CHAPTER TWELVE — THE BOARDROOM

Dana called me on Wednesday morning.
“I need you to know that the court has ordered an independent review of the workshop arrangement,” she said.
“Can you tell me more?”
“Not while your conflict disclosure is pending.”
“Understood.”
“The judge also asked for immediate safeguards so residents cannot lose housing or training because they decline unrelated volunteer work.”
I sat down on the stairs.
“Good.”
“Rowan, your neighbor’s actions are being handled separately by local authorities.”
“I know.”
“Keep it that way.”
That afternoon, Northbridge held an emergency meeting with its resident advisory board.
Kira attended with Simone and two other residents.
She later told Mina what happened, and Mina repeated only the details Kira had agreed to share.
Leonard Baines admitted that Northbridge had relied on informal neighborhood arrangements without checking how access decisions were made.


A resident representative asked why young adults had been sent to wash private cars.
Nobody at the table had a good answer.
Graham resigned from the Stewardship Circle’s steering committee but offered to continue teaching if the workshop could operate under clear, independent rules.
The board voted to suspend all assignments tied to neighborhood favors.
Patricia learned about the vote that evening.
She came across the street carrying a stack of flyers.
“You’ve destroyed something people spent years building,” she said.
“I haven’t voted on anything,” I replied.
“Don’t play innocent.”
She threw the flyers at my feet.
Each one showed a photograph of the workshop and the words SAVE OUR COMMUNITY.
“People will remember what you did,” she said.
I picked up one flyer.
“They should remember what happened to the residents who needed that workshop.

”
“Those kids owed us.”
The sentence came out before she could stop it.
We stared at each other.
“They owed you what?” I asked.
She turned away.
For once, she had no answer ready.

CHAPTER TWELVE A — THE BACK ROOM

The community workshop had a back room that few residents had seen.
Graham described it as a storage space for donated equipment and supplies, but the room had become a point of dispute after Patricia changed the locks.
A board member named Ruth Keene invited the equipment donors to inspect their contributions with her.
Graham attended as an instructor, and Kira’s advocate arranged for a student representative to observe.
I did not enter the building.
Mina told me afterward that several donated tools were missing, including two portable welding units and a set of measuring instruments.
Patricia said the items had been loaned to volunteers for community projects.
Ruth asked for the borrowers’ names and return dates.
Patricia could not provide them immediately.
The board voted to suspend equipment loans until an inventory was complete.
That evening, Graham called me to ask whether the missing tools should be reported as theft.
“I can’t make that decision for the owner,” I said.
“The donors and the board should document what they know and ask for advice.”
He sounded frustrated.
“I used to know exactly where every wrench lived.”
“Then start with what you remember and let the owners check it.”
Two days later, Ruth found one welding unit in the garage of a volunteer who said Patricia had authorized him to borrow it.
The volunteer returned it without argument.
The second unit had been used at a landscaping contractor’s warehouse.
The contractor said he believed the workshop had sold it to him.
He produced a receipt bearing the name of the Stewardship Circle.
Ruth took the information to the organization’s treasurer and asked for an independent review of the transaction.
Nobody announced a crime at the next meeting.
Instead, the board suspended Patricia’s authority to approve equipment transfers.
She called the vote an insult.
Ruth replied that the tools belonged to the program, not to whoever held the keys.
For the first time, Patricia walked out before the meeting ended.