The Lakes

When I was very young, maybe around ten years old, I had a book titled “unsolved mysteries or flights of fancy”. It was a words and pictures book that was a gift for my birthday, given to me by my father. [who passed that same year.] In the book it told of things that were not quite true but also possibly very real. Some stories were obviously fake and made to pad the book a little. Stories of cities in the sky, timeless yet forgotten. Stories of great civilisations of old, technologically more advanced but power hungry, inevitably leading to their own demise and destruction. Some stories told of mythological beasts and creatures of the deep or of legendary birds crackling with lightning in the sky, fading to memory and myth with the rise of humanity. All this is to say I loved every second I spent with that book. It fuelled my imagination and filled my mind with many wondrous and fantastical things. One story in particular, though, caught my attention. It captured me so tightly that even now, twenty years later, I still turn those now dusty and torn pages of that old book. It was the story of the lakes.

In an unknown part of the world, there exists a great expanse of land, untouched and pristine, hidden from time and the prying destructive eyes of humanity. In this land there is a race of humanoid creatures known as merfolk. You see, in this great land there are lakes, many great and glorious lakes as far as the sun can reach. The land and lakes are full of crystal waters of teal and blue and life flourishes and flows all year round. A paradise on earth. A long time ago, the merfolk and humans coexisted. For centuries the two races lived in harmony and tranquility, but one day that changed. An evil man lead an evil army against the merfolk. The reason for this war is never stated, but some say that the merfolk had something precious that the man wanted. A war raged for many years, with great losses to both sides, until one day, the merfolk disappeared. The story goes that the merfolk had access to magical crystals. It is said that through study and understanding, one could do anything when using these crystals. The human man had learnt this and wanted to take this power for himself, but before he could, the merfolk had somehow vanished. The story continues to tell of a mer who had an aptitude for studying the crystals and that she had learnt of a great secret contained within. The secret the mer discovered was the ability to use the crystals to hide her homeland from the cursed eyes of man. So as the war raged, she spent her days and nights studying and learning, until one day she achieved her goal. She had hidden the land and the great lakes. Never to be seen again.

When I first read this story I was stunned. I couldn’t believe we just went about our days when this land existed somewhere out there in the world. I wanted to find it and see it for myself. So I read the story over and over, each time I became more and more convinced that it was real and I would be the one to find it. The land of the merfolk. I became obsessed, I wanted to find paradise. Then, out of nowhere my dad died. That broke me in ways you can’t understand, or maybe you can but I lost something that day, that need and wonder died inside me the same day he did. My paradise was gone. 

I existed as a shadow of what I was before he passed. I didn’t read or dream, nothing held my interest or my imagination. Many years passed by me as I was in this state, just living in a colourless grey world. Then one day, in my twenties, I was clearing some boxes from my old childhood room. I opened one and noticed it was filled with all my favourite books. Sitting at the bottom of the box was “unsolved mysteries or flights of fancy.” I couldn’t believe it, after all these years, there it was, lying forgotten in a box under my childhood bed. I opened it with some reluctance but couldn’t stop the corner of my mouth rising with a smile as I flicked through. I found the page about the merfolk and something clicked inside me, it was like I could see in colour again for the first time in over a decade. All joy and life came back to me. That was five years ago now. I am writing this entry from a small passenger plane. You see, when I looked back through that book, it wasn’t just life that returned to me, it was my need to find the lakes that came back with it. I think I have done it. After five years of research I think I have found paradise.