Warning: Triggers for victims child sexual abuse.
Betsy was overweight,unkempt, and shunned by the other kids. “Everybody” knew she “did” it with Jimmy in his barn whenever he wanted to. She didn’t deny it, even though he called her a pig. When the home-economics teacher stepped out of class one day, Betsy told us her step-daddy got in bed with her whenever her parents had a fight. We were all repulsed, thinking she was “talking dirty.” He was known to be an alcoholic, frequently drunk in public. She told us he beat the whole family. She frequently bore bruises. None of us reported it to anybody. I was disgusted, avoiding her like the plague. Wild horses couldn’t have dragged that story out of me. Becky’s step-father despised her for her illegitimacy. The couple had two younger girls and a boy together. ,Who knows if they suffered the same abuse as Becky did
Life went on. I heard Betsy married and had children. Years later, she did prison time for molesting boys in her neighborhood. Who knows how many children were hurt? By the time she came out of prison, she was in very poor health, living out her life with her mother and a different step-father. What a shame no one was there for this sad child early on, including me.