The other day when we were all out driving in the van, we rolled the windows down. Sir Monkeypants warned the kids not to throw any food out the window, and I added, “And don’t throw out any Boba Fetts.”

That was a reference to our friend TheRarGuy, who made the fatal mistake of telling us back in university about a time when he was playing with his Boba Fett action figure in the car. Suddenly, while they were on the highway, he was overwhelmed with a powerful need to see what would happen if he threw poor Boba out the window.

I think TheRarGuy brought this up because he figured just about every kid must go through this, must experience this need to throw stuff out the window. Sadly, instead of offering him empathy, we just laughed at him. And then went on to bring it up at every car-riding opportunity for the past 15 years.

We’re awesome friends. Really.

Anyway, after I said that thing about the Boba Fetts in the car with our kids, the Captain wanted to know what I meant. I thought it’d be hilarious if I told him this funny funny story, and then he could join in the RarGuy mockery for the next couple of decades, until it finally got old.

Yeah, that totally didn’t happen.

Instead of laughing…the poor Captain burst into tears. He was so sad to think of poor Boba Fett! Alone on the highway! Possibly being squashed by cars!

He cried and cried and cried.

Since we were riding on the highway at the time there was little I could do to comfort him except hand him a tissue and rub his leg a bit and try to keep the snickering to a minimum.

Eventually he stopped crying but continued to sniffle for another half hour. Then he asked, “Do you think that when TheRarGuy got to be a teenager, he took his own money and went out and bought a new Boba Fett?”

I jumped at the chance to say, “Of course!”

Then he added, “And do you think the old Boba Fett was found on the road by another little boy and he took care of him?”

And I said, “Of course, honey.”

I think he knows that both answers are not quite true. But they made us both feel better and we’re happy to live with that version of events.