New York City, December 1, 2016

★★★ Golden clouds on blue, and the shining fog-less river, together announced a new kind of day. That announcement had not yet reached down into the shadowed pavement of the schoolyard, thickly covered in puddles. The sun would not be steady enough for drying things, but the wind carried off most of the water by midday as it buffeted the apartment windows. The bare sidewalk still held the spiky tannic shapes of pin oak leaves where they’d fallen in the soaking rain. The thermometer said early afternoon was about as warm as morning had been, but the wind-cooled cotton sleeves of the jacket against the bare arms underneath said otherwise. A crisp, newly shed oak leaf scuttled in on a gust through the exit of the market.