My Neighbor Called the City Over My Fence, but the Inspection Ended With Her in Tears

had. It arrived awkwardly, the way first ordinary conversations do between people who have been positioned as adversaries and are trying to recalibrate. But it arrived.

She left a few minutes later. I walked her to the door and watched her go back across the gap between our properties with a posture that was different from the one she had brought to continue reading …