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‘I took the paddle boat alone out on the Lake Winnipeasaukee when I was around seven years old at Girl Scouts camp. We were supposed to take the paddle boats in pairs or groups of two or three, but I wasn’t listening and decided I was a strong enough paddler to take the boat out by myself. It was a great trip, though the cabins especially the toilets were scary, and it was a dark cloudy and chilly at night (summer) despite the bonfires we built and girl scout songs we sang. The part of the lake that I paddled the boat on was swampy and green. I remember looking past the yellow reeds and dead leaves floating on the surface of the lake, and I saw a face looking back at me, but it very clearly wasn’t human, and it very clearly wasn’t a snapping turtle because I have seen those before, as well as frogs near the ponds and canals where I live. No, this was a bulging eyed face, with a body that seemed to extend far beneath the water, and I had the feeling of it being very large. I felt immediately that this was a fairy or some kind of river troll. It blinked at me and smiled, and then I heard my mother who was a girl scout leader calling for me to paddle back. Everyone on the shore was very concerned about my safety out on the lake alone, even though I had been wearing a life jacket and was a careful paddle boater. I remember looking back and the face was still there, now half submerged in the water. The fairy had long strands of kelp like hair, and these giant, very black glassy bulbous eyes such as a frog or a fish. It blinked at me, and I could see that yes, it was very big from the size of its mouth. The fairy’s mouth looked like a line, like someone had drawn a gash or split on its face. There was something cartoonish about the way it obviously wasn’t a frog or a turtle and seemed to be humanlike and friendly. I blinked at it and just paddled away. As I headed back to the shore, to be with my concerned peers and girl scout leaders, I glanced once more back over my shoulder at the fairy among the reeds. It slowly sank back under the water as if to say goodbye, and I saw bubbles, human-like blowing bubbles, float up to the surface. After this happened, I felt very alone, and the sky was getting dark, so I hastily paddled back to shore. I didn’t tell my mother, but I did tell my fellow girl scout friend, who we used to play unicorns with. She seemed to understand but, in the end, told me it probably was just a big frog. To this day I still don’t know if what I saw was a fairy or a troll or what.’ ‘I just saw its face and head poking half through the surface of the water, and the rest of its body was imagined but seemed to be very deep and very large underneath the water.’ ‘I believe this is real, at least to me.’