My adult secret

This year, my life radically changed. I was never the one to believe in fairies or monsters. Neither did I believe in sea monsters or lake Creatures. That obliviously changed, and trying to prove they exist is impossible. Only the chosen ones get to see them. You probably heard of Loch Ness monster, or maybe the Memphre in Sherbrook, the Ogopogo in the Okanagan’s, and so on. I can tell you I have my own monster living in the lake of our cottage. That is my story.

In the summer of 2020, my life was miserable, everything was closed due to the covid pandemic. After a few weeks of crafting, cooking and binge-watching my favourite shows, I got bored out of my mind. I decided to go to our family lake house. No one had been since I was a little girl. I had small pieces of memories from my time there, but it was all blurry. The house was far away, concealed in the woods. It was a 6-hour drive from town, and then, at the end of a long log road, you had to travel with a 4wheeler for another 3 hours in an overgrown trail. To say that it was confined is not even the term for it. It was the perfect place to finish my quarantine, I thought to myself. I would have access to the enormous garden, the vast aqua bright blueish private lake, a hammock under the trees to rest and read, and my paddleboard. I was excited about my brilliant plan.

I packed almost my whole house, who knows how long we will be stuck, and I did not plan on coming back to my claustrophobic apartment. It had already been too long. At this point, I needed some type of adventure in my life.

I left early in the morning, the first day of August last year. The trip, as I mentioned, was long but invigorating. When I got there, the cottage was outstandingly clean and thoroughly maintained. Thanks to our off-grid community that lives on the other side of the lake somewhere behind the mountains. One family took care of the cottage when we weren’t around in exchange for some vegetables from our garden and access to our lake. We would also bring them items from town when needed. The smell when I walked in reminded me of my youth, Granny’s pies, and our family reunions. The breathtaking bright blue lake view surrounded by mountains and the clean smell of fresh air brought so many undefined memories.

Why did my parents stop coming here? I never got a clear answer nor any reasons that I remember off. The last summer we visited, I only remember that my family decided to shorten our trip, blaming my father’s work, but I was too young to understand. I think I was four years old and after that, it was mostly rented as a vacation cottage. This place was even more stunning than what I remembered, no wonder we had made a good fortune renting it out. Maybe that is why we eventually stopped coming, but what a waste not to enjoy it a little more. My goal was to catch up with all of this wasted time, and I was determined to savour all the seconds I had.

I was exhausted, and the peacefulness made me even sleepier. I decided to call it a day even though it was barely 7 o’clock, might as well get a good night's sleep and start exploring early tomorrow morning. I did not take the time to unpack and jumped straight to bed, the one I always picked when I was little. It was narrower than I remembered, but it gave me so much comfort. As soon as I tucked in, I was out.

That night, a weird buzzing sound woke me up. The kind of sound that some would call a white noise. I opened my eyes, questioning for a few minutes if they were open, as it was so dark. I remembered I had closed the blackout curtains because I went to bed so early, but wow these were seriously blackouts. I didn’t remember the layout of my room, so I was trying to get to the window to opened them before I tripped and broke everything. I finally felt the curtains and swung my arm to open them. To my surprise, it was just as dark, but I had the glow from the moon’s reflection on the lake and stars. What a beautiful sparkly sky!

The buzzing had stopped, but I still wondered where it came from. As I was getting my phone to get some more light, the buzzing came back. This time, an intense green light filled the room all around me. I looked through the window to see what it was, and all I saw were green neon lights coming from the lake. I was standing there, in the middle of the room, staring at the lake astounded by the green lights and weird noise.

Suddenly the sound stopped, and the green light dissipated. The moonlight was back, reflecting the lake, fighting against the dawning. I stood there for what seemed like hours. I couldn’t quite see the sun, but the sky was bright orange. When I looked at the time on my phone that was still in my hand, it was 4:30 am and, still overwhelmed by what I had witnessed, I decided to go back to bed for at least an hour. It would help me clear my head, and I was sure it was only a dream.

I got up at 7 am fully refreshed and ready to explore the surroundings. I remembered the weird dream from last night and told myself I really needed some sleep. I felt like the lake was calling me, probably the reason I dreamt about it. I had a good smoothie for breakfast completely made from fresh fruits and veggies that I had handpicked from the garden. For some reason, the garden there grows like crazy. I hadn’t seen that many fruits in one tree, all of them were so colourful, big and shiny. We don’t use any types of chemicals in our gardens, and it is so far from city pollution, it kind of made sense that it was a very healthy garden. It still felt like something else was going on, maybe the neighbours knew a secret recipe or a special compost tea. I had to know because for sure I was going to use it. I made a point to eventually try to ask someone when they came over as they did not know I was here, and I did not have their exact location.

I cleaned up after myself and went straight outside to blow the inflatable paddleboard I had with me. I was so excited, the lake was huge, calm, and so peaceful. I felt like going around it and get as many memories as I could. Walking to the dock I remembered us running and jumping in. I would always follow my older cousins, and my parents would have a panic attack as it was so deep to dive at the end of the dock. Everyone always said I looked like a fish in the water, and I still feel like one too. I love the water, the quiet, the comfort. Ever since our last stay, my parents moved to the city and kept me away from the waters. I didn't understand why as I felt like home, where I belonged.

I got on my board and started paddling, following the shoreline to see our land around. I saw that the Tarzan rope and our zipline were still attached and in good condition. I must try them, I thought to myself, as I was not allowed because I was too short to reach. I saw our canoe on the rack, another thing I would have to do. I was pleased with my decision to come here. I had so many things I could experience. I continued my route and decided to go across the lake. It was very large, but I felt powerful enough to try and cross it. I was halfway there when the buzzing sound from my dream came back and with it that green light. The light was so bright it was making my body glow green. I was stunned. Was I still dreaming? I pinched myself, and no, I was well awake. This time, the sound grew louder, and the serene waters became rough and wavy. I had a hard time staying on my board and kneeled, desperately trying to hold on. The waters became bubbly, and it spun me like a whirlpool. The whole lake looked like a huge jacuzzi, what was happening.

Suddenly it stopped, and the lake went back to its still state. My eyes were shut and by then, I was laying down on my board, holding on for dear life. I opened one eye to try and catch a glimpse of the lake and made sure the green had vanished. I slowly opened the other eye and I stood up on my board. As soon as I was up, I froze at the sight of the lake. It wasn’t green nor stormy anymore, but it was so clear I could see all the way to the bottom. I knew this lake was deep, but this was an understatement. The lake was always clear due to its colour but became black as it got deeper. This time I could see all the way through. I could see caves, so many species of colourful fish, fish that you are supposed to see in an ocean, fish I haven’t seen before in my life and something I couldn’t describe at first. Wait, what was I seeing in this deep cave? I grabbed my phone in my back pocket and started snapping pictures. I was so amazed by the beauty, the colours, I couldn’t wrap my head around the number of creatures I was seeing down there. Some were too deep for me to know exactly what they were, and some were probably immense considering the size they appeared versus their dept. I was told the lake was over 200 meters but did they consider all those caves' entrances that I could see.

All of a sudden, it went back to its usual aqua blue colour and black in the depts. Like switching the TV off, I could not see any of the fish anymore. I had an urge to jump in, but part of me feared what might happen and refrained me from diving. I decided to turn around and have a look at all the pictures I had taken. I got back to the dock at the house, and as soon as I pulled my paddleboard out, my nose was in my phone, trying to find the pictures to analyze what I had seen. To my surprise, all of them were pitch black. Did I have a finger on the lens? My hysteria could have explained why I did not hold my phone properly. I decided to have lunch and take the canoe back and hopefully get better pictures. I thought it would be easier to be in an actual boat, now that I knew the lake got all crazy before becoming see-through. I had to go back and crack that phenomenon. Was there a bigger reason behind my family's decision to stop coming here, and why hide it from me all those years? Did they know about this? Did they witness the same thing and ran away scared of the unexplained? I had to uncover the truth, and I was determined to do so.

To be continued...