The Dragon Fruit Hotel
“And breathe out on 8”, Susana slowly exhales with a large smile on her face.
She is facing three rows of sweaty 40-somethings, all women, all wearing brightly colored leotards and pirate-style bandanas to keep the stream of sweat from interfering with their waterproof makeup.
They are sitting on a large open porch facing the glimmering sea. It is just past 6.30am, but the sun is already well above the horizon. The reflections on the slow-moving sea are like waves in a bathtub, gently swaying from left to right. The bottom of the view is framed by a long line of palm trees. Fresh green banana leaves catch a slight breeze from the early morning mist.
Everybody exhales in unison and lowers their shoulders.
“Well done everybody!” Susana quietly says. “I hope your day will be calm, loving and clear.”
She slowly moves out of her lotus position and the others follow.
Maggie is the first to come up to her and thank her for another healing and loving morning session. She is quickly joined by several others.
Susana always feels as if her whole body is glowing after her early morning sessions at the Dragon Fruit Hotel. The hotel is the only one on a 12-kilometer-long stretch of perfectly white and powdery beach. It is hugged on both sides by green hills, so the guests have a perfect desert island feeling. Here they feel that they can breathe again, and that they can easily forget their daily worries. Some of them stay here just to get away from their husbands, wives or partners and others to escape from their high-powered jobs. Many, like Maggie, are regulars, coming back twice a year because they just feel totally at home here.
Apart from the absolute luxury and the stress-free motto, the hotel is well known for its Michelin quality food. Although the Caribbean has many 5-star hotels, the Dragon Fruit Hotel is in a league of its own. No rooms, only separate bungalows. All of them have a dedicated butler and numerous private chefs can just supply anything, from Beluga caviar to barnacles from Galicia. Their signature dish is the Dragon Fruit soufflé. It is a particularly technical dish. Just like any other soufflé, it is very tricky to get it to rise and with the addition of the dragon fruit, the likelihood of a total collapse is high. However, if the chef gets it right, it is ranked among the 10 best dishes in the world, according to many foodies. It is also considered as one of the healthiest soufflés, because the tiny dark black seeds inside the fruit are rich in omega-3 and omega-9 fatty acids, which reduce the risks of cardiovascular diseases.
...
Susana throws down her yoga mat, along with all her sweaty clothes and plunges naked into the turquoise blue pool right in front of her living room.
She was given a bungalow right on the water’s edge and all the related fringe benefits for her 2- week group therapy. The living room has wide bay windows that can be pushed all the way back into the wall: the outside lush green tropical garden blends in with the sleek and contemporary interior.
“Lucky me”, she whispers as she peers over the pool ledge.
Susana spends most of her time in London. Her partner, Kevin, has a loft and studio in Clerkenwell, just north of Holborn, where they live. His career as a graffiti artist skyrocketed last year when he pocketed a contract with LVMH. He is now in the process of designing the stage for the next Gucci runway winter show in Milan. Needless to say, they do not see much of each other. Depending on their schedules, their assistants try to come up with a week here or there. Bu that suits Susana down to the ground. She has always been fiercely independent. When the mandatory discussion on whether to have children or not came up, she put her foot down.
Her ‘Healing’ classes at the hotel started about 3 years ago. Before that, she teamed up with her husband to develop a complete range of ‘self-help’ food supplements called SANA, which were marketed as the new revolutionary lifesaving therapy to help cope with bipolar disorder, PTSD, eating disorders and even schizophrenia. They had to withdraw all the SANA products after only 8 months when it became clear that nearly none of the alleged medical evidence stacked up.
…
Maggie, on the other hand, is sitting in her sweaty multi-coloured leotard, huddled in the darkest corner of the kitchen area of her suite. The Carrara marble floor gives her a false feeling of coolness and strength. Luckily, the shaking is gone. But now the anxiety is creeping its way in. Ever since her daughter passed away, she has suffered from recurring panic attacks and severe insomnia Endless sessions of Gestalt therapy, acupuncture and even a crash diet of placenta cake and breastmilk all proved useless. A fasting program in a sanatorium near Vienna last summer only made things worse. She is now even developing stomach ulcers and IBS.
Her looks have always been important to her. When she was a late teen, she even sashayed down the runway a couple of times for Michael Kors and Halston in New York. But now, after her last divorce, the loss of her daughter and the various therapies she endured, even her skin called it a day. At 47, she looks 65. At least that was what her beauty therapist told her.
These two-week sessions twice a year with Susana seem to be her last chance. She can feel the benefits, except for today. Maybe she could book some private sessions with her, just to crawl out of this black hole? She regrets asking Susana out for dinner tonight.
Luckily, money is no object for Maggie. She has inherited an enormous collection of 16th century Flemish paintings from her last husband. Whenever she needs cash, she sells one off. She hates those paintings anyway; they just remind her of his unstable and violent episodes.
She downs another Valium and slushes it down with the last of the bourbon left in the bottle next to her.
…
Susana orders a light lunch: various exotic fruits, mangosteens, rambutans, orangelo (a combination of orange and pomelo), coconut, guanábana, guava and guineos niño (ladyfinger bananas). This combination of sweet, sour, fibrous, silky and smooth gives her a boost. Just what she needs after this morning’s session. She pops a handful of different coloured pills between mouthfuls. She still has a massive supply of her supplement pills left. She keeps believing that her all-natural, all-bio formula works perfectly for her, no matter what the press and several lawsuits brought to light.
She decides to eat late to avoid meeting other guests and participants of her healing session program. The lunch restaurant is right on the beach. Most guests tend to eat in the privacy of their bungalows, some of the celebrities are never even seen outside the perimeter of their beach house. She heard Gwyneth Paltrow is amongst the guests this week. She hopes that she hasn’t signed up for her program next week: the court case about the SANA pills ingredients is still open, and she wants to stay out of trouble.
“Hello, dear Susana”, Maggie appears from behind the beach bar, next to Susana’s table.
“O, hello there”, Susana returns the greeting.
“Now don’t fill up too much, dear. Dinner is at 8”, Maggie proclaims.
Susansa feels a migraine coming on.
“Looking so much forward to it, dear”, and waves, hoping Maggie would just disappear.
“I can’t help noticing that you are taking food supplements.”, Maggie points to the small bottle next to Susana’s Margarita drink. “You must tell me all about it later because I am in desperate need of a food boost, I am just lacking in all areas, I can just feel it. Toodeloo”, Maggie waves back and grabs a Cosmopolitan from the bar top on her way down the beach.
...
Tonight is a special night. Maggie, as one of her devoted followers, is treating her to dinner in the swankiest restaurant of the resort, The Soufflé.
“This is divine”, Susana admits even though her migraine is still acting up.
“Isn’t it just”, Maggie agrees, “This blue lobster from Brittany is so fresh and the filling with seaweed, Sevruga caviar and micro shoots is one of my favourites on the menu.”
“So, Susana, I have been following your healing program for at least 3 years and we have never chitchatted. How silly!” she starts off.
“Well, the hotel owners prefer me to stay away from the guests. They want me to keep a low profile. Heaven knows privacy is a sacred word here,” Susana confides to Maggie with a slight despair in her voice.
“I get it. That is also why nobody wants to give me your details, mail address and so on.”
“Totally,” Susana replies.
The next course of conch fritters is a disappointment for both.
Maggie summons the waiter with a determined look on her face. “Listen, darling, these fritters are really such a bore, after that superb lobster. Please tell the chef he had better make a perfect Dragon Fruit soufflé, or I may lose my temper,” she smiles and waves the waiter away from her personal space.
“So, we are having the ultimate dessert tonight, what a treat,” Susana smiles back.
“Indeed, it is incredibly special! "You should try it at least once in your life” Maggie grins.
…
Maggie is sipping her Earl Grey tea, admiring her colorful cottage garden in the village of Castle Comb, right in the heart of the Cotswolds. She just finished planting more Crocosmias, she just loves the red-hot fiery color of the ‘Lucifers Red’ variety.
She sits down in her wicker peacock chair and reads the front page of The Daily Mail again: 'Yoga teacher dies at luxury resort,’ the headline bounces off the front page.
‘A yoga teacher died last week at a luxurious resort in the Caribbean. Her name cannot be disclosed for legal reasons, but it is understood that she lived in London. She was the inventor of diet pills that were taken off the market 3 years ago due to serious secondary effects. It was discovered that these pills in combination with Dragon Fruit seeds can cause heart failure. The pills have since been banned by the EU and the rest of the world. She was 55 years old.’
Maggie sighs deeply. She then looks at an older copy of the Daily Mail from 3 years ago.
‘Young woman dies mysteriously from diet pills! Jane Rosewood, daughter of Maggie Rosewood, a rich heiress living in Castle Comb, died this weekend after an ‘overdose’ of SANA pills, a well-known brand of food supplements for the rich and famous, her autopsy showed yesterday. Ms. Rosewood has declined all comment, but it is understood a lengthy court battle may start as soon as next week.’
Maggie sips her Earl Grey again and smiles.
(all copyright E. Sohl - Illustration: Nirina- Editor: C. Hommez)
