A married couple, Cindy Green (played by Jennifer Garner) and her husband Jim Green (played by Joel Edgerton) are told by a doctor that they will not be able to have children. Cindy gets so upset that, in order to calm her down, Jim tells her that they will write down the characteristics of the perfect child they want on pieces of paper, put them in a box and bury it in the garden. That night there is a fantastic rainstorm which seems only to affect their property. In the morning there is a big hole in the garden when they buried the box. They find a young boy covered in mud standing in their house. They immediately take him in, clean him up, and accept him as one of the family.
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The boy is Timothy (played by CJ Adams). He is, in every way, their dream child. He is gentle, intelligent, kind and sincere. He represents the perfect child in every way, except he has a strange phenomena going on with his legs. Leaves are growing out of them around his ankles. They take him to a specialist to see what is happening who tells them that nothing can be done about the leaves, they cannot be removed, but will have to fall off naturally.
Jim works at a old-timey pencil factory. Because business is very slow they start to lay-off workers and Jim is about to lose his job. Timothy convinces Jim and Cindy that the way to save the factory is to invent a new type of pencil. Because of Timothy's encouragement they feel like they actually could do it and start to work on the new design. Every time Timothy achieves one of the characteristics written on the slips of paper from the box, a leaf falls off. Soon he will have no leaves left. He tells Jim and Cindy he will have to go when all the leaves have fallen. Timothy touches all the lives of those he meets. He completes his mission, then disappears as magically as he came.
Best part of story, including ending:
The young boy is wonderful and even he knows his time is short he makes the very best of it.
Best scene in story:
I like the magical storm that brings Timothy to life and the surprise of Jim and Cindy when their wish comes true.
Opinion about the main character:
It is sad when he has to leave so soon, because he really has a positive impact on everyone he meets.
