That was the first explanation that made every irrational decision rational.
If Gail admitted the lake belonged to me, homeowners would stop asking whether I could fish.
They would start asking why they had been paying $150 every year.
Where did the money go?
Who approved the assessment?
What exactly were they purchasing?
What maintenance did the HOA perform on water it did not own?
Were residents told the truth?
Now I understood why Gail could not simply apologize.
An ownership mistake was embarrassing.
A four-year assessment built around that mistake was different.
I changed strategy that night.
I stopped preparing to prove I owned the lake.
That was already proved.
Instead, I built a file showing what the HOA had charged.
Tab one:
1972 deed.
Lake language highlighted.
Tab two:
Survey.
Entire shoreline inside parcel.
Tab three:
Certified title records.
No transfer.
Subdivision exclusion.
Tab four:
Four annual budgets.
$150 lake amenity assessment.
Tab five:
Management records and my notes from Terry confirming no transfer deed appeared in the HOA file.
Then I added the violation notices.
Lien threat.
Board resolution.
Attorney’s trespass letter.
Not because they proved ownership.
Because they showed what the board had done despite having notice of the dispute.
I made three copies.
The next problem was getting around Gail.
Every channel through her was controlled.
So I called Tom Reeves.
Tom was vice president.
Retired mechanical engineer.
Late sixties.
The kind of man I had seen measure replacement deck screws with calipers because the packaging looked wrong.
He answered after four rings.
“Tom, it’s Cody Anderson.”
A pause.
“I figured we’d probably talk eventually.”
“Did you read the certified packet I sent you?”
Silence.
Then:
“No.”
“Why?”
“Gail said it was a legal demand.”
“It was a property record.”
“She told us counsel would handle it.”
“You voted two weeks later to call me a trespasser.”
Another silence.
“Yes.”
“Without opening the evidence.”
Tom’s voice lowered.
“What exactly was in it?”
“Deed. Survey. County chain of title. Subdivision plat.”
He did not speak.
Then I said:
“And I found something in the HOA budgets.”
“What?”
“Lake amenity assessments.”
“What about them?”
“Forty-nine thousand two hundred dollars over four years.”
Tom went quiet for a very long time.
“Where are you getting that?”
“Your budgets.”
Another pause.
“What do you want?”
“Fifteen minutes at my kitchen table.”
He came Saturday.
Before calling him, I contacted Sandra Marsh.
Board secretary.
Quiet.
Methodical.
She answered on the second ring.
When I told her why I was calling, she said:
“Gail told us you were threatening individual homeowners.”
“I am not.”
“She said you intended to sue anyone using the lake.”
“I have never said that.”