Nora was silent for a long few moments, and then she said, "How unhappy is she?"
"I think she's really in love with Jeff, though why I can't imagine. But he's a lot older than she is, and this divorce is starting to stress him now too."
"Then why won't he give in?" Nora said.
"If the judge gives him the go-ahead, you've lost," Carla replied.
"Tell me about Heidi, Carla. What did she say to you? How did she act? And why did she even talk to you?" Nora wondered.
"I think she talked to me because I was a friendly face. I saw her wandering around the wine store, and she looked kinda beat. Our eyes met, and I couldn't help myself. I smiled at her. The next thing I knew she was yakking at me. I listened, and nodded a lot."
"What did she say?" Nora asked, and slapped Caleb Snow's hand off her thigh.
"Oh, how she hates to come out every weekend when everything is so exciting in the city in the winter. And Jeff goes to bed so early out here. She's stuck in the den watching television all night. She is sooooo bored. And he forgets his Viagra every weekend, and she is beginning to think it's deliberate." Carla giggled. "Jeff taking Viagra! It boggles the mind, doesn't it?"
"If she's bored, you should introduce her to The Channel, Carla," Nora said softly.
"Are you crazy?" Carla almost shouted.
"No, I'm not. Hear me out. It isn't Jeff who's beginning to crack over this divorce. It's Heidi. You know I don't care if he marries her or not. I just want my house. But now if the judge rules in his favor regarding the sale, I could lose the house. He's not caving, but Heidi is. That's why he's had Kramer go to the judge. Get Rick to ask the judge to wait another month for me to show signs of recovery. Have Rick say if I haven't woken up by then, he'll agree to the sale of the house as my caretaker.
"Heidi will have to wait another month. The young aren't good at waiting. They always want everything now. Tell Heidi that since she's so bored you'll let her in on a little secret, but Jeff can't know. Explain to her that The Channel is a place where all her fantasies can come true. Tell her you know she won't believe you, but to call Suburban Cable and order it when Jeff goes to bed. Warn her, though, that if Jeff is around, it won't work. And then tell her that if she tries it and doesn't like it, you'll work on Rick to agree to sell the house sooner. That's the bait that will hook our little fish."
"Why do you want her to know about The Channel?" Carla asked, curious.
"Because like the rest of us she'll have great sex here, and when she does, do you really believe she'll want to stay with Jeff? Why would she need him then?" Nora answered her best friend.
"You could be right, but what if you aren't?" Carla played devil's advocate.
"Then I lose," Nora said, "but I have to give it my best shot, Carla. I don't want my kids coming home to some dinky one-bedroom apartment, if I can even afford that. I don't want to leave Egret Pointe. It's my home."
"Okay, I'll do it," Carla said. "It just might work. Jeff hasn't looked too good of late. He's a little paunchy, and you know he never was paunchy. And he's got dark circles under his eyes too. You're getting to him, alright. He just won't give in. Yeah, on reflection I think Heidi is the weak link in this situation. It'll be a few days, though. It's just Wednesday night."
"I've waited this long," Nora said. "I can wait a little while longer."
Chapter Nine
"No way!" Heidi Millar said. "Way!" Carla Johnson told her.
They were standing in a corner of the Egret Pointe Wine Shoppe. All around them were wine-racked shelves holding bottles of everything from Long Island, upstate New York, and California vintages to wines from Chile, Australia, and Germany, as well as the finest French Burgundies, Bordeaux, Merlots, and Chardonnays available. There was a popular California table wine known locally as Two-Buck Chuck, and an Opici California Barbarone that retailed for fifteen dollars a gallon jug. There was something for everyone at the Egret Pointe Wine Shoppe.
"It's not possible," the younger woman said. "You must be hallucinating. What the hell do you people smoke out here?" Her blond hair was darker than it had been in June. She obviously wasn't keeping it up for whatever reason.
"Look, I don't pretend to understand it," Carla said low. "All I know is that it works. The Channel offers you whatever fantasy you want. Just think about it, turn on the television, and it's there. You're there. I am not nuts, and this is the best-kept secret among the women here. We can't all be hallucinating, and incidentally I don't smoke anything. Never started."
Heidi's grey eyes were thoughtful, curious. "What's your fantasy?" she murmured.
"I'm Captain Raven, the pirate queen," Carla responded.
Heidi snickered. She couldn't help it. "You're kidding, right?"
Carla smiled a slow, wicked smile. "Darling," she said, "my first mate has a fourteen-inch dick that's two and a half inches in circumference, and hits my G-spot seven times out of ten. No, I'm not kidding."
"Fourteen inches?" Heidi's voice was awed. "You measured?"
"Yep," Carla drawled. "Look, so you're not into pirate fantasies. I've got one friend who does the penthouse, hot lover, and hot masseur thing. She enjoys threesomes. Another who puts herself in the forefront of carving out the nation of Israel. She made her partner a younger version of her husband. She's not a woman who would ever think of another man. One gal I know likes to do other women. She wouldn't do it in her own reality. The Channel lets you be anything you want to be, and do anything you want to do. Don't you have a fantasy you want to live out? You can't be just about marrying Jeff Buckley, honey. There must be something naughty or wonderful that you want to do, and without him. That's the great thing about The Channel, and that's why no men are aware of it. It's all about women and their desires, their needs. Sort of like a grown-up tree house club. And No Boys Allowed. Except the ones we create in our imaginations."
"And you get it by just calling the cable company and asking for it?" Heidi's look was thoughtful.
"Yeah," Carla said. Easy, now. She's hooked. Reel her in slowly.
"Does it show up on the cable bill? Jeff goes over everything," Heidi explained.
"Shows up as a movie," Carla told her.
"You've been pulling my leg, right?" Heidi said suddenly. "I mean you're Nora's best friend, Jeff says. This is a joke, right? Why would you be nice to me?"
"Listen, honey," Carla told the girl, "no one is mad at you. Jeff and Nora haven't had a marriage in years. One day one of them was going to decide it was divorce time. None of us ever really liked Jeff. We put up with him for Nora's sake on the rare occasions he showed up. Yeah, Nora's my best friend. I don't deny it. But even she doesn't hold you responsible for what's happened, although you really should have kept your mouth shut at J. J.'s graduation party, but that's in the past.
"You're stuck out here every weekend until Jeff puts the house on the market. You're bored. Jeff bring his Viagra this time?" she queried, and wisely refrained from grinning when Heidi shook her head in the negative. "So he's probably going to hit the sack early again tonight. And there you are watching The District. Rick will be snoozing early too. Men are like bears in winter. They like to hibernate. As for me, I'll be downstairs in my sewing and crafts room in the cellar. Or at least my body will. The body I possess in The Channel will be getting its little self fucked to pieces by that nice fourteen-inch dick that Caleb Snow possesses, and wields so skillfully."