hoped

[Natalie:]
Um, Dad?

[Dan:]
Well, that's how I remember it
So that's how it'll be

[Natalie:]
It was raining, it was Portland, you eloped

I mean, Portland

[Dan:]
It's an open book to write here
It's a life we can restore
We can get back what we had and maybe more
Maybe get us back to better than before

Here's the year we drove the west
We hit the highway in the Honda
And I took pictures everywhere we went
We saw the painted desert
The Grand Canyon and Aunt Rhonda
And Nat learned what her middle finger meant

Here's the first house that we owned
On Walton Way, we loved that place
Then we built this one on land that we both chose
And here's a pic of all of us
With smiles on every face
And the photoshopping hardly even shows

[Diana:]
You're standing by a lake with all these ducks
And who's this little chubby girl?

[Dan:]
That's Natalie

[Natalie:]
This sucks

[Dan:]
Gonna get us back to normal
Gonna get us back to good
Gonna get back what we had and maybe more

Gonna get us back to good times
And forget the things we should
Gonna get us back to better than before
We can get things back to better than before

[Natalie:]
Alright, fine

Here's the headline in the paper
When you freaked out at the market
Here's the house on Walton Way after the fire

[Dan:]
Natalie...

[Natalie:]
Here's the damage to the Honda
When you showed me how to park it

[Diana:]
Did we crush somebody's cat beneath the tire?

[Natalie:]
Yes, ours

Here's dad at my recital
And we're wondering where you are

[Diana:]
I remember this, I made it to the school

[Dan:]
Wait, you remember?

[Diana:]
It was the year of too much lithium
I hid out in the car

[Dan:]
Yes

[Diana:]
And your swim meet just last year, I'm in the pool

[Natalie:]
So you are

[Dan:]
You're getting it, you've got it Di, hooray

[Diana:]
Your life has kind of sucked, I think

[Natalie:]
You've got it, yay

[Natalie, Dan & Diana:]
Hooray Hooray Hooray!

[Diana:]
Gonna get back what I lost there
Gonna find out who I was
Gonna open up the gates and let it pour

[Dan:]
And if memory makes things better
Well, memory always does
Gonna get us back to better than before

[Dan & Diana & Natalie:]
Make everything much better than before
Won't anything be

[Natalie & Dan & Diana:]
Better than before? I guess it must be

[Diana, Dan & Natalie:]
Better than before
Better than before