Page 343 - Demo

343lived in the village and she intended to find the person. Families laid wreaths and tributes by the tree. Even young, misbehaving men had parents and family that loved them. Many believed the two women were with the men in the car as their girlfriends and thought they were loose and useless too, just like the men. Lucy was not as fortunate as Betty. The medics had missed the concussion that has made her brain start bleeding. She died within three months of the crash.Betty, however, although no one knew it because her wounds inside were of a different kind, was severely damaged.It was a year later, with her plans to go to university in ruins, that she took a job as a barmaid in the Black Dog. It was the only pub in the village with the graveyard%u2014the one she had landed in when she was thrown from the BMW.Everyone liked her. Few realised since she changed her name that it was her that was the only survivor of that terrible crash just outside this tiny, peaceful village. Women as well as men drank and dined in the pub. It was a small affair and most people got to know a bit about each other. As a barmaid, it was an ideal place to get to know them all. She desired to know the men most. This was for several reasons, mostly of the insane kind, because now, since that fateful night, that was exactly what Betty was; a person completely and utterly unhinged.%u201cAnd how is my favourite barmaid tonight?%u201d Harry asked.Betty smiled and said, %u201cMuch happier now seeing you, Harry. How%u2019s your wife,? Is she making any improvement?%u201dHarry was a man in his fifties, normally cheerful, despite the burden of having a wife with rapidly worsening Alzheimer%u2019s disease.His face saddened briefly. %u201cNo. I%u2019m afraid it%u2019s got so bad, we%u2019ve had to put her into a care home. I could no longer manage. I can stay Insanity