Daily Dialogue — June 5, 2015
Lynn looks over slowly. She doesn’t see anything outside his window. She eyes Cole.
LYNN: Cole, you’re scaring me.
COLE: They scare me too sometimes.
LYNN: They?
COLE: Dead people.
LYNN: Dead people?
COLE: Ghosts.
Beat.
LYNN: You see ghosts, Cole?
COLE: They want me to do things for them.
LYNN: They talk to you?
Cole nods, “Yes.”
LYNN: They tell you to do things?
Cole nods “Yes” again. Lynn becomes upset. She nods with grave understanding. Cole watches her.
COLE: What are you thinking, Momma?
LYNN: …I don’t know.
COLE: You think I’m a freak?
Lynn’s eyes move to Cole.
LYNN: Look at my face.
Cole gazes at her intense expression.
LYNN: I would never think that about you… ever… Got it?
COLE: Got it.
BEAT. Cole smiles a tiny smile. Lynn glances down.
LYNN: Just let me think for a second.
She drowns in her thoughts. Beat.
COLE: Grandma says hi.
Lynn looks up sharply.
COLE: She says she’s sorry for taking the bumble bee pendant. She just likes it a lot.
LYNN: What?
COLE: Grandma comes to visit me sometimes.
Lynn becomes still. Her face is unreadable. When she speaks, her words are extremely controlled.
LYNN: Cole, that’s very wrong. Grandma’s gone. You know that.
COLE: I know.
Beat.
COLE: She wanted me to tell you–
LYNN: (soft) Cole, please stop.
COLE: She wanted me to tell you, she saw you dance.
Lynn’s eyes lock on Cole’s.
COLE: She said when you were little, you and her had a fight right before your dance recital. You thought she didn’t come to see you dance. She did.
Lynn brings her hands to her mouth.
COLE: She hid in the back so you wouldn’t see… She said you were like an angel.
Lynn begins to cry.
COLE: She said, you came to her where they buried her. Asked her a question… She said the answer is “Everyday.”
Lynn covers her face with her hands. The tears roll out through her fingers.
COLE: (whispers) What did you ask?
Beat. Lynn looks at her son. She barely gets the words out.
LYNN: (crying) Do I make her proud?
Cole moves closer to Lynn. She cradles him in her arms. Mother and son hold each other tight.
— The Sixth Sense (1999), written by M. Night Shyamalan
The Daily Daily dialogue theme for the week: Grief. Today’s suggestion by Lois Bernard.
Trivia: While in New York auditioning for Bringing Out the Dead (1999), Toni Collette also auditioned for this film as an afterthought. She said the scene in the car toward the end of the film, which was the audition scene, was the scene that really drew her to the film.
Dialogue On Dialogue: While there may never be closure for those who grieve in real life, we’d like to believe there can be. Hence, the power of scenes like this where Lynn gets some semblance of it.