AFTER MADNESS - CH 1 : 3 - I Don't Like crowds.

My memories of the woman's death are fragmented. I remember being at the top of the stairs with a woman who was holding me in her arms. It was dark on the landing with just a faint light from downstairs. Suddenly we heard the sound of a toilet flushing and one of the landing doors opened. I remember a black silhouetted figure rushing towards us screeching gutteraly. It looked like a monster and as it approached the faint light at the top of the stairs I could see a face dark and contorted with rage. It WAS a monster!!!

The scary, screeching thing flew at us and the woman holding me turned to face it. The creature pushed as hard as it could on my small back, its hands seeming to cover me from waist to shoulder, and the woman fell backwards down the stairs.

She managed to hold me up as she bounced from stair to stair on her back, giving me the impression of flying down the stairs. (One of the reasons people thought I was bonkers was because I insisted that babies could fly. I KNEW it was true because I'd DONE it! My sister and I spent many hours trying to believe in ourselves enough to fly and jumping down the stairs from further and further up. I thought it was just a case of believing in yourself enough. I know better now.) We passed another small child on the stairs in a velvet-collared coat and brown button-strap shoes. She was halfway down the stairs, holding onto a bannister rail. Through the bannisters I saw a room. It was a kitchen, with lino on the floor and a scullery leading off. In the door to the scullery stood a dark-haired man in trousers and singlet. He was paused in the act of drying a milk bottle with a tea-towel - a sterilised milk bottle with a long neck. He stood there looking uncertain. I don't remember hitting the bottom.

It would have been better for the woman if the fall had killed her...