New York City, January 24, 2017

[No stars] The wild gusts and deluge had faded to raw drizzle and a wind that pushed back the sweatshirt hood raised against it. The schoolyard was closed and the children in their puffy outerwear crowded toward the doorway of the building instead. The light through the porthole on the viola lesson was medium gray, seemingly bearable. But the full soaking rain came back, waves of it, hour after hour, delaying and then dismissing any thought of heading out into it again. Dark came as fast as if it were still December, and the pattering against the glass carried on into the night without ceasing.