’ * After about an hour Rachel heard a groan from Patrick and both she and Jerry turned as much as they could to watch him as he rose up from uncons...iousness to consciousness. They watched as he groaned again and moved his head a tiny amount, then as his eyes flickered open. They were glazed, and open only a slit before they closed again. Rachel breathed a sigh of relief, at least he was alive, but he might have concussion which she worried about. She stared at him as he lay there, his eyes. Everyone said it was some punk kids but I knows it was some witches that eat bats eyes and torture little boys when they wander too close. Don't ask how I know these things but I just do 'cause I'm smart, I guess. Anyways, Mary Lou had come to live with me and my Ma since afore I remembers 'cause Ma said that her Daddy used her as a cumbag, whatever that was. She used to stroke my lizard all the time 'cause she loved to watch him spit and wiggle but one time she tried to bite off his head and. Happens one year with one house & we never hear the end of it.’ Brandon frowned. ‘What? It could happen.’ ‘Bran the guy ran out of loot, he was just trying to hold off the inevitable toilet paper bombing, it was a one time deal.’ Gavin, holding off from weighing in, broke out in a hearty chuckle. ‘And as I remember it, it wasn’t that noteworthy a rag to begin with, I mean’- Brandon’s heavily made up brow, all ghostly white, knotted into a determined frown. ‘Shut up Gav.’ ‘I mean’ Gavin went on. I don’t understand it any more.”“You never did, you only thought you did. Like so many people, what you see now, you assume to be what is. You give it a story that fits the facts you know, and you think you have solve the philosophy of life.The world is always changing. Mostly in small steps. When I was young, it was normal to give away the womenfolk as rewards. A man might give a friend the use of his wife for a night. Or he might thank the carpenter by giving him his daughter for half an hour.