Gretchen's note to Crazy Jane:

I have received missives from you and now am writing my own. By all appearances, you do not seem to understand that there is an emergency situation afoot. Perhaps you do not comprehend that, as I have stated, there is water dripping directly and steadily into our apartment bathroom in the evenings, coincidentally in the hours when you are presumably home (i.e. roughly 11 p.m.). Whether or not this is a result of your bathroom fixtures, a plumber must enter your premises in order to fix this urgent problem. You chose to live in a coop and this is the responsibility you bear through that decision: you must make your space available to workpersons when necessary, which it obviously is. As a fellow cat owner (I have two) I can sympathize with your situation (in a way you cannot seem to sympathize with mine); however, I am assuming your cat does not spend every hour of its day in the bathroom, and in the case of an emergency simply will have to tolerate strangers in its space. Again: you chose to live in a coop and this is the consequence. When water appeared to be dripping from my apartment into the basement last year, I dealt with it—even though we weren't certain where the problem was coming from. I also checked with May immediately to see if there'd been any damage to her basement belongings. By every sensible guideline you should be looking into this problem; on the contrary, I have taken all of the responsibility myself. But you have taken this laissez-faire attitude one step further; your lack of flexibility in cooperating with the investigation into this problem is at the very least inconsiderate and unneighborly. Martin Plumbing is the plumber I and others in the building routinely use and trust; Martin Plumbing is who I wish to use if I am in charge of this procedure. If you know and trust another plumber who you want to call and have in the building within twenty-four hours, that is fine with me. But I need for you to at the very least make your space available immediately—this cannot, as you insensitively suggested, wait until the weekend— even if that means you have to be flexible with your work schedule, arrange for a friend of yours to be in the apartment, or that I have to access your apartment without you there. The water has already ruined my bathroom drape and is a constant problem and irritation for us. If water was dripping steadily into your house every night I doubt you'd want to hear a neighbor say "You deal with it, and I'm available one hour a day for the next four days," time slots that are already filled by the plumbing company. In addition, even if you care not a whit about the people living below you, you should understand that should this indeed be a result of your bathroom fixtures, you will have to pay for the work yourself, and it will become more expensive as the damage worsens. Please call, or come down with your keys, this morning—that is, Wednesday July 24—so that we can deal with this problem.