Halls of the Dark Muse

Every year during the first weeks of August I go on vacation up to Lake Tahoe, it is a family, trip, tradition that started a long time ago, we rent a cabin up there, and stay for about a week, and well as it is coming to the end of July it is getting close to time to go again this year. My sister will be coming up from L.A. this weekend.

Lake Tahoe has this sort of mascot known as Tahoe Tessy, which is intended to be a parody of the Loch Ness Monster, it was done just as a gimmick and marketed device, as they sell shirts and stuffed animals and such with Tahoe Tessy, but unlike the Loch Ness, there are not any actual legends or myths about some unknown creature lurking in the lake. It is just all done in fun, but a part of me always liked to think that it could be real, because the thought of an unknown beast within the depths of the lake, is kind of cool.

Well about maybe 4 or 5 years ago, when we were at the lake, at some distance out in the water, away from the shore (I could not say just how far, but decently fair away) there are these basically telephone poles that have more or less stop signs for the boats, to warn them against coming in too close to the shore to prevent accidents between swimmers and boaters.

So I was swimming in the water, and whenever I go to the lake, I always like to swim out to one of the markers, so I went out like I usually do, and out there, there is nothing around, it is just the open water, not close to the shoreline or anything, just out in the open. And all the boats were way far out, like near the horizon line. Nowhere near close.

While I was hanging out holding on to the pole to help stay afloat, I happened to glance down, and beneath me in the water there was this huge dark shadow right under me, and nothing anywhere around that could explain where the shadow could have come from. It didn't look like it could have been cast by the pole, so I was totally freaked out, because I am quite familiar with the lake, and I swim out there all the time, and never before had I ever noticed anything like that, and in that instant I could not come up with a rational explanation for the cause of it, so I just took off back for the shore as fast as I could without looking back.