Foundered

When pulled up from the North Sea off the coast of the Scottish town of Cullen, the Knock Egg baffled the troupe of cod fishermen whose nets dredged it from the frigid deep. Although its shape mimicked that of the eggs birthed by the region’s seabirds, its size and color were unlike anything the Scotsmen had seen, landing its image the cover spot on local publications.

After the excitement of its discovery swept through the northern fishing town, the oddity of the egg drew attention of reporters in the major Scottish cities. As confusion and interest towards the origin of the Knock Egg grew, the more logically minded believed it to have been lost by some wandering albatross of abnormal size, zealots saw it as some gift from god but most widely accepted was, as hypothesized by fanatics of the mystic, that it could be nothing other than a lost spawn of the monster of Loch Ness.

The Knock Egg is now displayed on a pedestal in Finochty’s Bait and Tackle, a once humble business run by the owner of the fishing trawler which had drawn up the foundered egg, whose doors press at their jambs with an excess of visitors keen on seeing the cryptic wonder. Although many of the patrons who enter the shop only expect to marvel at the maritime curio, the arrival of an eccentric gourmand willing to pay a small fortune to procure the egg for her own indulgence turns the tides of its consideration as a mere article of observation.

In the midst of negotiation over the Knock Egg’s ownership, the rise of a faint heartbeat beneath its shell brings with it panic from the populous and an escalation in its price.

Directed by Lancet Hughes, 1986.