Flowers for the Dead by Barbara Copperthwaite Page A

growing up had all but disappeared, and instead they confided in one another and had a laugh together.
    Didn’t mean Laura couldn’t still tease him a bit though.
    She reached out, and playfully pretended to go to flatten his carefully mussed up hair. He dodged out of the way with a yell.
    “Don’t be such a big baby,” she grinned.
    “Yeah, cos you’re so grown up at nineteen. You’re such a big kid about fireworks!” Marcus teased back. “We’re only going tonight cos of you.”
    “Well, whatever. I can’t help seeing them without smiling. They put a big smile on my face no matter how grumpy I am. And, and, and I need cheering up, you know, because I was in an accident. A terrible car accident, and that’s upset me,” she said loftily.
    The pair of them burst out laughing. Marcus put his hand up to his brow in mock despair. “Oooh, my terrible accident. Woe is me. Woe!”
    “Whoa!” shouted Seamus. For a moment Laura thought he was joining in, but at the same time came the screech of tyres and suddenly they were on the wrong side of the road.
    Laura saw Jackie looked across fearfully at her husband. The car was travelling downhill towards a dip in the road that then disappeared round a bend. For all they knew, a truck could be heading towards them…
    “Don’t worry, we’ve plenty of time before the corner,” Seamus calmed as he gently moved the steering wheel.
    But instead of the car correcting, it slewed around with a scream of tyres.
    Laura’s brain seemed to be seeing in high definition, everything appearing in ultra-sharp detail. The total silence. The twin cones of their headlights illuminating the glittering white scene as their car faced the wrong direction. The gathering speed as they went downhill backwards. Her brother’s gasp, his hand no longer on his brow but reaching towards her, clutching the top of her arm. She realised she had mirrored his movement, and was holding him too.
    “Watch out!” shouted Seamus. And the world was rushing at them. A white hedge looming up against Laura’s side of the car – just like the white van had weeks before. Suddenly Laura was back to her own accident, remembering the shattering glass, the terror.
    The window was going to break on impact, like before.
    She let go of her brother and instinctively hunkered down, arms up, shielding her head to try and pull away from the glass that she was convinced would shatter all over her.
    A shuddering impact. Screams. A sensation of the car flying.
    Laura blinked her eyes open. Nothing made sense. Blinked them again, trying to work out what was wrong with what she was seeing. Everything hurt. Why did everything hurt?
    Her brain kicked in. She was upside down. That was why things look weird. There had been an accident, she must have blacked out for a second.
    She groaned. Coughed feebly, trying to get her breath. Called out. “Mum? Dad?” Turned her head.  “Mar…”
    She didn’t finish, his name dying on her lips because Marcus did not look right. It was dark, and she could not see properly in the upside down car’s headlights that were reflecting back at her by the frozen white ground. But she could see enough even in that poor light to know her brother’s head was badly injured.
    Part of his scalp seemed to be dangling free, and she could hear a deadened thud, thud, thud of blood dripping fast and steady from him onto the roof below them.
    Laura was calm. Very, very calm, as she deliberately turned her head to look properly at the roof, part of which was millimetres from her nose, all dented and bashed in.
    “Is it normally that low? I don’t remember it being that low,” she thought stupidly.
    Focus. She must focus. There was something horribly, horribly wrong with her brother. She called again, louder this time.
    “Mum! Dad! Marcus needs help. Quickly.”
    No answer.
    She craned her neck to see, but could not make them out properly. Her dad’s head had been pushed into a funny angle by the roof,