"Well, there's no typo in my arborvitae," said Hal Brennan, "and they're nine feet tall."
The proposal was tabled. Trevor wrote something in his notebook that I'm fairly sure was call legal. Afterward a few people came up to me by the cookie plate to say thank you, or "good catch," or, in one case, "I've been wanting someone to do that for six years." Gus Teague, who lived across the street from me, shook my hand with a grip like a pipe wrench.
Darlene came over last. She smiled with every tooth.
"Thank you, Eleanor," she said. "We'll be sure to look into that."
That was all. But I have worked in archives long enough to know that the most dangerous documents are the ones that say very little.
* * *
That spring I built proper beds for the kenaf along the back fence. I brought in a yard of good compost, laid drip line, and started the seeds indoors under lights in April so they'd have a head start. By the Fourth of July the stalks were taller than me. By the first week of August they were eleven feet, a dense green screen along the whole western edge of my lot, with the first yellow blooms opening at the top like lanterns.
They also blocked Darlene's sunset.
I didn't realise that right away. I don't think about sightlines from other people's decks. But one evening I was out on my patio, checking the drip emitters, and I heard a sliding door open above me. I looked up and saw Darlene at her railing, wine glass in hand, staring straight west into eleven feet of kenaf. The Owyhees had turned peach behind it, and she couldn't see any of it. She stood there for a long moment. Then she raised her binoculars and looked at my plants, close up, for what felt like a full minute.
The first letter came three days later.
It was on Larkspur Commons letterhead, though it had not been sent by the management company. It had been hand-delivered to my front door in a business envelope with my name written across it in blue ballpoint, ELEANOR PRUITT, all capitals.
NOTICE OF VIOLATION, it said. It has come to the attention of the Board that unapproved vertical vegetation exceeding six (6) feet in height has been installed on your Lot, creating a visual nuisance and obstructing the reasonable enjoyment of neighboring properties, in violation of Article VII, Section 12 of the Declaration. You are requested to remove or reduce said vegetation within seventy-two (72) hours.