When I get closer to the surface, I hear the sound of water lightly lapping against rocks. I float, snuggled into a bed of sand, rock and kelp. My mother is telling my brother and I a story.
“Far above the waters of Loch Ness, above the surface and over the mountains, lived a town. And in this town were not fish, but strange creatures that had ‘legs’ instead of fins and ‘lungs’ instead of gills. These strange creatures called themselves Hue Men. The Hue Men came in many different shapes and sizes, like the fish you see around you. Sometimes, they walk, on their ‘legs’ to the edge of the water, and one day, you might see them.”


“Are the Hue Men nice, Mommy?” I ask, ignoring my brother, who is laughing so hard that bubbles of oxygen are released out of his idiotic smile.


“The nicest.” She says. Then, with the same eloquence as a wave matched with a mother’s gentleness, she hushes my brother and with her big fin. Lovingly covering me with kelp, , she is assured that the current will not be able to drag me off. She fades away into the water humming.


I should be able to fall asleep but I can’t, even counting angel fish doesn’t work. I roll in my bed and stare at the schools of fish pulling into their homes, crabs into their shells. Then everyone is gone. Finally, when I can bear oppressive stillness no longer I turn to my brother.


“Brother, are the Hue Mens real?”


“No, dofus, it is just a story. Now go to sleep.” He murmurs. Dream coated words punch me. I am told to sleep, but I cannot. I am alone in the water.


The next day, when I meet up with my friend, Ric Chactar, I ask him the same thing. I know he will know the answer; he has been everywhere, even salt water. When I ask him, he scoffs.


“ No, man, my dad told me they weren’t real.”


“I think they are.” I lower my eyes. I am bigger than him, but he is smarter and older.


“Well, have you ever seen one?”


“No.” I whisper.


“What?”


“No.” I manage to stammer louder this time.


“See. They ain’t real. Now let’s go over to that snail and then we can say…” I zone out, looking at the thin light that shines from the surface. When he is too busy talking, I leave, swimming home, with one person in mind.


“Mom?” I ask, reaching our rock. I am anxious to find she is not waiting for me by the rock. She should be right here. She is always right here.


“Honey?” She calls. Normalcy is again restored. “You are home early today.”


“Are they real?”


“Who? The Hue Mens?” I nod slowly. “Of course they are, sweetie, I would never lie about something like that.


“But Ric Chactar said…”


“Oh come here.” When she coils herself around me, I can feel the scars on her back. She says that she got them from a magical hook floating down from the surface. I knew that one wasn’t real. No one above the surface would hurt her; nothing can hurt her.
We swam side by side and she told me more about the Hue Men “They wear cloths over their scales. But they don’t have scales. They have “skin.” They cannot swim like we can. They walk...”
“Do they know about us, mommy?”

“Not about you, honey.” I don’t stop and wonder what she means or if she is right because she is always right.
We walk by a big portal that is squirting out nasty stuff. It is black and the goo that comes out of it is thick and stale and poisonous. She doesn’t have to warn me not to touch it.
“I hope that stops.” She thinks out loud.
“Don’t worry, mommy. You will stop it.”
Her eyes go to that faraway place they sometimes go, a stone shields the colors. She is like this when she thinks no one is looking; only sometimes I am looking. When my mommy has that look she scares me. She is not my mom.
“I hope.” She murmurs. I coil her really, really tight, willing her to come back.
“I think it is time to go home now.”
We arrive and my brother is there and we repeat the same late night festivities as always. Again I find myself unable to sleep.
I think about Ric Chactar and my mom’s eyes. I think about the portal and the fish outside. I think about the light shining from the surface and the Hue Mens - the nicest.
I roll until my bed of kelp releases me. Then I know.
I am careful that my brother won’t feel any of my splashes. I swim past him and my mother. I leave her a note in my bestest handwriting.
I will be back soon. I am going to find the Hue Mens. It won’t take that long. Don’t be mad.
I leave the rock.
It is amazing how empty the current is at night. I am all alone and it is kinda spooky and I am thinking about going back but then Ric Chactar would be right. When I am alone, I start to realize how big I am. I pass the little houses of fish and see that I am larger than their homes. I realize how fast I am, racing past streets, which have names I don’t know. I need to slow down because going up so fast makes me feel like I am getting bigger. And the air here seems different, like my body is growing from the inside.
The closer I get to the surface, the more I see. I can look down and see fish swimming behind. Above me I see what look like squares. When I lick one, it tastes like the water near the pipe. They have markings on them and pictures of a green snake rising above the water. That scares because for the first time I wonder if the humans can talk like I can and if there is something else in the water.
I hear something splashing below me. To the surface. My back starts to prickle. I scream for the surface. Something is watching me. I am so very close to the edge that I can make out what looks like above water boulders lining the sides when something brushes against me.
I am not alone.
Panicking, I rush to the surface, my funs paddling, breaking free of whatever was grabbing at me, hoping that it will be too scared by the brightness here at the surface and will slink back down to the depths.
And I break through the layer of water that has contained me my entire life is gone. It is beautiful. Green land stretches around me and there are hills that seem to lead right up to the sky, the source of light that I have followed. There is a broken down fortress and it’s decay makes it somehow more beautiful.
I am sad when I need to duck under to breathe. My world looks so dank in comparison.
So I am up again, swimming closer to the shore, but I feel something brush against my leg and I scream. Quickly, it seems like an army of little creatures turn towards me.
100 beads of light are hitting my side and they are scream scream screaming “nessie nessie” and something is grabbing my leg and my mother isn’t here and the Hue Mens are not here and there is a sharp whizzing sound and then I feel a pain in my shoulder and I look down and see blood mixing with my water and I am hurt but then I cannot see anymore because of the lights.
And then I am under the water again.
I look up and see my mother, fighting the lights. I can see that whatever was thrown at me is being thrown at her and she is bleeding, bleeding, bleeding. Her body goes rigid and I can see she is staring at the creatures on the shore. Then I see her eyes drift off to the hills and what was behind them. She releases, her body drifts down.
“Mommy?” I call out.
“Mommy?” But before I can get to her, before I can confirm what I suspect, a metal bowl is floating towards me. “Boat.” I remember that word.
And it takes her away from me.
I swim home all though I do not realize it. The swim seems short, just me going because if I stop now, I stop forever. I find my brother. I cannot speak to him. He sees me. He does not know. He jokes.
“Are Hue Mens real?”
“No. Just monsters.”