[ forty six ] winter carnival
More weeks passed them by and soon it was the end of November. By that time, Prudence only had about a month to live, at most. During the last weeks in November, she had been avoiding the boys. Her health had gotten much worse and she had been checked into the hospital on a few occasions.
When the boys visited her house, she had asked her sister Lucy to lie to them. Lucy told them Prudence was busy volunteering at the primary school with Sam, or at the church preparing for the upcoming winter carnival they had each year. The boys knew Lucy was lying to them, at least about the volunteering part. They had gone to the primary several times and the teacher Prudence assisted told them she hadn't seen Prudence in weeks.
Of course, Calum knew the truth.
But he had to keep his promise. He couldn't say anything to them as much as he wanted to, as much as he thought they needed to know.
When Prudence got out of the hospital, she called the boys and invited them to the winter carnival. She hadn't seen them in weeks and wanted to spend some time with all of them. Now she had to cover the visible signs of her deterioration with make-up, assisted by her sister Lucy.
By now her long, strawberry blonde hair was beginning to fall out and her blue-grey eyes were almost lifeless. There was a tiredness to the way she walked, even to the way she moved. But she tried her best to hide it from them. She thought about the boys and how much she would make them suffer if they knew she was dying, and it kept her strong. It helped her hide the pain she was feeling, for their sake.
The winter carnival was a way the church used to fund money for things they needed during the year, and it was always a huge success.
It took place every weekend for four weeks until Christmas.
And Prudence always volunteered to help the youth group at the nachos stand. She had already been at the church all day when the boys arrived. She noticed the way their expressions turned into looks of annoyance when they saw Sam.
"Hello boys," Prudence greeted them with a smile. One by one, they leaned over the table to give her a hug.
Calum and Lucy had waved a greeting to her before they went off on their own. It was a large parking lot that was used for all the booths and games. It would take hours to see everything. And Calum had told Lucy he wanted to go on all the rides.
"You boys can go see everything while I finish up my shift here." She told them with a smile that was almost convincing through her pain, but it still looked a bit forced. "I'll just be here another hour."
Luke shook his head. "We'll just wait here."
"Or better yet," Ashton offered, "We can help you sell some nachos."
"We don't need help." Sam said.
Michael shot him a glare, but said nothing.
"It wouldn't help for them to help us." Prudence spoke, looking at the boy standing next to her at the stand.
Ashton stuck his tongue out at Sam childishly without Prudence noticing it, while Luke and Michael shot him a victorious smirk. They were thrilled that Prudence was sticking up for them. The three boys went around to the back and Ashton had Prudence sit down while he and the boys took over the nacho booth. He was convinced that she was sick, and he had tried finding out what was wrong with her, but she wouldn't tell him anything.
He thought that she probably had iron deficiency anemia and would get better in no time after taking some iron rich vitamins. None of them knew how seriously sick she was.
