“No.”
“I’m warning you.”
“About what?”
“I’ll call the police.”
Elena stared.
“For a leaf blower?”
Nancy reached into her pocket for her phone.
Elena shook her head.
“Do what you need to do.”
Then she pressed the trigger.
The blower started.
Nancy moved before she thought.
She crossed the remaining distance, reached for the handle, and grabbed Elena’s left arm.
Elena shouted.
“Let go!”
Nancy tightened her fingers.
“Turn it off!”
Elena released the trigger.
The blower fell against the patio chair.
“Get your hands off me.”
Nancy tried to pull Elena away from the machine.
Elena twisted her arm.
Nancy’s fingernails dragged across the skin above Elena’s wrist.
Three bright red lines appeared almost immediately.
Elena jerked free.
Nancy lost her balance.
Her shoe slid on wet grass.
She stumbled backward and landed hard against a low planter.
For several seconds, both women stared at each other.
Then Nancy shouted:
“You pushed me!”
“I pulled my arm away!”
“You assaulted me!”
“You grabbed me!”
The sliding door behind Elena opened.
Sixteen-year-old Maya stood there.
Her phone was in her hand.
“Mom?”
Elena looked at her daughter.
“Stay inside.”
Nancy stood.
Her cardigan was streaked with dirt.
She pointed toward Elena.
“You’re going to regret that.”
Elena stared at the scratches on her arm.
“I think you need to go home.”
Nancy pulled out her phone.
“I’m calling the police.”
“Fine.”
“You attacked me.”
Elena looked at Maya.
Maya’s eyes widened.
“No, she didn't.”
Nancy turned.
“You stay out of this.”
Maya raised the phone.
“I recorded it.”
Nancy stopped.
Only for a second.
Then she called anyway.
Chapter 3: The Person Who Called
By the time Officer Daniel Reyes arrived, the leaf blower had been turned off for nearly twenty minutes. Elena stood near her sliding door while Officer Foster examined the scratches on her arm. Maya remained inside holding their small white dog, but her phone rested on the kitchen counter where everyone could see it.
Nancy paced near the community mailbox, repeating the story she had already given the dispatcher.
“She attacked me first,” Nancy said when Reyes approached.
“Not physically, but deliberately.”
Reyes frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“The noise.”
“What noise?”
“The leaf blower.”
Nancy pointed toward Unit 58.
“She knows my husband had a stroke.”
“She knows he needs rest.”
“She starts that thing constantly.”
Reyes looked toward the silent blower.
“What happened physically?”
Nancy hesitated.
“I went over to tell her to stop.”
“Then?”
“She became confrontational.”
“How?”
“She told me to leave.”
“That isn't a crime.”
Nancy’s jaw tightened.
“She turned the blower back on.”
“Then?”
“I tried to turn it off.”
“How?”
Nancy looked away.
“I reached for it.”
“Did you touch Ms. Martinez?”
“I might have.”
Reyes watched her.
“How?”
“I don't remember exactly.”
Officer Foster called from across the lawn.
“Reyes.”
He walked over.