We are all invisible witnesses. If not for this, how many crimes would ever be reported?

I have been a witness to crimes, some of them my own. But those I own will not be described here. This document is reserved for crimes committed in front of me, when I wore the ultimate cloak of invisibility, childhood.

I think we all imagine that children do not see and if they see they do not understand. We reassure ourselves further, as we carry on in our imperfect ways, that even if they understand they surely will forget. But the mind is not so dependably careless with its impressions. Many remain for a lifetime, as those reported here have. However, memories are not preserved in amber. They are living things, subject to the whims of time, experience and bias.

Therefore, the events referenced in these pages may not have happened. Some bit of them may have occurred in some way and taken root in a corner of my mind, where imagination and time work their mischief. But for me everything I recall has the essence of truth. And it is that truth and not the original event which has stayed with me through the years and has been intrinsic to the development of my character.