Surely you’ve heard the story of Nessie, the creature that lives in the Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands? Though there be scant proof that he or she or it, or whatever gender it is, actually exists, save very blurry photos and videos that prove very little. Between the early Thirties of the last century and today, there have been myriad researchers visiting Loch Ness trying to prove Nessie, short for the Loch Ness Monster, exists. None have done so to my satisfaction.
Now I’m not saying that I don’t believe it’s possible that something’s in the loch but I am saying it hasn’t been shown to my satisfaction that Nessie is real.
So why wasn’t I surprised when a traveler staying here for a fortnight said that he not only had seen Nessie, but had actually watched it sing. Yes sing. Damn if I didn’t pour him a generous single malt just to hear his story. He was only too glad to tell it.
It started, he said, near twilight late one summer night as he was walking near the loch, not looking for Nessie as he didn’t believe in it, though he thought it was an excellent myth. But he was interested in seeing the loch for himself, so he booked a few days in a local hotel. As he strolled near the loch, he heard a odd noise like singing but weirdly not human. He realised that it was coming from the water and that something was in the water. At first, he couldn’t see it, but soon he spotted it — a serpent maybe three, four meters long with a dragon-like head. Dark enough in colour that it was, he admitted, hard to see.
And it was singing, a keening sound that was somewhere between a lament and a walking song, as it definitely had a song-like structure. It was visible for some minutes before he lost it in the twilight and soon after the singing ended as well.
He said that he stopped telling anyone the story as they thought he was crazy. I told him that no one here would think he was. With that, I poured him a second dram and pondered his story.
