Nico sipped his drink and the juice tasted so fresh. When his wife returned, he would buy one of these machines for her. He was about to repeat his question, but noticed his friend was eyeing him intently.
“Are you thinking about Maria again?” Gianfranco asked.
“No,” Nico said, then let out a heavy sigh. “Yes. I can now see that your hotel is the picture she had in her head. She tried to describe it to me and I couldn’t see it.”
Gianfranco patted his shoulder. “The gongs might help you to feel better.”
“How? What happens?”
“A man hits the gongs and the noise makes you relax...I think.”
Nico was none the wiser, but he was willing to give it a try.
Ginny, Heather, Edna, Eric and Curtis changed into slippers and white robes for a tour of the spa. Edna’s robe reached her ankles and she lifted it, gathering it in her hands as if it was a ball gown.
After a light scalp and hand massage, they sipped glasses of champagne before a member of Gianfranco’s team escorted them toward the sound healing room. “Please wait in the corridor until the session is ready,” she said.
Heather closed her eyes and pressed her hands together. “I’m getting into my zone,” she said.
Ginny meandered up and down the corridor, looking at the posters for workshops. Ben and Ally Prince had hosted a session here several weeks ago, as part of theirThe Power of Twobook tour. A photo showed the couple gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes.
Ginny would have loved the opportunity to meet them, to ask the experts about her situation with Adrian. Should she carry on dating him incognito from afar, or should she come clean? Should she give him more space, to decide what he wanted from life, or try to persuade him to come back to her? Advice was so easy to dole out to others and so difficult to give to herself.
She sighed and turned to find Nico standing behind her. “Are you waiting for the gongs?” he asked.
It sounded so ridiculous they both laughed.
Ginny wasn’t sure why she felt so nervous about someone banging shiny circles of metal around her.
The door to the room opened and a man with a topknot and silver beads in his beard bent his head low. “Namaste,” he said.
Heather repeated his greeting and bowed, too. She bounded into the room with her shoulders back, as if she was running the class.
The corporate gray-carpeted room had been transformed into something resembling a harem. Colorful mats, pillows, blankets and eye masks were strewn on the floor and gongs of many various sizes hung from wooden frames. They reminded Ginny of the gold disks that pop stars used to receive for selling lots of records. There were around twenty people in the room in total.
Heather sat cross-legged on the floor and pulled her feet into the Lotus Pose. Edna allowed Eric to help her settle onto a pile of cushions.
Loretta entered the room and lay on her side with her head resting on her hand. When Nico selected the mat closest to her, she flicked her hand until he moved next to Ginny instead.
Ginny lay down and crossed her arms over her chest like an Egyptian mummy. There was no way Adrian would ever accompany her to anything like this. She was lucky if she could get him to take part in a bar quiz on holiday.
“Namaste. Welcome, my name is Gong Master Leo,” the man with the topknot said. “The organs and emotions in your body have unique frequencies, working like the strings of a guitar. Over time, factors like stress can cause them to become out of tune. Sound can bring your frequencies back into harmony and get rid of emotional blockages. The vibrations can have a lasting and profound change on your body and mind.”
Loretta giggled and Curtis said something into his phone.
“No electronic devices, please,” Leo said. “It interrupts the energy.”
Heather turned her head to face Ginny. “I’ve heard that sometimes people experience visions,” she said. “Don’t worry. It’s your energies releasing into the wild.”
Ginny swallowed. She pictured her emotions like a herd of wildebeest rampaging across the carpet and it wasn’t pretty.
“Make yourself comfortable and close your eyes,” Leo continued. “Feel your fingers growing heavy as you start to relax. Today I’m going to be using the gongs, quartz singing bowls, an ocean drum, Peruvian rattles, seed shakers and bamboo rattles. Put your hand on your belly, draw down air to the pelvis and release it slowly through your mouth. Enter a state of stillness and sink into the earth.”
Ginny put on her eye mask and listened to the epic sounds. It was like lying down in an IMAX cinema with noise booming all around her. One gong sounded like an airplane taking off over her head, whereas other ones were gentler, like the tinkle of wind chimes. Leo’s instruments conjured up the swish of the ocean and rain tapping against windows.
Gradually, she felt the strangest of sensations overtaking her, a combination of exhilaration and weightlessness, as if she was floating upward. If the ceiling wasn’t there, she would surely drift into the sky. She tried to think about Adrian, picturing him at their dining table eating dinner. His face wouldn’t appear in her head and she saw trees and blue skies instead. Losing all track of time, she felt like she was flying above the earth with her arms outstretched. Her body seemed to pixelate and disappear, until she became a wisp of air.
Ginny found herself consumed by uncontrollable laughter and then hot tears streamed down her cheeks, dribbling into her ears.
