My son moved his rented kayaks into the room I built for my husband and called it “underutilized space,” but the deed in the lawyer’s file already had the easement in my name only.

My son moved his rented kayaks into the room I built for my husband and called it “underutilized space,” but the deed in the lawyer’s file already had the easement in my name only.

My name is Winifred Kline.

I am seventy-four years old.

I was the owner of Kline Floral on Church Street in Burlington, Vermont, for thirty-eight years.

I held a small one-window storefront at 211 Church Street from the first Monday of April of 1981 to the third Friday of May of 2019.

I held a Vermont Master Florist certification from the third Wednesday of September of 1984 through the third Wednesday of September of 2019.

I arranged eleven hundred and forty-eight wedding bouquets, eight hundred and one funeral standing sprays, and a standing Tuesday afternoon hospital-floor order for the same six wards at the Fletcher Allen Health Care campus on Colchester Avenue for thirty-four consecutive years.

I live at 411 Maplewood Lane on the south side of Burlington.

The Maplewood Lane house is a two-story 1948 wood-frame with a low pitched roof, a small detached garage on the west side, and a small east-side sunroom my husband and I added in the autumn of 2009 with the help of his contractor friend named Phil Halloran out of South Burlington.

The sunroom is fourteen feet wide and eleven feet deep, with three south-facing double-hung windows, two east-facing double-hung windows, and a small east-facing single-pane window above a small reading bench.

The east-facing windows look across the small back lawn and the lakeside cedar hedge to a clear-sight view of Lake Champlain at the small inlet south of Red Rocks Park.

My husband was Franklin Roberts Kline.

Frank was a retired Burlington school-district maintenance director who served the district from the autumn of 1978 to the third Friday of June of 2018.

Frank died on the porch of the Maplewood Lane house on the second Sunday of July of 2018 at the age of seventy-one — a quiet myocardial infarction at four-fourteen in the afternoon while reading the small Sunday Burlington Free Press in a small Adirondack chair.

The Burlington police and the Burlington-South ambulance arrived at four-twenty-two.

Frank was pronounced at five-eleven at Fletcher Allen Health Care.

I have one son named Todd Frank Kline.

Todd is thirty-nine years old.

Todd is the co-owner of a small kayak-and-paddle-board rental business called Champlain Wake Rentals out of a small leased lot at 928 Lake Street on the south side of the Burlington Harbor.

Todd’s business partner is a man named Brad Eastman.

Brad is forty-one.

Brad lives in a small lake-front rental house at 414 Briggs Hill Road on the east shore of Lake Champlain.

Todd’s wife is Tina-Marie Kline, age thirty-six.

Todd and Tina-Marie have two children — Maddox, six, and Ainsley, four.

The small mahogany side table inside the sunroom holds, at the center, a small brass florist’s pruning shear.

The shear is a 1972 Felco-pattern brass florist’s pruning shear with a small two-and-three-quarter-inch high-carbon-steel pruning blade, a small brass tongue at the back of the blade, a small leather hand-grip on the left handle, and a small Felco-pattern adjusting screw at the pivot.

The brass on the right handle is engraved in a small serif script that reads “F. R. K. — to W. M. K. — June 28, 1972 — Tenth Anniversary.”

Frank gave me the shear at the small kitchen table of our first small rental apartment at 248 Howard Avenue in Burlington at six-fourteen in the morning of the third Wednesday of June of 1972 — the morning of our tenth wedding anniversary.

The shear sat on the small mahogany side table from the first Sunday of August of 2018 to the third Saturday of January of last year.

The small white-painted Sears-and-Roebuck rolltop desk in my bedroom on the second floor holds a small bottom-right desk drawer with a small brass drop-handle pull.

The drawer holds a single manila folder.

The manila folder is labeled at the front tab in my florist handwriting in a small black Pilot Razor Point pen.

The label reads: “FRANK — 2019.”

Todd has not opened the desk drawer.

Todd has not opened the desk drawer since I assembled the folder at the kitchen table on the third Saturday of January of 2019, eleven months after Frank died on the porch.

On the second Friday afternoon of last May, at three-eleven, the small landline phone in the kitchen at Maplewood Lane rang.

The small caller-identification box on the wall above the phone read TODD CHAMPLAIN WAKE — MOBILE.

I picked up at three-twelve.

Todd said, on a small open-window pickup-truck cab with the small Champlain Wake Rentals radio at the small Burlington Harbor parking lot in the background and a small wind from the southwest at six-eleven miles per hour: “Mom.

The kayak guys are coming Saturday at six to drop the spring rentals.

I told them to stage in the sunroom — Dad’s old reading nook is just sitting there.

It’ll be cleaner than the garage.

You won’t even notice.”

Todd hung up at three-fourteen.

I held the small landline phone in my right hand at three-fourteen.

I set the phone in the cradle at three-fifteen.

I walked from the kitchen down the short east hall to the sunroom at three-sixteen.

The sunroom held, on the second Friday afternoon of last May at three-sixteen, the same small mahogany side table at the east-facing windows, the same small reading bench under the small east-facing single-pane, and Frank’s small Sunday Burlington Free Press from the second Sunday of July of 2018 folded at the center of the side table where I had set it down at four-forty-one on the afternoon Frank died.

I lifted the 1972 Felco brass florist’s pruning shear off the side table at three-seventeen.

I held the shear in my right hand at three-seventeen.

The small leather hand-grip on the left handle was cool to the touch.

The brass tongue at the back of the blade was unoiled but unrusted.

The small high-carbon-steel pruning blade caught the small two-fifty-eight afternoon light at the south-facing window in a small soft three-degree angle.

I weighed the shear in my right hand for fourteen seconds.

The shear weighed five and three-eighths ounces.

I set the shear down on the side table beside the small Burlington Free Press at three-eighteen.

I walked out of the sunroom and back down the short east hall to the kitchen at three-nineteen.

I walked up the small wood-runner staircase to the second floor at three-twenty.

I walked down the second-floor hall to the bedroom at three-twenty-one.

I opened the small bottom-right desk drawer in the Sears-and-Roebuck rolltop at three-twenty-two.

The manila folder labeled “FRANK — 2019” was at the front of the drawer at three-twenty-two.

I lifted the folder out of the drawer at three-twenty-three.

I carried the folder back down the staircase, down the short east hall, into the sunroom at three-twenty-five.

I sat at the small mahogany side table at three-twenty-six.

I opened the manila folder at three-twenty-seven.

The first page inside the folder was a small white cover sheet in my florist handwriting that read: “Frank — 2019 — Easements, deeds, conservation filings, Marcia Lennox file 41-280-4128.”

The second page held the small photocopied first page of the 2018 Maplewood Lane conservation-and-residential easement.

The easement had been filed by Frank with the City of Burlington Land Records Office on the third Wednesday of April of 2018, nine weeks before Frank died on the porch on the second Sunday of July.

The easement carried the city of Burlington Land Records Office filing number 2018-04-1148.

The third page held the second page of the easement with the small printed paragraph at the bottom-left margin under a small bold header that read “Permitted Uses and Commercial-Use Restriction.”

The paragraph held a small printed restriction at the second sentence: “The property at 411 Maplewood Lane shall not be used as a commercial-activity staging area, a short-term rental site, or a commercial-customer access point under the conservation provisions of Vermont Statute Title 10 Chapter 155 and the residential covenant filed alongside this instrument.”

The fourth page held the small certified-mail return-receipt card from the City Land Records Office stamped the second Friday of May of 2018.

The fifth page held a small typed three-line note in my own typewriter font from the third Saturday of January of 2019: “Frank filed this easement on his own, between his April cardiologist appointment and his June pruning of the side-yard lily-of-the-valley.

Frank told me on the porch on the third Saturday of June of 2018 that the easement was ‘in your name only, Winnie, in case some grand-kid wants to put a parking lot on the lawn.’

Frank died on the porch nineteen days later.”

I closed the manila folder at three-thirty.

I sat at the small mahogany side table for one minute.

The small landline phone was on the small kitchen wall to the south.

I lifted the small landline phone from the small wall extension at three-thirty-one.

I dialed Bev Park.

Bev Park answered on the second ring at three-thirty-two.

Bev said: “Winifred. You are calling on the landline. Tell me which room you are in.”

I said: “Bev. The sunroom. The Frank-2019 folder is on the side table. Todd is bringing kayaks Saturday at six in the morning. He said the kayak guys will stage in the sunroom. He said I will not notice.”

Bev was quiet for eight seconds at three-thirty-three.

Bev said: “Winifred. I will be at the Maplewood Lane back door at four-eleven. I am bringing the 2018 Burlington Free Press conservation-section file from the third-Wednesday-of-April edition.

I freelanced the small front-page article on Frank’s easement filing at the second Friday of May meeting at the City Land Records Office. The file is in the small filing cabinet at the south wall of my office on South Union Street.

The file holds my original notes, the press-release copy from Carol Garner at the conservation board, and the small follow-up letter from Marcia Lennox at her Burlington branch.”

Bev hung up at three-thirty-four.

Bev Park is seventy-two and a retired Burlington Free Press community-affairs reporter from the autumn of 1979 to the autumn of 2018.

Bev has been my customer at Kline Floral on Church Street since the second Tuesday of June of 1981 — sixty-eight weddings, three funerals (her mother in 1994, her father in 2001, her sister in 2009), and a standing Thursday-afternoon hospital-floor order for the same six wards from 1994 through 2008 when her own mother was in the Fletcher Allen oncology unit.

Bev arrived at the Maplewood Lane back door at four-oh-nine.

Bev carried a small canvas tote bag and a single small accordion file in a small soft black case.

We sat at the small mahogany side table in the sunroom at four-eleven.

Bev opened the accordion file at four-twelve.

The first page Bev pulled was the small front-page Burlington Free Press article from the third Saturday of April of 2018 — a small two-column piece under a small italic byline that read “Bev Park, contributing reporter,” with a small black-and-white photograph of Frank at the small Burlington City Hall press-release podium beside Carol Garner of the Vermont Conservation Council and the small printed headline “BURLINGTON RETIREE FILES CONSERVATION EASEMENT FOR FAMILY HOME.”

The second page Bev pulled was the small one-page press release from Carol Garner with the small printed paragraph at the second-to-last line: “The 411 Maplewood Lane easement is one of seventeen Burlington residential filings since the conservation-restriction amendments of 2014 and represents one of fourteen filings that explicitly bar short-term-rental and commercial-staging activity on the property.”

The third page Bev pulled was the small follow-up letter from Marcia Lennox at the Burlington branch of Lennox and Bermay LLP on the third Wednesday of May of 2018.

Marcia Lennox is sixty-eight and a conservation-easement attorney at her Burlington office at 711 South Union Street.

The letter was a small two-paragraph note thanking Frank for his easement filing and confirming the recording at the City Land Records Office and offering, in a small italic third paragraph, “future trust-administration counsel on the easement should the household structure change.”

I sat across from Bev at the side table at four-eighteen.

The 2010 cardiac event came up in my throat for thirty seconds at four-nineteen.

The 2010 cardiac event had been the second Tuesday of November of 2010.

Frank was sixty-three.

Frank had a small heart-rhythm episode at six-fourteen in the evening at the small kitchen sink while washing a small skillet from a Tuesday-night ground-beef supper.

Frank sat down at the small kitchen chair at six-fifteen and held the small Hamilton Beach electric clock face on the wall in his peripheral vision.

I called the Burlington-South ambulance at six-sixteen.

Frank was at the Fletcher Allen cardiology unit by six-forty-eight.

Todd was twenty-four in November of 2010.

Todd was a junior assistant at a small Cambridge marketing firm at 248 Broadway in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Todd drove his small 2006 Subaru Outback from the Cambridge Square parking deck at one-fourteen on the second Wednesday morning of November of 2010.

Todd arrived at the Fletcher Allen cardiology unit at four-eighteen with a small soft red Igloo cooler that held a single Pyrex container of homemade chicken soup he had cooked in his Cambridge studio on the small Cambridge gas range from a small recipe Frank had taught him in the autumn of 1996.

Todd cried at the small Fletcher Allen bedside at four-thirty-eight on the second Wednesday morning of November of 2010.

Todd said, in a low quiet voice with a small two-finger touch at the back of Frank’s left hand: “Dad.

I drove all night because I had to be here.”

Todd stayed three days.

Todd drove back to Cambridge on the second Saturday morning of November of 2010 at six-eleven.

Frank recovered.

Frank returned to the Burlington school-district maintenance director job on the second Monday of January of 2011 and held the job through the third Friday of June of 2018, his retirement, three weeks before he died on the porch.

I sat at the small mahogany side table in the sunroom on the second Friday afternoon of last May at four-twenty-one.

I said: “Bev. We drive to Marcia Lennox at South Union Street on Monday at nine.”

Bev said: “Monday at nine. I will pick you up at eight-forty-eight.”

Bev set the accordion file beside the manila Frank-2019 folder at four-twenty-eight.

Bev left the Maplewood Lane back door at five-eleven.

On the second Monday morning of last May at nine-oh-one, Bev and I sat at the small client-meeting table at the small south-facing conference room in Marcia Lennox’s office at 711 South Union Street.

Marcia opened the small client folder for the Maplewood Lane property at nine-oh-three.

Marcia said, in a small low even voice with her right hand on the small printed first page of the 2018 conservation easement: “Winifred.

The 2018 easement is a registered residential conservation instrument.

The commercial-staging restriction is on page two at the bottom-left under permitted uses and commercial-use restriction.

The remedy is an injunction filed at the small Chittenden County Superior Court at 175 Main Street.

The injunction can be filed within forty-eight hours of a documented commercial-staging event.

The thirty-day vacate is by Vermont statute.

The Airbnb-style listing — if it exists — is a separate enforcement under the conservation-easement amendment of 2014 and a Vermont Department of Taxes commercial-use reclassification.

The reclassification triggers a property-tax review.

The property-tax review triggers a back-tax assessment.

We will need three pieces of evidence: a dated photograph of the kayak staging in the sunroom, a public listing for any short-term-rental or paid-experience operation, and the business filings from Champlain Wake Rentals for the last twelve months.”

Marcia closed the file at nine-twenty-six.

Bev and I drove from 711 South Union back to Maplewood Lane at nine-forty-eight on the second Monday morning of last May.

Bev set the small accordion file and the Marcia-Lennox client letter on the side table beside the manila Frank-2019 folder at ten-eleven.

The thirty-four-year Tuesday hospital order came up in my hands at ten-fourteen while I trimmed the small lily-of-the-valley sprigs from the side yard for a small kitchen vase.

The hospital order had been the Fletcher Allen Health Care campus on Colchester Avenue.

The hospital order was a standing weekly arrangement contracted under the small institutional florist account number FAH-1148-K, signed at the small Fletcher Allen procurement office on the third Tuesday of October of 1985 with Sister Carmel Mahoney of the Sisters of Mercy charitable trust at the original Mary Fanny Allen wing.

The order was forty-one stems of seasonal flowering perennials per Tuesday delivery to the front nurses’ station at the medical-surgical floor, the pediatric floor, the oncology floor, the cardiology floor, the maternity floor, and the small palliative-care unit on the seventh-floor east corridor.

On the second Tuesday morning of February of 1995, at six-eleven, I prepared the Fletcher Allen Tuesday order in the small back workroom at Kline Floral on Church Street.

The lobby-floor temperature was thirty-eight degrees in the back workroom and the front-window thermometer read negative four degrees outside in the small Burlington morning fog.

I assembled forty-one stems of cut white amaryllis and small sprigs of red-twig dogwood and three small clusters of forced lily-of-the-valley.

I drove the small 1989 Toyota Tercel wagon from 211 Church Street up the small hill on Colchester Avenue to the Fletcher Allen front service entrance at six-forty-eight.

The cardiology-floor nurse on the second-Tuesday-of-February morning shift was a young woman named Lorraine McAvoy, age twenty-nine.

Lorraine signed the small institutional florist receipt at the front nurses’ station at six-fifty-eight.

Lorraine said, in a small quiet morning voice with her right hand on the small clipboard at the desk: “Mrs. Kline.

The lily-of-the-valley is for room 411 on the cardiology floor.

Mr. Bertelsen’s wife asked for the lily this morning at five-forty-one.

Mr. Bertelsen passed at four-thirty-eight.”

I delivered the lily-of-the-valley to room 411 on the cardiology floor at seven-fourteen.

The Fletcher Allen Tuesday-order receipt for the second Tuesday of February of 1995 was the four-hundred-and-eighty-seventh Tuesday delivery on the FAH-1148-K account.

The Fletcher Allen account ran for one thousand seven hundred and seventy-two Tuesday deliveries from 1985 through 2019.

The arrangement is the arrangement.

The vase is the vase.

I trimmed the small lily-of-the-valley at the side yard at ten-fourteen on the second Monday morning of last May.

Todd arrived at the Maplewood Lane back door at six-oh-one on the third Saturday morning of last May with a small white Ford F-250 pickup-truck, a small two-wheel-axle U-Haul trailer hitched at the back bumper, a small red-and-yellow Champlain Wake Rentals trailer rack on the U-Haul deck, and a small four-man kayak-rental crew in a small white Ford Transit work van behind the trailer.

I was at the small kitchen sink at six-oh-one.

Todd came through the back door at six-oh-two with a small Champlain Wake Rentals clipboard in his right hand.

Todd said, in the bright cheerful retake voice from the second Friday phone call: “Mom.

We are staging in the sunroom.

Tony and Mac and the new guy Eli will run the trailer in.

The kayaks are ten-foot rotomolded sit-on-tops.

They stack five high against a wall.

We will be out of your way by six-eighteen.

The pickup is Tuesday at five.

You will not even know we were here.”

I said: “Todd. The sunroom is your father’s reading room. The mahogany side table holds the brass shear from 1972. The small east-facing window holds the small Sunday Free Press from the second Sunday of July of 2018.”

Todd said: “Mom. I moved the side table to the kitchen at five-fifty-eight. The shear is on the high shelf behind the canisters. The Free Press is on the kitchen counter beside the toaster. The room is the same room. We are just using the floor. Sunday is the new color shoot for the Champlain Wake summer flyer. It is family content. You will love it.”

Todd walked from the kitchen down the short east hall to the sunroom at six-oh-five with the small clipboard in his right hand.

Tony and Mac and Eli carried the small ten-foot rotomolded sit-on-top kayaks into the sunroom from six-oh-six to six-seventeen.

Twenty-eight yellow kayaks were stacked five high against the east wall of the sunroom at six-seventeen.

Eight red kayaks were stacked four high against the south wall.

Six blue kayaks were stacked three high against the west wall.

The mahogany side table was not in the sunroom at six-seventeen.

The small Sunday Burlington Free Press from the second Sunday of July of 2018 was on the small kitchen counter beside the small Hamilton Beach toaster at six-seventeen.

I walked from the kitchen down the short east hall to the sunroom at six-eighteen.

I stood at the small east-facing windows at six-eighteen.

The view through the south-facing windows held the small back lawn, the lakeside cedar hedge, and the small inlet on Lake Champlain at the south side of Red Rocks Park.

The view inside the sunroom held forty-two ten-foot rotomolded sit-on-top kayaks in three stacked color rows along the east, south, and west walls.

I walked back to the kitchen at six-twenty.

I lifted the small mahogany side table from the small east wall of the kitchen back to the sunroom at six-twenty-one.

I set the side table at the east-facing windows under the small east-facing single-pane at six-twenty-two.

I reached up to the small high shelf above the small kitchen counter at six-twenty-three.

I lifted the small flour canister and the small sugar canister and the small coffee canister from the small high shelf to the small kitchen counter at six-twenty-three.

The small 1972 Felco brass florist’s pruning shear sat at the back of the small high shelf at six-twenty-three.

The small leather hand-grip on the left handle had a thin film of small kitchen flour dust.

I lifted the shear from the small high shelf at six-twenty-four.

I carried the shear from the kitchen down the short east hall to the sunroom at six-twenty-five.

I set the shear on the small mahogany side table at the east-facing windows at six-twenty-five.

I walked back to the kitchen at six-twenty-six.

I lifted the small Sunday Burlington Free Press from the second Sunday of July of 2018 off the small kitchen counter beside the toaster at six-twenty-six.

I walked back to the sunroom at six-twenty-seven.

I set the Free Press on the small mahogany side table beside the brass shear at six-twenty-seven.

I sat at the small mahogany side table at six-twenty-eight.

The shear caught the small six-thirty-one morning light at the south-facing window in a small soft three-degree angle.

Bev arrived at the back door at seven-fourteen with a small printed sheaf of paper in a small soft black folder.

Bev sat across from me at the side table at seven-fifteen.

Bev opened the folder at seven-sixteen.

The first page Bev pulled was a small color screen-capture of the public Champlain Wake Rentals website at the front page from the second Friday evening of last May at ten-eleven.

The front page held, at the small bottom-right of the navigation bar, a small italic link that read “PADDLE FROM A HISTORIC VERMONT HOME — limited 2024 season — book direct.”

The link opened a small secondary page on the Champlain Wake Rentals site that held a small color photograph of the Maplewood Lane sunroom from the south-facing windows looking east toward Lake Champlain at six-fourteen in the morning of the second Saturday of November of 2023.

The secondary page held a small printed paragraph at the second sentence: “Stay in our family’s lakeside Vermont home for a true Champlain experience.

Wake to the lake at first light, paddle from our private cedar-hedge launch, and rent any of our forty-eight rotomolded sit-on-top kayaks at hourly or daily rates.”

The secondary page held a small Stripe-payment button at the bottom-left labeled “BOOK A STAY — $148 per night, $48 paddle add-on.”

The second page Bev pulled was a small printed list of forty-eight published guest reviews dated from the second Saturday of November of 2023 through the second Saturday of May of last year.

The third page held a small printed reservation-confirmation summary from the small Champlain Wake Rentals back-office Stripe account, totaled at seven thousand four hundred dollars in completed bookings over the six-month window.

Bev set the sheaf on the side table beside the manila Frank-2019 folder at seven-twenty-one.

Marcia Lennox called the small landline phone in the kitchen at seven-thirty-eight.

Marcia said: “Winifred. I have pulled the Champlain Wake Rentals 2023 business filing with the Vermont Secretary of State and the small 2023 Form CO-411 for the Vermont Department of Taxes corporate income tax return. The 2023 filing reports gross rentals of forty-eight thousand four hundred dollars and operating revenue from kayak-and-paddle-board rentals only.

The Champlain Wake filing does not declare the short-term-rental revenue from the Champlain Wake Rentals ‘historic Vermont home’ page. The seven thousand four hundred dollars in completed Stripe bookings is undeclared income.

The 2014 conservation-easement amendment is the enforcement. The unauthorized commercial activity is the property action. The undeclared income is the tax matter. We file the injunction at the small Chittenden County Superior Court at 175 Main Street on the second Monday morning of next week at ten-oh-one.”

Marcia hung up at seven-fifty-one.

Bev pulled a small second printed sheaf at seven-fifty-two.

The second sheaf held forty-eight individually printed Champlain Wake Rentals “Paddle From A Historic Vermont Home” guest reviews dated from the second Saturday of November of 2023 through the second Saturday of May of last year.

Eighteen of the forty-eight reviews referenced the small sunroom by name.

Eleven of the forty-eight reviews referenced the small mahogany side table by location near the east-facing windows.

Six of the forty-eight reviews referenced the small brass florist’s pruning shear on the small mahogany side table as a “charming Vermont detail.”

Each of the forty-eight reviews held a small star-rating average of four-point-six out of five and a small Stripe-payment transaction-line confirmation with a small dated time-stamp.

A small text message arrived on the small home-screen of my small flip-cover Samsung Galaxy at eight-fourteen on the third Saturday morning of last May.

The text was from Tina-Marie Kline, my daughter-in-law.

The text read, in a small five-line block at the screen: “Mom Win.

I am sorry.

I told Brad it was not right.

The Airbnb was Brad’s idea.

He talked Todd into it at the Lake Street parking lot on the second Wednesday of November.

I am keeping the kids at my mother’s house in Essex Junction until Tuesday.

Tina.”

I saved the text to the small message archive on the Samsung at eight-fifteen.

I set the small Samsung on the small mahogany side table beside the brass shear at eight-sixteen.

Marcia Lennox filed the injunction at the small Chittenden County Superior Court at 175 Main Street in Burlington at ten-oh-one on the second Monday morning of the second week of last June.

The injunction case was filed under the small county docket number CD-2024-1148 and was assigned to the small Friday-morning civil docket of the Honorable Judge Ralston Driscoll, a sixty-eight-year-old Chittenden County Superior Court judge in his eleventh year on the bench.

Judge Driscoll signed the small ex parte temporary restraining order at three-fourteen on the second Friday afternoon of that same week and scheduled the small full hearing on the third Friday afternoon of June at two-eleven.

The TRO required Champlain Wake Rentals LLC and Todd Frank Kline to:

Cease all commercial-staging activity on the 411 Maplewood Lane property within forty-eight hours of service.

Remove all rental inventory and rental-business signage from the property within thirty days under Vermont Statute Title 10 Chapter 155.

Take down the “Paddle From A Historic Vermont Home” online listing on the Champlain Wake Rentals website within twenty-four hours of service.

Preserve all Stripe-payment records and customer-booking records from the second Saturday of November of 2023 through the date of service for property-tax-review purposes.

The Burlington branch of the Chittenden County Sheriff’s Office served the TRO on Todd Kline at the small Champlain Wake Rentals lot at 928 Lake Street at eleven-fourteen on the second Saturday morning of June.

The serving deputy was a thirty-eight-year-old senior sheriff’s deputy named Whitney Carmichael, a fourteen-year veteran of the Chittenden County Sheriff’s Office and a 2010 graduate of the Vermont Police Academy.

Whitney Carmichael handed Todd Kline the small printed TRO at eleven-fifteen at the small front-counter of the Champlain Wake Rentals office.

Todd signed the small service-acknowledgment receipt at eleven-sixteen.

Whitney Carmichael left the Lake Street lot at eleven-eighteen.

Todd called the small landline phone in the kitchen at Maplewood Lane at eleven-thirty-eight on the second Saturday morning of June.

Todd said, in a small low constricted version of the bright cheerful retake voice: “Mom.

The sheriff just served me a court order.

This is not a family-business problem.

This is a family-relationship problem.

We can fix this in the kitchen on Sunday morning.”

I said: “Todd. The sheriff’s deputy is Whitney Carmichael. The judge is Ralston Driscoll. The attorney is Marcia Lennox. The conservation-easement filing is 2018-04-1148. The kayaks come out of the sunroom on the third Saturday morning of June at six. The full hearing is the third Friday of June at two-eleven. The Stripe records are subpoenaed.”

Todd hung up at eleven-forty-one.

Todd did not call again from the second Saturday of June through the third Saturday of June.

On the third Saturday morning of June at five-fifty-eight, Marcia Lennox, Bev Park, Whitney Carmichael, and I stood at the small east hall doorway of the sunroom at the Maplewood Lane house.

Marcia held a small leather portfolio at her right side with the small original-signed copy of the TRO and the small property-action service file.

Bev held a small Canon EOS T3i with a fresh 32-gigabyte SD card at her left side.

Whitney Carmichael wore the small Chittenden County Sheriff’s Office tan-and-brown uniform at her side and held the small departmental shoulder radio at the lapel-clip.

I held the small 1972 Felco brass florist’s pruning shear in my right hand at five-fifty-eight.

Todd arrived at the small back-door driveway at six-oh-one with the small white Ford F-250 pickup, the small two-wheel-axle U-Haul trailer, the small white Ford Transit work van, the small Champlain Wake Rentals four-man crew, and a small bleary-eyed Brad Eastman at the passenger seat of the F-250.

Todd walked through the back door into the kitchen at six-oh-two.

Brad followed.

The four-man crew waited at the small driveway gate.

Todd walked down the short east hall at six-oh-three.

Todd stopped at the small east hall doorway of the sunroom at six-oh-four.

Todd looked at Marcia, at Bev, at Whitney Carmichael, at me, at the small brass florist’s pruning shear in my right hand, at the forty-two ten-foot rotomolded sit-on-top kayaks still stacked along the east, south, and west walls of the sunroom.

Todd said, in the small constricted version of the cheerful retake voice with a small higher pitch and a small fast tremor at the corner of his left jaw: “Mom.

What is this.

You called the sheriff on me?

After everything I did for Dad?”

I said: “Todd. Thirty days. Marcia has the paperwork.”

Todd looked at Marcia.

Marcia handed Todd a small printed copy of the TRO at six-oh-five.

Todd looked at the small printed paragraph on page two at the bottom-left under permitted uses and commercial-use restriction at six-oh-six.

Brad said, in a small low quiet voice at Todd’s left shoulder: “Todd.

This is the easement Tina told us about on Wednesday.”

Todd said: “Brad. Get the trailer.”

Todd walked out the back door at six-oh-eight.

Brad walked out the back door at six-oh-nine.

Tony and Mac and Eli unloaded the forty-two ten-foot rotomolded sit-on-top kayaks from the east, south, and west walls of the sunroom into the small two-wheel-axle U-Haul trailer at the driveway from six-eleven to seven-forty-eight on the third Saturday morning of June.

The mahogany side table held the small brass florist’s pruning shear at the east-facing windows at seven-fifty.

Bev took eleven small Canon photographs of the empty sunroom at the east, south, west, and north walls from seven-fifty-one to seven-fifty-eight.

Whitney Carmichael signed the small service-completion attestation at the back of the small TRO at eight-oh-one and handed it to Marcia at eight-oh-two.

Marcia carried the small leather portfolio out the back door at eight-oh-three.

Bev carried the small Canon and the SD card out the back door at eight-oh-four.

Whitney Carmichael walked to her marked Chittenden County Sheriff’s cruiser at the small driveway at eight-oh-five and drove south on Maplewood Lane at eight-oh-six.

Todd drove the small white Ford F-250 pickup, the small two-wheel-axle U-Haul trailer, the small white Ford Transit work van, and Brad Eastman out of the small driveway at the back of the Maplewood Lane house at eight-eleven on the third Saturday morning of June.

The full hearing at the small Chittenden County Superior Court on the third Friday of June at two-eleven was uncontested.

Judge Driscoll signed the permanent injunction at two-forty-eight.

The “Paddle From A Historic Vermont Home” listing was taken down from the Champlain Wake Rentals website at five-fourteen the same afternoon under threat of property-tax reclassification.

The Vermont Department of Taxes opened a small property-tax-review case on the second Wednesday of July under the small departmental case number VT-DOR-2024-411MW.

The review found two thousand four hundred dollars in unauthorized commercial-use property assessments for the 411 Maplewood Lane property for tax years 2023 and 2024.

The Champlain Wake Rentals business filing was amended at the small Vermont Secretary of State office on the third Monday of August.

The amended Champlain Wake Rentals corporate income tax filing for 2023 added one thousand eight hundred dollars in back taxes plus the small Vermont Department of Taxes interest assessment.

The third Friday afternoon of June hearing at the small Chittenden County Superior Court at 175 Main Street ran from two-eleven to three-eighteen in courtroom number four on the second floor.

The courtroom held, at two-eleven, Judge Ralston Driscoll at the small judicial bench, the small Chittenden County deputy clerk Phyllis Marchand at the small clerk’s desk, Marcia Lennox at the small petitioner’s table with the small leather portfolio at her right side, Bev Park at the small first-row spectator bench at the south wall, and me at the small second chair at the small petitioner’s table.

Todd was not present.

Brad was not present.

Champlain Wake Rentals LLC was represented by a small empty chair at the small respondent’s table.

Marcia entered three pieces of evidence into the small Chittenden County Superior Court evidence record at two-fourteen.

Petitioner’s Exhibit One was the small original-recorded 2018 Maplewood Lane conservation-and-residential easement under City of Burlington Land Records Office filing number 2018-04-1148.

Petitioner’s Exhibit Two was the small printed sheaf of forty-eight published Champlain Wake Rentals guest reviews dated from the second Saturday of November of 2023 through the second Saturday of May of last year, with the small printed Stripe-payment reservation-confirmation summary totaling seven thousand four hundred dollars in completed bookings over the six-month window.

Petitioner’s Exhibit Three was the small printed screen-capture of the small text message from Tina-Marie Kline at eight-fourteen on the third Saturday morning of last May with the small five-line block at the screen.

Judge Driscoll read the small text message at two-twenty-eight from a small printed copy at the bench at the small two-twenty-eight reading of the small block.

Judge Driscoll said, in a small low even courtroom voice at the small two-thirty-one ruling-from-the-bench segment: “The 2018 conservation-and-residential easement at 411 Maplewood Lane is a registered, unambiguous, and continuously-enforced instrument under Vermont Statute Title 10 Chapter 155.

The respondent Champlain Wake Rentals LLC operated a commercial-staging activity and a paid short-term-rental experience on the protected property from the second Saturday of November of 2023 through the second Saturday of May of last year.

The respondent’s conduct is in plain violation of the commercial-use restriction at page two of the recorded instrument.

The court signs the permanent injunction this afternoon at two-forty-eight.”

Judge Driscoll signed the permanent injunction at two-forty-eight on the third Friday afternoon of June.

The small Chittenden County deputy clerk Phyllis Marchand entered the small final entry on the small docket sheet at three-eleven.

Marcia and Bev and I walked out of the small courtroom number four at three-eighteen.

The “Paddle From A Historic Vermont Home” listing was taken down from the Champlain Wake Rentals website at five-fourteen on the third Friday afternoon of June under threat of property-tax reclassification under the small property-action service file at Marcia’s office.

The Vermont Department of Taxes opened a small property-tax-review case on the second Wednesday of July under the small departmental case number VT-DOR-2024-411MW.

The review was led by a small property-tax-assessment officer named Reginald Holladay out of the small Vermont Department of Taxes office at 133 State Street in Montpelier.

The review found two thousand four hundred dollars in unauthorized commercial-use property assessments for the 411 Maplewood Lane property for tax years 2023 and 2024.

The Champlain Wake Rentals business filing was amended at the small Vermont Secretary of State office on the third Monday of August.

The amended Champlain Wake Rentals corporate income tax filing for 2023 added one thousand eight hundred dollars in back taxes plus the small Vermont Department of Taxes interest assessment at four-hundred-and-forty-eight dollars.

The Vermont Department of Taxes mailed the small assessment notice to the Champlain Wake Rentals office at 928 Lake Street on the second Wednesday of September.

The assessment notice required payment in full by the second Friday of November.

Champlain Wake Rentals LLC paid the assessment in full at the small Montpelier office counter at three-eighteen on the second Thursday afternoon of November.

The receipt was filed at the small Vermont Department of Taxes record.

Reginald Holladay sent a small follow-up letter to Marcia Lennox on the third Friday of November confirming the case closure.

Marcia placed the letter at the back of the manila Frank-2019 folder at the small mahogany side table at four-eleven on the third Friday afternoon of November.

The Frank-2019 folder was now nine pages thicker than it had been on the second Friday afternoon of last May.

The added pages were the small original-signed TRO, the small Driscoll permanent injunction, the small Vermont Department of Taxes notice, the small Holladay follow-up letter, the small text from Tina-Marie Kline printed at full page, and the small Marcia Lennox client-meeting letter from the third Friday of June.

I walked back to the small mahogany side table in the sunroom at eight-fourteen on the third Saturday morning of June.

I sat at the side table at eight-fifteen.

The brass shear was at the center of the side table at eight-fifteen.

The view through the south-facing windows held the small back lawn, the lakeside cedar hedge, and the small inlet on Lake Champlain.

The sunroom was the sunroom again at eight-fifteen.

Todd did not return to the Maplewood Lane house from the third Saturday morning of June through the second Tuesday of December.

Champlain Wake Rentals LLC moved its kayak-and-paddle-board rental operation from the small 928 Lake Street lot to a small franchise location at Burlington Bay Paddle Adventures on the east shore of Lake Champlain at 414 Briggs Hill Road on the second Monday of August.

Brad Eastman dissolved his small business partnership with Todd at the small Champlain Wake Rentals LLC paperwork at the Vermont Secretary of State office on the second Thursday of August.

Todd became the sole owner of Champlain Wake Rentals LLC at the small filing.

Tina-Marie Kline filed a small petition for divorce at the small Chittenden County Family Court on the third Monday of September.

The divorce was uncontested.

The small petition was finalized on the second Friday of December at three-eleven in the afternoon.

Tina-Marie kept primary physical and legal custody of Maddox and Ainsley.

Tina-Marie moved with the children to a small two-bedroom rental house in Essex Junction at 211 Pearl Street on the third Saturday of December.

On the second Tuesday morning of December at six-fourteen, a small first-class United States Postal Service letter arrived in the small black mailbox at the curb of 411 Maplewood Lane.

The letter was on a small piece of plain white office-stationery paper postmarked from the small Burlington Bay Paddle Adventures office at 414 Briggs Hill Road on the second Monday morning of December.

The letter was a small twelve-line block in Todd’s own pen.

Todd’s letter read: “Mom.

I am sorry the sunroom thing happened.

I am sorry about the court.

I am sorry about Tina.

We were a family before we were business partners.

We can be a family again.

The kids miss you.

Maddox asked at school pickup on Friday.

Ainsley asked at her ballet class on Saturday.

We can do a small Christmas at Tina’s house in Essex.

We can have you over for Sunday brunch in February.

We can.

Todd.”

I read the letter once at the small mahogany side table in the sunroom at six-eighteen on the second Tuesday morning of December.

The letter contained the word “We” at eleven points across the twelve-line block.

Todd and I were never business partners.

Maddox and Ainsley are six and four.

Maddox and Ainsley have not been removed from me.

Maddox and Ainsley were removed from Todd’s “Paddle From A Historic Vermont Home” Airbnb listing on the third Friday afternoon of June at five-fourteen.

The kitchen-counter notebook on the small north counter of the kitchen at Maplewood Lane holds three small entries since the third Saturday of June.

Each entry is in my florist handwriting in a small black Pilot Razor Point pen.

The first entry reads: “Card from Maddox in the mail from Essex Junction, the fourth Saturday of August — a small crayon picture of a small cedar hedge and a small lake.”

The second entry reads: “Phone call from Ainsley from Essex Junction on Tina-Marie’s phone, the second Friday afternoon of October — eight minutes of small ballet-class recital news.”

The third entry reads: “Card from Maddox in the mail from Essex Junction, the third Saturday of November — a small crayon picture of a small leaf and a small turkey.”

I opened the bottom-right drawer of the small Sears-and-Roebuck rolltop desk in the bedroom at six-thirty-one.

I lifted the manila Frank-2019 folder out of the drawer at six-thirty-two.

I carried the folder back to the sunroom at six-thirty-three.

I added the small Todd letter to the back of the Frank-2019 folder at six-thirty-four.

I added the small Todd letter behind the small Marcia Lennox client-meeting letter from the third Friday of June and behind the small Holladay follow-up letter from the third Friday of November.

The Frank-2019 folder was now ten pages thicker than it had been on the second Friday afternoon of last May.

I closed the manila Frank-2019 folder at six-thirty-five.

I carried the folder back up the small wood-runner staircase and down the small second-floor hall and back into the small bottom-right desk drawer of the small Sears-and-Roebuck rolltop at six-thirty-eight.

I closed the drawer at six-thirty-nine.

I walked down the small wood-runner staircase at six-forty.

I walked down the short east hall to the sunroom at six-forty-one.

I lifted the small kitchen-counter side-yard scissor basket from the small kitchen counter at six-forty-two.

I walked out the back door of the kitchen, around the small detached garage, to the small south-side flower bed where the small lily-of-the-valley patch had been planted by Frank in the autumn of 1987 — thirty-nine years ago.

The lily-of-the-valley patch in December is a small bed of small bare stems and the small first cluster of small new shoots at the south corner of the bed.

The first-week-of-December cluster held three small new shoots at the south-east corner of the bed.

I lifted the small 1972 Felco brass florist’s pruning shear from the small mahogany side table on my way out the back door at six-forty-three.

I knelt at the small south-east corner of the lily-of-the-valley bed at six-forty-five.

I held the small brass shear in my right hand at six-forty-five.

The small leather hand-grip on the left handle was cool to the touch.

The small high-carbon-steel pruning blade had been oiled at the small kitchen counter on the second Sunday afternoon of last August with a small cloth and a small two-ounce bottle of Felco-pattern bladre oil.

The small Felco-pattern adjusting screw at the pivot was set at a small two-and-one-half-turn tightness.

The small brass on the right handle was engraved in the small serif script: “F. R. K. — to W. M. K. — June 28, 1972 — Tenth Anniversary.”

The small NDDOT — the small initial — the small letters Frank had stamped at the back of the right handle himself at the small Burlington-school-district shop in the autumn of 1972 — “F. R. K.” — were visible at six-forty-six.

The shear weighed five and three-eighths ounces in my right hand at the small south-east corner of the lily-of-the-valley bed.

I snipped a single small new shoot at the south-east corner of the bed at six-forty-six.

The shoot was four and one-half inches long.

I set the shear on the small flagstone at the edge of the bed at six-forty-seven.

I held the small new shoot in my left hand at six-forty-seven.

I lifted the small brass shear off the flagstone at six-forty-eight.

I carried the shear and the small shoot back through the back door of the kitchen at six-forty-nine.

I carried the shear and the small shoot down the short east hall to the sunroom at six-fifty.

I set the small shear on the small mahogany side table at six-fifty.

I lifted the small clear glass bud vase from the small mahogany side table at six-fifty-one.

I placed the small four-and-one-half-inch lily-of-the-valley shoot into the small clear glass bud vase at six-fifty-two.

I set the small bud vase at the small mahogany side table at the east-facing windows at six-fifty-three.

The lake at first light was visible through the small east-facing single-pane window above the small reading bench at six-fifty-four.

The lake at first light on the second Tuesday morning of December was the same lake at first light on the third Saturday morning of June.

The lake at first light on the morning Frank died on the porch was similar.

I saw both lakes in the same window at six-fifty-four.

I sat at the small mahogany side table at the east-facing windows of the restored sunroom at six-fifty-five.

I lifted the small brass florist’s pruning shear off the side table at six-fifty-six.

I set the shear at the small east end of the mahogany side table beside the small clear glass bud vase at six-fifty-six.

The arrangement is the arrangement.

The vase is the vase.

The room is the room.

The easement is the easement.

I sat at the small mahogany side table for thirty minutes at six-fifty-seven.

Todd sent a small Christmas card with no note on the third Saturday of December — a small Hallmark card postmarked Essex Junction with a small color drawing of a small church with a small dusting of snow.

The inside of the card was blank.

I did not respond.

I added the card to the small bottom shelf of the small bookcase in the bedroom on the third Saturday afternoon of December.

I trim the small lily-of-the-valley each Tuesday morning at six-forty-five.

I place one small shoot in the small clear glass bud vase at the small mahogany side table at the east-facing windows by six-fifty-three.

I sit at the side table from six-fifty-five to seven-eleven each Tuesday morning.

The lake at first light is visible through the small east-facing single-pane window.

The arrangement is the arrangement.

The vase is the vase.

The room is the room.