"It's time for your medicine, Carter." The doctor said while pouring the liquid into the deep bowl of the spoon.
The young boy huffed and slowly sat up in his bed, shifting back and resting his body's weight against the headrest. Carter's murky eyes turned to look up at the doctor that towered over him and then to the spoon the man held up.
The boy grimaced, already able to taste the foul flavour of the medicine he had been taking for the past couple of weeks.
"The sooner you take it, the sooner it will be over." Elias said, as he had so often before to prompt the child to swallow the medicine quick, and he did.
The doctor withdrew the spoon and wiped it down while Carter made his faces and noises of disgust now that the strong medicine had been swallowed. "How are you feeling today?" Elias asked, slowly sitting down on the edge of the bed and removing his gloves to set aside.
"It hurts." Carter replied, placing one hand against his stomach. "Didn't sleep well and mom didn't give me the medicine to make it better."
The doctor nodded, bringing his hand to the child's forehead to check the temperature. "Your mother didn't have more medicine to give you. I will provide her with more today." Elias assured the boy while shifting his hands over to the child's abdomen to gently press against the hard lump that hid underneath the child's skin.
Carter remained unusually silent while Elias examined him, until the boy didn't seem able to keep the thoughts to himself. The boy turned to the doctor, studying him for a long moment. "What happens when you die, mister Dimheim?"
Elias paused the work for a moment upon being asked the question, debating how to answer the young child.
"I do not know." He finally replied, turning to Carter who just nodded at the response. "Why do you ask, child?" Elias decided to ask in turn.
The boy turned his head away to stare out the window. "I heard you and mom talk."
With a deep breath, the doctor nodded, knowing all too well what the boy was referring to. He didn't' say anything, giving the child time to continue.
"Mom keeps telling me everything is going to be alright." Carter continued after a long, quiet minute. "Says that the medicine will fix me, but it won't. Isn't that what you told her?" The boy turned to Elias.
The doctor inhaled deeply again, needing a moment to organise his thoughts. This wasn't the first time he was faced with a child asking such questions, but it was still uncomfortable.
"No, the medicine will not cure you." Elias decided to answer honestly.
"Then why are you giving it to me?" The child asked in turn.
"It helps with your pain. There's little else I can do for you, Carter." The doctor replied, meeting the child's stare.
Carter nodded slowly. "Will it hurt?" He asked after a few moments of silence passed between them.
"What will?" Elias inquired.
"Dying..." The boy answered.
"No." The doctor replied "That's why you are being given this medicine. So it will not hurt."
The two sat quiet for a few minutes, until a question came up into the doctor's mind. He turned towards the boy again, studying him close. "You seem oddly calm about it all. Why?"
Carter turned to Elias, shrugging his shoulders. "Guess I've already cried enough. It's scary, but..." There was a short pause. "It's nothing that can be changed, right?"
"No, I suppose not or at least it's very unlikely." The doctor replied.
It was then that Elias heard the quiet sniffles of the boy beside him and it wasn't long until he felt an added weight to his side as Carter slumped over against the doctor, burying his face in the man's side and sobbing quietly into the dark leather of his coat.
Elias looked at the boy and hesitated, uncertain what he should do. It took him a moment, but eventually the doctor draped his arm carefully around the young child to offer some form of comfort.
"I don't want to die.." Carter cried quietly.
"I know." Elias replied "No one wants to die."
Through the afternoon, the doctor sat with Carter and listened to the boy as he spoke of his fears, sorrow, his dreams and all the things he had planned on doing once he was grown up. There were a lot of things the boy had to talk about, things that he had been unable to speak with his mother about because it made her upset and she would begin to cry, as one would expect from a woman that was losing faith and watching her child slowly wither away.
When the light began to fade from the sky, it was time for the doctor to return to the infirmary. He tried to assure the family that he would continue his research and try to find a solution, but he could make no promises and that the family had to prepare for the loss. The doctor's words didn't sit well with the mother. She did not yell or curse the man, but instead begged him for a cure so that her little boy didn't have to leave this life so early.
"I will try." Was the last thing Elias told the family before heading out into the early evening and back to the Soothery where he'd spend the following night at work.
