She hoped the same would happen for her now she had the goal of doing the hypnosis. If it worked. Her heart sank at the thought it might not. She had to be positive. Believe it was going to work. The key thing with hypnosis itself was positive, not negative, statements:

Today I’m going to remember everything from those missing months.

I am going to remember the missing parts from the night of my party.

As she finished her cup of coffee, apprehension hit her. She was about to embark on something that might put an end to the blocked memories.

And that could only go one of two ways.

Was she prepared for what she might learn?

Louisa lay in the middle of the mattress, the pillows tucked comfortably under her head. She’d carried out all the preparation work as stated in the online resources she’d found. She was comfortable, all distractions had been removed: no phones were on, she’d taken the batteries out of the doorbell, the windows were all closed. Although the instructions she’d found didn’t mention anything along the lines of having a clock, Louisa felt sure monotonous ticking would help her relax, so she’d pulled the one off the kitchen wall and now placed it beside her on the bed. The tinny-sounding tick-tocking was surprisingly loud and echoey in her now peaceful bedroom.

Concentrating on the clock’s rhythm, Louisa began the process of relaxing her muscles, step by step, moving from her toes up towards her head. Then her breathing became the focus. Deep breaths, in … and out. She visualised a large body of water with stairs going down into it, and began stepping down. Ten, nine … breathe in, and out. Lowering herself further: eight, seven … she was almost touching the water. Six, five … her toes dipped into the cool, blue ripples. Four, three … deeper and deeper. Two, one … she was submerged.

She felt calm, relaxed under the water, weightless – and she knew she could still breathe deeply despite being below the surface of the cool liquid.

There were three boxes beneath the water.

She knew she had to swim to each one in turn.

Each one held a memory from a different time. The first was from 1997. The second was from her fortieth birthday party. The third was unknown, unmarked. She knew nothing about its contents, but she had an awareness that this box also needed to be opened, its contents spilled.

She took a breath as though she’d literally been holding it whilst underwater and sat up abruptly. What had happened? Had she done it – remembered everything? Her head swam for a few moments, her thought processes floundering.

Relax.