My orchard, on the other hand, was receiving its first clean spring delivery through the line we had protected and repaired. The difference mattered. It was not a matter of whose view was more attractive or whose property was worth more. It was a matter of one person deciding that a decorative need justified taking someone else's water without consent.
That decision had not survived contact with the records.
The first spring delivery went without interruption. So did the second. By the third, I had stopped driving past the old connection every morning just to reassure myself it was still gone. I relied on the meter data, the periodic inspections, and the ordinary discipline that had kept the irrigation system working for years before Denise tried to turn it into the lake's private supply.
I sometimes thought that was the real measure of recovery. Not that I had forgotten the pipe, but that I no longer needed to think about it before every other task.
The peaches began to bloom. Work filled the days again, and I had more practical reasons to watch the sky than anything happening at Canyon Lake Estates. Still, the case had changed how people on both sides of the boundary understood the word permission, and that change was about to be tested in a much less dramatic way.
In June, the lake began dropping again.
That should not have surprised anyone. The snowmelt was fading, the weather was turning hot, and the permitted well serving Canyon Lake Estates could supply only a limited amount. Storm runoff did not arrive on command. When the level fell below the newest shoreline plantings, a few residents complained that the HOA was allowing the property to deteriorate.
This time Linda did not promise a cheap emergency fix. She circulated a notice explaining the lake's actual water sources, the current level, the projected summer demand, and the price of a proposed legal supplemental purchase from an unrelated willing seller farther up the valley. She included the consultant's recommendations, the district's required approval steps, and a statement of what the purchase would and would not accomplish. The proposal was discussed in an open meeting before anybody authorized payment.
Nora called to tell me about it.
"You'll appreciate this," she said. "One man asked whether we could just borrow water from the orchard for a week. Linda asked him whether he'd spoken to the orchard owner. He said no."
"Then he has learned the first step," I said.
"The whole room laughed. He wasn't pleased."
"Did Linda tell him I'm not selling any of this season's delivery?"
"Yes. And she explained that even if you wanted to sell some, it would need a real agreement and the district's approval."
The residents ultimately approved a smaller purchase from the unrelated seller under the proper process. The water was measured, the transfer authorized, and the funds paid through the association's accounts. It did not lift the lake to the decorative stone edge shown in the old brochures. It did stabilize the level enough to protect the new shoreline planting during the hottest part of summer.