New York City, August 24, 2016

★★★ It was hot again if one was moving hastily, trying to hurry children out the door. A woman stopped and dangled one sandal from her toes, trying to shake out something from the corky footbed. The blast of cold air where the line for the bakery began to go down the steps was more dismaying than the rapid warming and thickening of the air outside was. A banana truck blasted its horn on a residential cross street at another truck dawdling ahead of it. After a few minutes’ examination in the midday sun, the phone was hot when put back inside the pocket. By dinnertime walking was tolerable; the light skimmed over the Lincoln Center plaza and shone through the legs of the stacked chairs awaiting the open-air video showing of the opera. Air-conditioner drip fell like rain on the way out of the restaurant.