Lucía held out her phone. On the screen was a post from Darlene Fisk to the Larkspur Commons Neighbors group, which had three hundred and twelve members. There was no photo, just a block of text.
PSA for Larkspur families. Did you know that a CERTAIN RESIDENT is growing a plant called HIBISCUS CANNABINUS?? In giant quantities?? Look it up. I am not making any accusations, I am just asking questions. We have CHILDREN in this neighborhood, and some of us remember what this community used to stand for. The Board is aware and is taking appropriate steps.
There were eighty-four comments.
I scrolled through them with my wet hands held away from the phone and Lucía holding it for me. Some of them were what you'd expect: omg what and which house?? and I knew something was off about that yard. But a lot of them weren't. Someone had posted the Wikipedia photo of a kenaf flower with the comment It's a hibiscus, Darlene. A woman named Pam Oyelaran had written My grandpa grew this in Georgia for rope. It's kenaf. It has the word cannabinus in it because the leaves look similar. Tomatoes are Solanum lycopersicum, should we be worried about tomatoes too? That one had forty-one likes. And Hal Brennan of the arborvitae had written simply, Is this about the sunset?
"She deleted a bunch," Lucía said. "There were more. Somebody said you were a pharmaceutical executive and somebody else said you were in a cartel."
"Which was more fun?"
"The cartel. Obviously." Lucía took her phone back and gave me a look, the kind fourteen-year-olds give adults when they're deciding whether we can handle something. "My mom says you should get a lawyer."
"For a Facebook post?"
"She says people like that don't stop at a Facebook post."
Marisol was right, as ER nurses usually are about how things are going to go.
* * *
The county code enforcement officer came the following Tuesday. His name was Lyle Brandt. He was in his fifties, sunburned, with a county polo shirt tucked into khakis and a clipboard he clearly didn't enjoy holding. He apologised before he was through my gate.