Telly Paretta quotes from The Forgotten (2004)

Telly Paretta

Please tell me, no one will know that you spoke to us. I swear to you!

Telly Paretta

Where is my son?

How much time did you spend at the dresser compared to last week?

Telly

Less.

How much less?

Telly

I don't know exactly.

You wanna make a guess, roughly, for the week?

Telly

Oh, not even an hour a day.

Telly

I had a son, his name was Sam. You son-of-a-bitch!

Telly

Why did you change the picture? You replaced our book with an empty book. [shouts] You erased our son!

I didn't change anything! They were always blank!

Telly, you never had a son. Sometimes people go around and invent alternate lives, with imagined friends, and imagined families.

Telly

Stop it! Why are you doing this? I am not making him up!

I think it's great, you're starting to write again. What's your book going to be about?

Telly

Psychotic women, and the men who love them.

Telly

At first I thought it had something to do with the plane crash. Remember when that TWA plane crashed over Long Island? Everybody thought it was a missile, friendly fire, or some type of government cover-up.

Ash

Yeah, I remember that.

Telly

But then I thought, you know, 'How could the government erase our memories?' It's just not possible. So...

Ash

What?

Telly

So you don't think I'm out of my mind?

Ash

I don't anymore.

Telly

Don't do that!

Ash

What, this? [Ash hits him again]

Telly

What have you done with him? Why did you take him? What do you want?

It's an experiment.

Telly

He's just a little boy. What could you possibly learn from him?

Nothing.

Telly

This wasn't about Sam. This wasn't about the children.

It was never about the children.

Telly

We were the experiment.

Your connection, mother to child. Like an invisible tissue. We can even measure its energy. But we don't fully understand it, so I posed the question: "Can it be dissolved?" And it can. Except for you.

Telly

Give me back my son and I'll do whatever you want.

What I want, Telly, is for you to forget your son. To forget Sam.

Telly

No.

If you don't, this experiment will fail. I'm accountable. I can't let that happen. And time is running out.

Telly

I won't help you.

There are worse things than forgetting.

Telly

No, there aren't.

You need to forget. You're different from the others.

Telly

Why?

It's better this way. You won't be haunted by his memory. You could have a life again. Now, I want you to go back to that first day in the hospital. To the first time you ever saw Sam. I need that first memory. Give me that first memory! That boy. What was his name?

Telly

What boy? I had life inside of me. I had life. I have a child. I have a son. I...have a son. His name is Sam, you son of a bitch.

Telly

I'm Telly. Sam's mom.

Ash

I'm Ash. I think we met before.