In moments I was suspended over the deep dark waters of the loch. Hands so white against the blackness, refracted, made ghostly and strange by the few inches of warm water that floating on the top of a dark cold pool below.

I floated on my back, ears under the water line, so I could no longer hear kids squealing with delight on the shoreline, and released myself from wondering what John and my friends were saying, seeing, thinking. Aquatic earmuffs in place I could feel my body in the water, be alone. Blue sky and fluffy clouds filled my view, and on the far shore soft treeless hills mounted up, bathed in the yellow light of the sun dipping low.