By Kirstin Genthner

She strolls through the carnival, a stick of cotton candy in one hand and a pink teddy bear tucked under her arm. A scruffy man calls to her from a booth as she saunters past, and she pauses, biting into a pink wisp of sugar. “Lemme guess your age, sweetheart. A dollar’s all it’ll cost you.” She steps back, shaking her head. His voice becomes a whine. “C’mon, lady. Help a guy out. If I don’t guess right, you can win yourself another teddy bear.”

She moves on, a smile playing across her face. Maybe the man thinks she doesn’t want to be reminded of her years, but he’s wrong. Only she knows the real reason she has passed him by: they always guess wrong. And she’s a tender-hearted girl: she doesn’t want to wound his pride, even though he is a stranger. Besides, nobody would guess that she’s actually – well, a few years older than she looks. And she doesn’t need another teddy bear anyway……..READ MORE