I had never imagined sirens to be a male creatures until I overheard a song playing one day at work. The mythical creatures were always depicted as female beings that would lure sailors to sail into rocky waters with the distraction of their beautiful song. But the male singer’s voice had the same captivating grasp for me.
“I really like this singer’s voice,” I told my co-worker. “He would probably be like a siren for me.”
“What?” my co-worker answered ambivalently.
“This singer. He’d be like a male siren, the mythical creature. I guess it is usually female.”
“A what? What are you talking about?”
“A siren, Collin. You know that sea creature with the beautiful singing voice. He has a beautiful voice to me.”
“Nope, I have no idea what you’re saying.” Collin had a quick way of speaking, as if to completely disregard what you were saying altogether and not care anything about it at all.
“Really? A siren is the mythical female sea creature. Sometimes it’s a mermaid. Sometimes it’s something different. But it would sing so beautifully and it would lure sailors into the rocky waters or into the cliffs which would ultimately be their deaths.”
“I don’t know what that is at all.” He seemed disengaged, but I continued.
“Well anyway, I really like this singer’s voice.” I repeated.
“Nah…” Collin disagreed.
“What? You don’t like it? Really? He’s like a siren, lures you straight off the cliffs.” I smiled.
“Nah, that’s you.”
“What?” I asked confused. I was astonished at the sudden compliment.
“Yeah, you’re good. You be killin’ it.”
“My voice?” I knew he was talking about me, but I was also still in a brief state of denial. “Would lure you straight off the cliffs?”
Collin smiled and quickly found the irony in the statement. “Yeah, straight off the cliffs,” he said suggesting a pained expression of hearing a conversely terrible voice. We both laughed.
Collin didn’t avoid compliments, but he also didn’t give them often or frivolously. I had felt humbled. I had never imagined my voice being majestic like a siren’s for anyone.
WRitingRobyn 