Nathan closed the folder and realized the end of the dispute might arrive as quietly as the turning of a page.

Chapter 29AE — One More Claim

On the morning before mediation, a former HOA receptionist named Felicia Ross asked to speak with the independent committee.

Felicia had worked at the clubhouse when the first permanent parking subscriptions were introduced.

She remembered a woman arriving with an old property map and asking why the association was collecting fees for a tract still listed under the flying club’s ownership history.

Felicia had directed her to Brenda because she did not have authority to answer property questions.

The woman returned a week later and said nobody had contacted her despite promises of a reply.

Felicia found a copy of the visitor log showing the dates and the subject of the inquiry.

She had not kept a copy of any deed, and she could not remember the visitor’s full name.

Nathan asked whether the log could help establish what the board knew at the time.

Marisol said it might corroborate that a question had been raised, but it could not prove what information the visitor supplied or how anyone responded.

Felicia offered to give a statement limited to what she actually recalled.

She said she had avoided the dispute because she did not want to spend her retirement being called a liar by former colleagues.

Helen thanked her for coming forward without asking her to support either side’s interpretation.

Felicia looked at the faded log and said ordinary workers often become the last people who remember uncomfortable conversations.

Nathan asked whether she regretted leaving the matter to management.

She said she had done her assigned job, but wished the people who received the questions had answered them clearly.

The committee preserved the visitor log and included it in the chronology of unresolved warnings.

No new headline followed.

The document became one more small reason to favor an agreement based on facts instead of exhausted assertions of authority.

Chapter 29AF — The County Fair

Nathan took Sophie to the county fair on a Saturday when both had promised not to discuss the runway.

They bought lemonade, watched a mechanical demonstration, and spent an hour looking at restored farm engines.

An elderly mechanic recognized the Briggs name and asked whether Nathan was Walter’s son.

Nathan said he was, and the man introduced himself as Leonard Gage, who had once worked alongside Walter on emergency generator repairs.

Leonard remembered Walter bringing a box of spare parts to the airstrip during a winter storm.