carefully into the garage when she got home. The house was cold when she entered it. She kicked the thermostat up to seventy-two degrees. Screw the cost. It was only for a few hours. It was just a little after 11 a.m. Nora went into the living room. The ornament box was waiting for her. She had pulled it out early this morning. She looked a final time at the tree. It wasn't the biggest she had ever had, but it had been a pretty tree. She removed the many ornaments efficiently, replacing them in their slots in the special box she had bought years ago for just this purpose. When the ornaments were all stowed, she drew off the strands of tiny colored lights, wrapping each strand neatly and placing them in a row on the top shelf of the box. Finished, she closed down the lid of the box. The tree still smelled fragrantly rich with its piney scent.
Nora picked up a telephone handset and called Rick Johnson. 'I'm ready now,' she said when Carla answered.
'We'll be right over, sweetie,' Carla replied. 'I'm only half finished.'
'I got going early,' Nora answered, and hung up the phone.
They were at her house a few minutes later. Together the three of them took the tree from its holder and jostled it out the front door to the curb, where the town would be picking it up on Tuesday next.
'Thanks,' Nora told them, turning to go back into her house.
'I'll pick you up at eight a.m. tomorrow,' Rick reminded her.
'I'll be ready,' Nora said, but she didn't turn to face him.
'Nora, wait a minute,' Carla said, catching up with her friend, and walking with her back to her house. 'Look, I know tomorrow's going to be a bitch. I have to work, but I'll be home by three thirty, and I'll come over, okay?'
Nora debated a moment, and then said, 'Listen, Carla, whatever happens, I don't want you to worry about me, alright? I'll be fine.'
'Sure you will,' Carla said halfheartedly.
'No, Carla, you don't understand. I'm not going to sign those papers tomorrow. Jeff isn't going to get my house.' She put her fingers over Carla's mouth even as her best friend was opening it to speak. 'Carla, whatever you see, whatever they tell you, I will be alright. I'm going away. That's why I spoke with Mr. Nicholas all those months ago. I needed to know if I could use The Channel as a refuge, and he said I could. If I don't sign those papers tomorrow, then Jeff is stuck until I do.'
'But what good will that really do?' Carla whispered.
'Look, how long do you think Heidi will wait around, especially if because he can't sell the house, he has to get rid of her co-op?'
'But Jeff owns the house,' Carla reminded Nora.
'Yes, he does, but I know Jeff far better than Heidi does. How he appears to the public, to his partners, his clients, is far more important to Jeff than anything else.'
'Are you trying to break them up so he'll come back to you?' Carla asked, surprised that Nora would even consider such a thing.
Nora shook her head. 'I don't want him back,' she said, 'but yes, if I can break them up, then there is no need to sell the house. At that point, Rick might even be able to convince Jeff to give me the house in exchange for relief of all his other obligations toward me and the kids. Look, Rick says she's been paying the bridge loan. With the way good real estate is going in town, he can sell the co-op for a profit, pay her back, and still come out of it smelling like a rose. He could even have enough to buy himself a small place. Yes, Jill will have to get herself through her last two years of law school, but she'll do it. And I'll have to help J. J. get a student loan so he has a dorm room, but it's possible. I'm taking a gamble, I know, but I just can't let Jeff sell the house!'
'What will happen to you?' Carla asked.
'It will look like I'm unconscious, Mr. Nicholas said,' Nora replied.
'And you believe him?' Carla wasn't certain about any of this.
'Yes, I do believe him,' Nora said.
'They'll put you in the hospital at first,' Carla told her.
'I know.'
'How long are you going to stay unconscious?' Carla queried her friend.
'As long as it takes, but knowing that my dear husband has absolutely no patience, I expect a few weeks, a few months at the most,' Nora told her companion. 'Listen, sweetie, I'm going to be fine. You should see my apartment. It's right out of
Carla laughed aloud. 'You're right!' she said.
'You can't tell anyone, Carla. Not Rick because he wouldn't believe you, and he'd think you were losing it. Not Rina, Tiff, or Joanne. Give them hope as a nurse, and don't let them be too upset, but you can't tell them what I've done.'
'How will you know what's happening in this reality?' Carla asked.
'I don't need to. I know Jeff. And I'll contact you in a few weeks to see how it's all going, okay?'
'How will you contact me?' Carla asked.
'I'm not certain yet, but I think if you want me in your fantasy, I can be there. I'll ask Kyle, and if he doesn't know, Mr. Nicholas's door is always open to me, I'm told. But honestly, I think you just have to put me in your fantasy. I can be a barmaid at one of your island inns, or maybe another female pirate captain you know. You work it out.' She gave Carla a hug. 'I'm freezing. I've got to go in now.'
'Be careful,' Carla said. 'God, I wish you didn't have to do this!'
'So do I,' Nora responded, 'but if I don't, by this time tomorrow, I'll have signed my house away and be on my way to a final divorce. I don't give a crap about Jeff, but I'm not letting my house go. Wait a couple of weeks before you contact me unless Jeff cracks sooner, but I don't think he will.'
'Okay,' Carla said, and then she turned away before she started to cry. She heard the front door of the Buckley house close behind her, and the lock turn with a loud click. Nora's plan scared the hell out of her, but what else could Nora do? Jeff had driven her into a very tight corner. Nora was far braver than she herself was, and Carla would never even have considered that until recently. And what about Jill and J. J.? Nora wouldn't have told them. How could she? Jill, in particular, would have thought her mother crazy. We're all going to have to be there for them, Carla thought to herself.
Nora watched her best friend walking slowing across the street from the bay window of the living room, where the Christmas tree had recently stood. There were needles all over the floor. She got out the vacuum and cleaned them up. Then she took the ornament box back upstairs and stored it in the attic. If she was going away, her house was going to be in perfect condition when they found her unconscious body. She had always had a thing about being in an accident, and strangers coming into her house and finding an unmade bed, or dishes in the sink. It was similar to your mother's warning you to always wear clean underwear.
Back down in the kitchen, she put all the dishes from breakfast in the dishwasher and mopped the counters. There was just enough room for her supper plate. It was after four now, and the sunset was visible through the kitchen windows. Nora sat down, and called Margo to wish her a happy new year.
'What are you doing?' Margo asked her daughter.
'I've just got the tree out, and everything cleaned up,' Nora answered.
'Where are the kids?'
'Jill went back a few days ago. She's met someone, and they wanted to spend New Year's Eve together. I got J. J. off on the noon bus.'
'Tomorrow's the day, right?' Margo asked.
'Yep,' Nora said shortly.
'Come down and stay with me,' Margo said. 'South Carolina coastal winters are really lovely. The winter jasmine is already starting to bloom. We could house hunt for you. It's really so much cheaper down here. You wouldn't have to give up any of your furniture. Taylor is building a lovely development just a few miles from here. You could customize it to suit you at this stage.'
'Thanks, Ma, but I'm not ready to make that kind of a commitment yet,' Nora said. Nor ever, she thought
