New York City, June 24, 2015

★★★★★ The sky was clean. A long-haired off-white mutt barked at a passing team of purebred pointers, just west of the park. Up the rise from the soccer camp were basketball campers, pushing balls straight up into the air. A smell of cut grass carried from somewhere. The blue was so deep that the hulk of the Time Warner Center was beginning to fade into it; the light pierced the hideous tinted-sunglasses windows of the Trump International Hotel and Tower to find furniture, curtains, a shirtless man. A superb cool breeze came down the shady side of Lafayette Street. Sun traced each little arch over the windows of the building above the bodega on Prince. Up on the roof, the aluminum case of the laptop threw off blinding glare like a tanning reflector, nor did the wireless signal reach there. But it was possible to stay on a chair in the shade on the fire escape indefinitely, blissfully.