"Your authority ended this morning. Even before that, you had no right to create a hazard on my property."
For a moment, the only sound was water moving against the pool's edge.
Then the new president spoke.
"I'm calling the police."
The former president's expression changed.
She looked toward the gate.
Then toward the street beyond the fence.
I could see her calculating whether she could leave before anyone arrived.
The new president noticed.
"You're free to tell the responding officers what happened. But the recordings and documents are being preserved."
The woman in pink looked at us both.
Then she whispered, "You have no idea what you've started."
I looked toward the pool.
"No. I think you've done that yourself."
I told the former president to leave my property.
She protested, argued that I had no right to dismiss her, and demanded that I recognize the emergency cleanup notice she'd already prepared. But when I repeated that she had no permission to remain in my yard, she finally moved toward the gate.
Before leaving, she bent down to collect her clipboard.
I noticed a second document protruding from the folder beneath it.
The heading was partly visible.
Emergency Remediation Work Authorization.
I pointed toward the paper.
"What's that?"
She pushed it back into the folder.
"None of your concern."
I looked toward the new president.
She was watching carefully.
The former president straightened.
Then she marched toward the gate, her white flats leaving damp prints on the stone deck.
At the opening, she turned.
"You'll regret humiliating me."
I stared.
"You came into my backyard."
She lifted one hand.
"Your pool has been a problem for months."
I looked toward the two floating garbage bags.
"Not like this."
She didn't answer.
She disappeared through the gate.
A moment later, I heard the wheels of her trash bin scraping against the concrete walkway.
She had left the bin behind.
The new president and I stood silently for several seconds.
Then she lowered her phone.
Her hands were trembling.
I looked toward her.
"Are you all right?"
She stared at the pool.
"I can't believe she actually did that."
I gave a bitter laugh.
"Neither can I."
She looked toward the violation notice still in my hand.
"May I see that?"
I passed it to her.
She read the amount.
Eighteen thousand six hundred dollars.
Her expression changed.
"That's the same estimate I saw in the vendor's preliminary scheduling file."
I frowned.