The Project Folder Arrived After We Filed Our Water Claim

Nora asked for the project folder that morning. The board authorized the contractor to release its copies, including plans, bids, and messages about my supply line.

While we waited, I worked.

A Labrador shook rinse water over my shoes. A small poodle bit the air near the dryer, so I used towels instead. Button came for another practice visit and put both front paws on the low ramp.

"That's enough for today," I told him.

His foster mother laughed.

"You say that to dogs. Do you ever say it to yourself?"

I hummed my three notes and gave him a crumb.

"I'm learning."

The board's bookkeeper sent a short report. The eleven $480 payments had been requested as a temporary drain reserve and then treated as final water charges without any notice or approval. No drain project matched them. The report traced the full amount to the annex company, with bank records attached. Each payment had a date and a reference number. I checked all eleven against my own account.

The $8,460 in common invoices paid for the annex's private fit-out. The association would pursue that amount itself.

Nora kept our claim separate. Clover Drain sought $8,436.60: $5,280 in wrongly collected payments, $2,184.60 in estimated extra water, Felix's $612, and $360 for the canceled appointments.

"Those last two items may be disputed," she said. "So may the estimate. We have to show why each belongs here."

"Then we show it."

She sent a demand with copies of the proof and a deadline. Prudence answered through a lawyer that I had approved shared service and owed the original settlement.

She offered to drop the daily penalties if I signed her admission.

The board had already withdrawn them.

I read her offer twice, then passed it to Nora.

"File the claim," I said.

The partnership's filing and service cost $95 in all. I put the receipts behind the signed complaint. Seeing the case number on the first page made my mouth go dry.

Nora didn't promise that a number would make Prudence reasonable.

"It means there's a place where she has to answer," she said.

Ten days after the test, the annex's separate supply was ready. Prudence's company had paid the installation deposit under its agreement with the board. Felix attended the final check and removed the temporary measuring device.

With both my tubs off, my meter stood still.

I watched it longer than I needed to.

The annex paid the measured use for those ten days separately. We did not add it to the older claim. Felix marked the branch capped and photographed the finished work.

At last, every solid line on his drawing ended where it should.

The new readings helped test my estimate. My use returned to its old range, allowing for my bookings. Nora added the comparison to our evidence, with the limits explained.

Six weeks passed before the hearing.

During that time, the board approved a new rule for its own records: any shared charge needed an invoice, a clear reason, and two people signing off. Owners could inspect the monthly accounts.

Prudence no longer sent arcade notices. She still came to her salon, carrying her own brass key.

One afternoon, she stopped beside my open door.

"I hope you're happy with all the legal bills."

"I'd have preferred an accurate water bill."

She looked past me at Button. He was asleep beneath the drying table.

"Some of us have real overhead," she said.

I shut the door softly so I wouldn't wake him.

Her court response arrived the next day. She and the annex company denied our claim. Her counterclaim sought $2,400 under the unsigned settlement and $900 for the water test.

She attached the same consent sheet.

I took it badly for about an hour. Then I called the six customers and asked whether they would confirm their canceled bookings. All six did. Mrs. Ellis signed her account of the cash demand.

Felix checked his photographs against his sketch and corrected one wall measurement by half an inch.

"Tell Nora about that," he said.

"It's half an inch."

"It's still a correction."

We sent it with a dated note. I trusted his drawing more after that.

Two days before the hearing, the contractor's folder finally arrived through Nora's office.

The first bid called for a separate supply to Unit Five. Beside the added cost, Prudence had written, USE EXISTING LINE.

Below it was a message from the contractor: Unit Four owner's signed approval required before connection.

The next email came from Prudence. It carried my old cleaning checklist as an attachment.

"The owner's initials are on this," she had written. "Use this for approval. Don't hold up the opening."