I don't know if I've ever shared this before, but I was thinking about it today, and it's quite strange.

When I was little, I had a childminder. I can't remember her name, but my brother did, and whenever he mentioned her (always as the "horrible childminder"), I got a mental image of being inside a huge stone well (the walls weren't very tall, you could see over them, but the well was very big in diametre), inside a big room. I don't know why, but I did. Stephen always said that this woman's child kept picking on him, and I had this horrid memory of being stuck inside the well, and not being allowed out.

A year ago or so, someone told me something about what this woman did that puts my memory of the well in perspective, but it is strange how the memory came about.

Someone told me that this childminder used to make me stand in a bucket of water whenever I was naughty in the corner of the room. And, over the years, that memory must have converted the bucket into a huge oppressive stone well... The well co-inciding with my memories of this woman. In fact, the only memory I have of this childminder is that of the huge stone well. How evil was she? If my memory was anything to go by... and the testimony of my brother (who was older at the time and has a more reliable memory about this woman...) she must have been horrible.