Four times I tapped my left thumbnail against my knuckles.

“Did he mention that at the board meeting?” I asked.

Arthur looked across the open grass at the empty chain-link fence around the basketball courts.

He didn’t look at me.

“He made it perfectly clear to the executive committee on Tuesday,” Arthur said.

“If the association starts a formal setback dispute over a three-foot strip of lawn, he’ll pull his pledge on the spot.

The borough can’t afford to lose three hundred thousand dollars over a property line.”