Raymond looked up. He asked calmly what he could do for her.
She said that she had received three complaints from residents about the noise and the dust and the disruption to the neighborhood's aesthetic standards, and that he was required under community regulations to submit a written request to the HOA board before undertaking any project that affected shared utilities.
Raymond set down the pipe. He explained, as plainly as he could, that this was private property, that the well was private, that the supply line was private, that it had been private for more than five decades, and that he had not and would not be submitting any paperwork to anyone to repair his own infrastructure.
Donna's expression did not change. She said that the community's water supply was a shared resource and that no individual homeowner could unilaterally shut it off.
Raymond said, again, that this was a private well and not part of any shared system.
Donna said, "I didn't approve this."
Raymond said there was nothing for her to approve.
She looked at him for a long moment, then looked at the trench, and then looked back at him with the faint smile of someone who has decided to let the situation play out on their terms. "You'll regret ignoring me," she said. Then she turned around and walked back through the grass to her golf cart and drove away.
Raymond watched her go. Then he turned back to the trench and told the backhoe operator to keep going.