“Honestly, Sophie, you’re so shallow!” She shakes her head at me disapprovingly. “Look past what people are wearing.”
“They’re all talking as well,” I point out, as a couple of them greet each other. “It’s like they come here a lot.”
“Or they could be friends? Stop worrying,” she says, looking a little unsure. “Don’t you trust me? This is a beginners’ class. I checked. Have a little faith.”
The instructor enters the room and everyone spaces their mats, sitting on them cross-legged to face her.
“Welcome to the advanced yoga and meditation course today,” the instructor says, in a calming voice. “Let us begin.”
“Oh,” Cara breathes. “Fuck it.”
“Are you almost ready?” Carolyn calls from her sitting room. “Sorry, I don’t mean to rush you, I’m so excited!”
“Just a minute!” I reply, placing the long-haired mask over my head.
I stand in front of the mirror in the bedroom of her Holland Park flat. I laugh, tipping my head back and steadying the mask before it goes flying off. This may be the best I’ve ever looked.
“Coming out now!” I announce, swinging open the door and flouncing into the sitting room.
Carolyn squeals with delight, clapping eagerly.
“You lookamazing!” she claims, her eyes tearing up. “The best Chewbaccaever!”
“Do you think?” I ask, giving her a twirl, my voice muffled by the mask. “This costume is very realistic.”
“I can’t tell you how much I love it,” she says, fanning her eyes with her hands. “You look perfect. Just perfect. How does it feel? It’s not too heavy or anything?”
“It’s surprisingly comfortable,” I confirm, moving about in the hairy bodysuit, swinging my hips to show her the flexibility of the costume.
Carolyn gives her high-pitched, slightly irritating giggle, and I realize I must look ridiculous, Chewbacca wiggling about in her sitting room.
“Shall I practice holding a bouquet?” I ask, holding up my Wookiee-gloved hands. “The fingers are slightly too long, so it might be tricky. I can sort that, though, before the big day.”
“Good idea!” she says, scurrying across the room and disappearing from my vision. The eyeholes of the mask are quite restrictive, especially since they’re surrounded by tufts of hair.
“Here you go!” she says, suddenly in front of me and making me jump. She’s clutching a bunch of pens held together with a thin elastic hair tie. “Sorry, I don’t have any flowers in the house, but these are sort of like stems.”
She transfers them into my giant hands and I hold them tightly, moving slowly around the room as though I’m walking down the aisle.
“How does it feel?” she asks.
“Fabulous,” I enthuse, handing the pens back to her. “Holding the flowers won’t be a problem.”
“Now, no pressure at all,” she begins gingerly, “but how are you getting on with the famous Chewbacca roar? As I say, no pressure. You’ve got loads of time to practice. But we’ve been talking about it, and we think it would be so great if when we’re pronounced husband and wife you do the roar.”
“Sounds great! Gosh, better make sure it’s perfect.”
“I’m sure you’ll do a fabulous job.”
“I’ve been practicing a little at home. There’s a Chewbacca Sound Tutorial on YouTube, so I’ve been learning from that and having a try every now and then. But it’s very early days and I’ve got a long way to go.”
She looks at me expectantly. “Any chance I can hear what you’ve got so far?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” I say, shuffling my hairy feet. “It’s probably not very good.”
“I’m sure it’s great,” she encourages.
“OK. Well, the first step is to get the tongue roll,” I explain, enjoying the opportunity to fill her in on what I’ve been learning. “And then you push the back of your tongue to the roof of yourmouth, relax the jaw, and then you get the right note, and the trick is to make the sound clear at first, then lead into the tongue roll, so it has that kind of trill at the end.”
