Diana was lounging on the living room couch, studying the lights across the water, when her cellphone beeped. Daniel and Jean chatted in the dining room over the clink of dinnerware. Occasional bursts of laughter punctuated the buzz of their conversation.
“Alice, yes, thank you for calling,” Diana said. She used her most diplomatic tone. “How nice of Jean to give you my message. I hoped you might come out tonight to see the place as I do. Is that a bother? Of course, I’ll pay you for your time.”
Alice lived in an apartment over her shop, overlooking her garden and nursery. Her cozy apartment held minimalist Ikea furniture on birds-eye maple floors cluttered with seedling trays, plant starts and potted trees. She curled up on her futon, warm and comfortable in her jeans and her “Save the Trees” sweatshirt. She sipped at a full glass of merlot.
“Actually, that would be handy for me, too,” Alice said. “I can set some stakes tonight for the heavy equipment tomorrow. James has school tomorrow, so he can’t come out until afternoon.”
Diana smiled her perfect smile and glanced in the direction of the dining room where the couple enjoyed their dinner and each other. The smile became imperfect.
“Perfect!” she said. “Would an hour from now be too late for you? Good. I’ll meet you in the driveway in an hour.”
Diana hung up and stood with a coy, girlish look that reflected from her window. She cocked her head and told herself, “A woman. Well. I hope she trimmed her nails.”
Daniel and Jean retired to Daniel’s bedroom and sat in the nook of his large bay window. This window, too, overlooked the water and lights on the other side.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“When I see the lights?”
“Yes.”
She took a moment, leaning against him, his arm around her waist. “There’s still a new world out there. Canada is so close, but so different. I’ve traded a few boats up there. Every time our economy tanks, I dream of starting over up there.”
Daniel nuzzled her neck. “Does it make you think of food?”
“Food?” she asked. “Not really. Why?”
He glanced toward Diana’s room. “Nothing. That town, they see us, too. From the air at night we look like two crab pincers, and the crab has a grab on the night.”
Diana shifted her position from listening at his door when she heard the rustling of sheets and the dropping of clothes.
And I have a grab on you! Diana thought.
She couldn’t resist and turned back to the bedroom door in time to hear Jean say, “My boat is stocked, packed, and the tanks are full.”
Daniel said, “Yes, I’d like that. But I have to care for my sister, and she’s just settling in here. Maybe one night we could sail over and back.”
“No problem,” Jean said. “You just name the night. I love sailing at night. It’s as close as you can get to being on a starship.”
Diana heard kissing, heavy breathing, then boatlike movement on the bed. She straightened up, tapped her teeth in thought, then slipped down the hallway to her own room.
Meanwhile, Alice set her backpack onto her kitchen table and loaded it with her computer, cellphone, note pad, drawing pad. She zipped it up, then unzipped it to add her flashlight and a fresh bottle of merlot. She emptied her glass and shouldered the backpack, then retrieved her mountain bike from the shop. She pedaled down the road, her reflectors flashing rhythmically on her spokes.
The faint winking of a red channel marker in the Strait matched the flash of reflectors on Alice’s bicycle’s approach in the driveway. Diana stepped out of her housedress completely naked and searched her closet until she found her painting overalls, like Alice’s, with some dark blotches and stains on them. She stepped into the overalls, cinched up the straps so they fell just right on her breasts, then checked her pockets for several lengths of white nylon rope. She paced her window like an albino panther before going downstairs to head off the doorbell.