Roger and I were talking about what
happens to these children what's going and I was told what happens to
many of them is this - they have traumatic accidents traumatic experiences
- this can't happen to all of them but to some and then they're brought
into hospital and in order to protect them they are covered in a great
plaster mould to stop them being able to move and they're in that mould
completely covered like mummies with a small hole (Trina - not quite
like that - from here to their feet) from here to their feet (Trina
- with relavant holes) this is not what they told me - I was going to
say relavant holes just to prove - but I prefer my tale because you
see the thing is you pick up these things and they go around your head
and that's how they come out isn't it? and then there were - it's 12
weeks is that all right? - 6 weeks and they are unable to move for 6
weeks cut off from everything and then at some point the plaster is
broken and they're dirty and they're covered in bits of plaster and
they go through - from what I'm told perhaps Ive imagined this - a sort
of car wash which takes off - washes this stuff away and they're put
into a sling that's a harness - is that right? - and brought along a
corridor and - I always imagined the ghost train at the end phomp! it
burst open and there is the hydrotherapy unit and in they went and when
I thought of that it seemed to me to be a really - a piece of horror
just like the ghost train that for children - because of course I imagine
they can't move their muscles properly because they've been - they've
lost the use of their muscles that's right? and their skin must be tender
if they've been? yes - so they don't want to be touched and they can't
move and they go into - and then these women have to take them - you're
all women aren't you? all the names that I've got are women - have to
then try and help them to recover and so there's another story that
was going through my mind and I kept remembering how that - that terrible
thing that I've experienced when I was a child - I knew that even nice
things like those coloured cotton drawers could be frightening and terrifying
- I thought of that because Roger had drawn a dolphin - a man turning
into a dolphin and I thought it was terrific I thought it was an absolutely
terrific drawing and people came along and said well it'll frighten
children and I kept thinking cotton drawers with flowers on will frighten
children, that you never know what's going to frighten them or what's
going to happen in that respect.
Anyway one of the things that we
wanted was what you call a narrative that's a story - now a narrative
is a story with a narrative you start off with every thing more or less
alright and then something goes wrong and you have this awful struggle
and at the end everything's restored it's the same thing but not quite
it's always changed so we thought that's how we should do it we want
a story for children when they go in there to follow and the trouble
with stories is that they normally work out for the best and I don't
know perhaps you can tell me the hydrotherapy pool is not a guarunteed
cure for anybody it doesn't mean if you go in there it's going to cure
you it doesn't mean you're going to get better it might help you in
various ways but we can't sell it as a story where people come through
and emerge at the other end triumphant