My neighbor let her dog use my lawn as a toilet every morning for six months and never cleaned up once — I stayed polite until she made one comment I couldn’t forget, and by the next morning I’d taught her a lesson without raising my voice once.

felt strangely calm.

I wasn’t excited about causing a scene.

I wasn’t planning to hurt anyone.

I was simply thinking about Marguerite’s own words.

You are responsible for what you tame.

She was right.

Completely right.

She simply had no idea how soon those words were going to come back to her.

My alarm went off at 7:15.

Tom and the children were still asleep.

I put on my gardening clothes.

Not pajamas.

Not a robe.

My actual yard-work clothes.

That was intentional.

Then I went into the garage.