I received periodic statements from the restitution office. Payments were being collected under the court's order and credited to the remaining obligation. They arrived according to the legal schedule, not according to what I would have preferred. I kept the statements with the original damage ledger, and I did not confuse partial collection with the full amount becoming available overnight.
The association's separate recovery from Denise remained separate. So did Shane's insured repairs, the district's costs for the damaged notice and lock, and our own documented orchard loss. Rachel helped me close out the civil paperwork and retain the records required for taxes, insurance, and future reference. When the folder was finally thick enough to fill an entire file box, I labeled it WATER DIVERSION and moved it to the top shelf of the office.
I did not put it in the attic. I was not ready to forget where it was. But I no longer opened it every morning.
The summer home tour took place at Canyon Lake Estates without a full lake. Residents hung lights around the clubhouse, children played on the paths, and prospective buyers walked past the new shoreline vegetation. A local real estate agent later told Nora that the lower water had been mentioned by some visitors, but it had not stopped homes from selling. The lake remained attractive. The homes remained valuable to the people who lived in them. The subdivision did not suffer the collapse Denise had predicted if every decorative stone at the edge was not submerged.
The board's quarterly report recorded the actual cost of water purchases and lake maintenance. The fountain operated during scheduled hours, and residents could read how much it consumed without guessing. Some people still wanted it running all day. A community can make a responsible decision without becoming unanimous, and Canyon Lake Estates learned that disagreement did not have to end in an emergency expenditure made behind closed doors.
I did not attend the home tour. I had peaches to pick. But I was glad it happened, because I wanted the residents to have their neighborhood back without turning my farm into the obstacle they had to defeat.
Near the end of the season, Linda stopped at the orchard office on her way home. She had a binder under one arm and looked relieved to have no crisis to explain. She told me the association had completed its first full year under the revised approval procedures. The independent consultant's plan was being followed. The lake could rise and fall within a managed range instead of requiring a desperate decision every time it approached the bottom of the stone border.
"You were right about one thing," she said.
"Only one?"
"We survived a lower lake."
"I had a feeling you might."
She hesitated, then added, "I'm sorry it took what happened to your trees for us to stop believing that looking successful was the same as managing something well."