She stopped midway through and looked at me. "I'm still nervous."
"Of course you are. It's your home."
"What if they vote against us?"
"Then we get the written decision, compare it with their procedures, and decide what to do next. We don't have to win every stage to keep the facts straight."
She smiled faintly. "That sounded almost comforting."
"I've been practicing."
Odin, asleep under the table, gave a small sigh. I looked at him and thought of how ridiculous the beginning had been: a puppy on a leash, a bag on its way to the dumpster, and a board member who could not bear to be corrected. The next day would involve actual governance, documents, and people whose homes were at stake. I hoped the board understood the difference, because I knew Emily did.
The clubhouse usually held more folding chairs than people. On the evening of our hearing, every chair was occupied, and several residents stood along the back wall beneath a framed photograph of the complex shortly after it was built. I counted thirty-two people before I stopped counting. Some had come because they disliked Linda, some because they respected her, and some because they were simply curious to see why a complaint about a grill had drawn police cars and then an official conduct notice.
Emily and I arrived early. We carried one binder between us and a thin folder containing her statement, though by then both of us could have recited the contents without looking. Gary was sitting near the center aisle, wearing his work shirt and holding his own stack of papers. Mrs. Alvarez sat beside Mateo, who had brought her a cushion for the hard chair. Evelyn Hart took a seat near the back so Emily could see her if she needed to.
At the board table, Richard was arranging papers into precise stacks. Linda sat at his right, her hair carefully styled and her posture so straight that she looked almost ceremonial. Susan Blake occupied the other side of Richard, with two directors, Martin Cole and Ruth Alden, farther down the table. Martin was a soft-spoken insurance professional who rarely attended social gatherings; Ruth had served on the board for only six months and seemed uncertain about nearly everything that involved a confrontation.
The management administrator, Daniel Hsu, checked the attendance sheet and confirmed that Emily had consented to an open hearing. Richard announced that public comment would be limited to relevant testimony and that no personal attacks would be permitted. I thought that was fair, and I was glad he said it before Linda or I had spoken. A room full of resentful neighbors was not inherently a better judge of facts than a room of directors, and I didn't want the association to replace one form of intimidation with another.