Out of Her Depth

Karen surfaced with a gasping heave, her wet hair plastered across her forehead like rotten silk. She flailed against the blue tile line, her fingernails scraping for leverage on the concrete coping.

A small wave sloshed over the deck lip, darkening the stone two inches from Alicia’s bare toes.

“You pushed me!” Karen sputtered, coughing out a spray of chlorinated water. “You laid hands on the board president!”

Alicia stood motionless on the dry patio. She did not reach down. She did not offer an arm or take a backward step.

The fuchsia blouse clung to Karen’s shoulders like wet vinyl, dragging her down into five feet of water. Her aluminum clipboard lay face-down on the plaster floor of the shallow end, six loose sheets of paper drifting toward the main drain. One flat sandal bobbed near the skimmer basket, turning in tiny circles.

Karen tried to plant her heel against the tile wall to hoist her weight, but her sole found no traction on the slick porcelain. She slipped, going under for a second before thrashing back to the surface, gasping for air. Her blouse floated up around her neck like a parachute, soaked and heavy.

“You invaded my private property,” Alicia said. Her voice remained low, flat, almost drowned out by the steady hum of the pump. “You placed your hand on my bare arm.”

“That’s assault!” Karen yelled, her legs kicking beneath the surface to keep her chin clear. “I am calling the police! I will have a deputy at your front door within twenty minutes!”

Alicia crossed her arms over her ribs. Her turquoise bikini was entirely dry.

“You will be fined ten thousand dollars for battery,” Karen shrieked, her high voice cracking as she fought to drag her chest onto the stone coping. Her white capri pants held twenty pounds of water, hauling her thighs toward the bottom. “I will file an emergency lien against this deed before noon tomorrow! I will make sure this house goes to auction!”

Alicia looked down at the soaked form in the pool. She watched a sheet of paper with HOA bylaws sink beneath Karen’s thrashing elbow.

“You do not have that power,” Alicia said.

“I run this entire development!” Karen spat, slapping the water with an open palm. A fan of chlorine spray slapped against Alicia’s ankles, but Alicia did not flinch. “I decide who buys here! I decide who gets evicted!”

Alicia crouched at the pool edge, placing her hands on her knees. Her eyes leveled with Karen’s dripping mascara.

“When you find out who I am,” Alicia said in a slow whisper, “you will realize today was the day you ruined your life.”

Karen stopped splashing. Her mouth stayed open, but no sound came out.

She stared into Alicia’s face from eighteen inches away. There was no tremor in Alicia’s lips, no pulse hammering in her neck, no trace of heat in her posture. Most homeowners wept or begged when faced with a board injunction.

Alicia watched her with the calm indifference of a marble statue. She did not reach for her phone. She did not offer a hand to help Karen haul herself out. She stood with her arms loose at her sides, framed against the fronds behind the deck wall.

Karen’s wet fingers slipped half an inch down the slick tile. A heavy knot dropped into her belly.

“Who are you?” Karen asked, her harsh voice shrinking to a thin breath.

Alicia stood up, stepping back into the shadow of her umbrella without offering a reply.

Heavy boots crunched with measured steps on the gravel passage outside the open gate.