Chapter 5: Notice of Violation

"Section four," Marlene said. "Visible garage storage."

She tapped the clipboard with a pen.

I stood in my own driveway with my tank top on inside out.

I could feel Tyler behind me in the dark of the garage, not moving.

"Those are boxes," I said. "They're going to the curb. They're at the curb."

"And the door, Lena. The door is a matter of standards."

"Of the garage standards."

"Of the court," said Marlene, and she looked past my shoulder again at the shirt in his hand. "Also noise. Sound carries on this street."

"Which sound?"

She did not answer that.

She wrote something on the clipboard, and I watched her write it, and she was neat about it.

"You'll get a letter," she said, and she squeaked off down the sidewalk in her white shoes.

Behind me, Tyler said, very quietly, "I think she heard us."

"I think the Methodists in Columbus heard us."

He made a small, strangled sound that was half a laugh.

I turned around, and I fixed my tank top, and I found that I was grinning.

On Monday the letter was in the mailbox.

It was on pale yellow paper with the HOA letterhead, and it was signed in blue ink by M. Hosler, President.

The subject line said NOTICE OF VIOLATION.

It listed three items: visible garage storage, a "guest's vehicle encroaching on the public curb," and "noise of a disruptive nature."

I read it at the cluster mailbox at the head of the court, at five-thirty.

I was in my work skirt and my blouse, with my laptop bag on my shoulder.

My whole office day was still on me.

Eleven hours of denial codes and one man who had yelled at me about a copay.

Half the court was out getting its mail, because that is when everyone gets mail.

I knew most of them by face and not by name.

There was a man with a dog, and two women in matching running tights.

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