Meredith said the necessary documentation had arrived only after repeated requests.
Trevor replied that he had been overwhelmed by the volume of demands and had not understood what the auditors needed.
Meredith suggested a written inventory of outstanding records so everyone knew what remained to be produced.
Nathan admired how the accountant accepted corrections without treating them as personal defeat.
Helen told residents that the audit was a process of narrowing uncertainty rather than manufacturing a scandal.
A few angry homeowners accused her of protecting Brenda.
Helen answered that a community demanding honesty had to welcome facts that complicated its preferred story.
At home Nathan described the meeting to Sophie, who said it sounded like checking work on a difficult mathematics problem.
He replied that the difference was people could lose houses or reputations when adults skipped the checking.
Chapter 29W — A Conversation at the Hospital
George Malik invited Nathan to visit Caroline at the rehabilitation center before another accessibility meeting.
She had recently finished a demanding course of physical therapy and was learning to transfer into a vehicle without assistance.
Nathan brought photographs of the temporary shuttle route so she could identify obstacles from her perspective.
Caroline pointed to a curb cut that looked harmless in the photograph but became slippery after rain.
She also noticed a waiting area without adequate seating or shelter.
Nathan wrote down her concerns and promised to pass them to Denise and the committee.
Caroline asked whether he considered himself responsible for the neighborhood now that he owned the runway.
Nathan said ownership gave him legal obligations and choices, but not authority to govern people who lived nearby.
She approved of the distinction and asked what he intended to do after the parking business ended.
He described preliminary discussions about drainage restoration, open space, and a possible walking path.
Caroline asked whether the path would connect to anything useful or merely look attractive in a planning presentation.
Nathan admitted that they had not yet established the connections or their costs.
She told him to invite the people who would use the path before the designers became attached to their drawings.
George entered carrying coffee and asked whether the two of them had finished redesigning the county.
Caroline laughed and said they had only begun to make its sidewalks usable.
Nathan stayed for another hour listening to their stories about Oak Creek before Brenda’s presidency.
The neighborhood had once been a collection of households helping each other through storms and illness.
