The boy came to my porch to ask permission before retrieving it.
That detail mattered more to me than he could have understood.
“Mr. Jake?”
“Yeah?”
“Our alligator is on your land.”
I looked across the yard.
A green inflatable reptile lay upside down near the fence.
“Looks dangerous.”
He stared at me.
Then realized I was joking.
“Can I get it?”
“Absolutely.”
“Thanks.”
He went through the gate.
Picked it up.
Left.
Closed the gate behind him.
A ten-year-old understood in thirty seconds what Denise Caldwell had refused to understand in two years.
Ask.
Respect the answer.
Simple.
The brass warning plate remained on the rear fixture for a long time.
Not because the line stayed configured the same way.
It didn’t.
Once the investigation allowed it, I restored everything to an ordinary arrangement.
Safe water where safe water belonged.
Private systems isolated as they should be.
Nothing clever.
Nothing dramatic.
Just plumbing doing its job.
But I kept the plate.
Eventually I removed it from the spigot and hung it above my workbench.
Curtis saw it one afternoon.
“Trophy?”
“No.”
“Looks like one.”
“Reminder.”
“Of Denise?”
“Of me.”
That surprised him.
I tightened the jaws of a vise around an old brass fitting.
“What’s it remind you about?”
“That there’s a difference between stopping somebody and becoming obsessed with teaching them a lesson.”
Curtis leaned against the bench.
“That sounds annoyingly mature.”
“I’m getting old.”
“You’re fifty-something.”
“So?”
“I have shirts older than you.”
“I’ve seen them.”
He ignored that.
“You know, people around here tell the story differently.”
“I’m sure they do.”
“Depending on who tells it, Denise was either a criminal mastermind, a beauty queen with a hose, or the devil in designer shoes.”
“And me?”
He grinned.
“Depends who’s talking.”
“I’m afraid to ask.”
“Some say you’re a genius.”
“They’re wrong.”
“Some say you’re crazy.”
“Possible.”
“Some say you planned the whole thing from the first electric bill.”
“Definitely wrong.”
“And one guy at the feed store says you’re not actually a plumber. Says you used to work for the CIA.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“No idea.”
“Did you correct him?”
Curtis took a long pause.
“No.”
“Curtis.”