‘I guess so.’ Freddie sighed regretfully. ‘Though he is an orphan now,’ he pointed out hopefully.
‘Too old.’
‘It’s so unfair! Everyone wants babies – the older orphans always get left.’
‘Come on, Freddie. Let’s go to bed.’
* * *
While Will slept in her bed, Kate lay awake in a narrow single bed at the Shanti Centre. Her mind was racing and every muscle in her body twitched.
She had arrived at the centre in the lush Wicklow countryside earlier in the day by taxi. As she pushed open the unlocked front door, the familiar smell of incense assaulted her nostrils. She had made her way straight to the reception area to ask for Brian.
‘Are you here for the Relationship Detox Weekend?’ the moon-faced girl behind the desk had asked. She spoke so quietly and smiled so inanely, like some kind of airhead Stepford woman, that Kate had wanted to slap her.
‘No, I just need to see Brian. I’m a… friend of his.’
‘Well, he’s in a session at the moment so I can’t disturb him. They’ll be taking a break at twelve. You could talk to him then.’
She was ushered to a comfy sitting room and kicked her heels for almost an hour. Finally, at twelve, she heard a door open, and the house was filled with hushed chatter. Across the hall, people streamed out of a room in socks or bare feet, whispering to eachother as they donned shoes and spilled out into the sunshine. Through the window she saw Brian surrounded by a group of admirers. She wasn’t surprised to see that Suzanne, Brian’s most die-hard fan, was among them. Going outside, she caught his eye. He looked surprised to see her – more than surprised, actually. Almost… panicked? He muttered something to the group around him, then darted to Kate and pulled her behind a tree.
‘Kate! This is a nice surprise!’
‘Is it?’ she asked.
‘Of course!’
He did look pleased to see her now – though she couldn’t help wondering why they were behind a tree. ‘I need to talk to you, Brian.’
‘Well, this isn’t a good time. I’m working.’
‘What time do you finish?’
‘It’s not exactly a nine-to-five thing,’ he said pompously. ‘It’s a bit more full-on than that. Look, why don’t you stay?’
‘Oh, I don’t think?—’
‘We’re going to have a sweat lodge tonight,’ he said persuasively.
‘You know they aren’t really my thing.’
‘Oh, it’ll be good for you. Besides, you’ve come all this way, you might as well make the most of it. You never know, you might enjoy it.’
Kate knew she wouldn’t. Dehydrating in a homemade tepee with a bunch of hippies was never going to be her idea of a good time. ‘I need to talk to you in private. Couldn’t you get away for an hour?’
‘Sorry.’ Brian looked anything but. ‘I’m the facilitator. I need to be available to these people for the whole weekend. They’ve invested a lot in coming here.’
Kate discovered just how much they had invested in beingthere when Brian, refusing to take no for an answer, frogmarched her to Reception and announced to the moon-faced girl that Kate would be staying for the weekend and needed a room. Then he drifted off, leaving them to make the arrangements. The girl consulted her computer. ‘I’ve only got a dorm room left,’ she said, smiling ethereally. ‘You’ll be sharing with three others.’
‘Okay,’ Kate felt trapped and resentful.
‘It’s a beautiful room,’ the girl said cheerfully, ‘right at the front of the house. It has a lovely energy. In the morning, the sun pours in.’
‘Lovely.’ Kate dredged up a smile, feeling churlish.
Moon-Face tapped away at her computer again. ‘That will be three hundred euro,’ she said, favouring Kate with a particularly beatific smile.
‘What? Um… you do know I’m only staying the one night?’
