And it is, sad to say, really sorta funny.

Just thinking about them saying goodbye brings tears to my eyes

I feel I can say that only because I went through the same thing when I was younger. My mother had taken me to see E.T. and like every other child who saw that film, after seeing E.T. go home and leave Elliot behind, I left the theater bawling my damned eyes out.

I was only 5 or so, but I remember walking out of the theater and thinking something along the lines of “Well, why can’t he just come home with me? Why does he have to leave? He doesn’t have to leave! He can stay with me!!” But of course I was expressing it through tears and snot and the verbal dexterity of a child. So not all that clearly.

As luck would have, down the block from the theater was a street fair with rides and candy (the cynic in me thinks this was intentional). To stop me from crying and to essentially make me shut up, my mother took me to said street fair and plied me with sugar. And like the child I was, my tears dried as I took my turns on the highly unsafe street fair rides. E.T and his plight forgotten amid the lure of blinking lights and cotton candy.

I have not see The Odd Life of Timothy Green, but given what I’ve heard, it does sound like a 5-hankie sort of film and a gentle way for children to learn about death and leaving behind loved ones. From the reaction of these two kids, everyone will leave sobbing.

If only there were a street fair nearby to help them through it.