The Quiet Ever After

The Association's Notice - 4

A deep chill descended on the neighborhood the following morning. It didn't bring a freeze, though the next night would require them to cover their plants, but did prompt most people on the street with their cars out front to wash down their windshields to make them more viewable on their way to work. Axel had done so for Nina, having woken up to check more social media comments on the neighborhood page.

He coiled up the hose on the side of the house when he heard footsteps, slow and steady and pointedly light ones, approach.

"I think," Axel said. "This is the most we've talked in a week than we have for years. At least, in something resembling a civil fashion."

Ryan, who wore a thick jacket and running pants with brand-new tennis shoes, stood at the edge of the driveway with his hands firmly in his pockets. A little black hat rested on his head to cover his ears and growing hair.

"You're in trouble," Ryan said, unable to hide a sneer.

Axel groaned.

Last night, a new batch of fairly vitriolic comments brewed on a single post from Melinda, where she spoke at length about the rules, regulations, and changes that were coming for those neighbors who did not wish to comply with the HOA, who had leaned on a rather lax, as she put it, committee in years prior.

Specifically, of course, she cited a phone call she had with one concerned neighbor that became, as she put it, heated, intense, and ultimately unnecessary.

"I'm over it is what," Axel said.

"Not over it enough to give up, I see. It seems like that's the only way to get them off your back."

Axel clipped the hose back and stepped away. Ryan moved to let Axel go by.

"Unless we work together."

The words, if spoken years ago, would've been absolutely foreign yet entirely accepted, entirely what Axel, or any one of his friends and family, wanted to hear. It didn't matter if they were to come from desperation or a genuine place of friendship. It would've been welcomed with open arms.

"Yeah okay," Axel said. "What, got more issues with them? Did they take back that second-place lawn medal?"

"Who else is going to bother helping you besides Nina?" Ryan asked. "I saw the comments, Axel. They're perfectly happy with what you did and are hoping you'll do it again."

Melinda did get just what she wanted out of him. A rise, a way to slip under his skin and shoot venom. No doubt she did it all with a smile, too. She'd played him like a fool, constantly letting him talk and talk thinking he was backing her into a corner until she hammered him with the distinct rules, the distinct guidelines, the distinct verbiage, and the methods by which he could get that changed, the long process it would take. She hadn't been trapped; the moment Axel called her, he was the one caged.

It gave her the ammunition she needed to run online and whine about it, to give her sob story about the difficulties of managing a neighborhood of people who, at times, just wanted things done their way with no regard for the agreed-upon rules. When, in reality, nobody in their right mind was going to drive through the neighborhood a few days after November and quickly skirt out of there because someone put up Christmas decorations or had a renovated deck or a tree that was no big deal. Melinda claimed it was all about principle. Axel claimed it was all in a move to garner power and silence the voices she wanted quiet.

Dramatic? Possibly. The truth? Absolutely.

"There are official channels I can look into for getting this changed," Axel said. "For next year. I'll take the hit. That's fine."