New York City, June 4, 2017

★★ A woman walking east held a hand up in front of her sunglasses against the light. There was a soft ticking of ductwork coming to life inside the church. A merchant shook out a bag of shiny things under the canopy of a street-fair booth, with a sound that carried for dozens of yards. To the usual disappointment of the fair, once it opened, there was added the graying out of the sun, as the gorgeous morning faded to something lightless and uninviting. Sometimes it rained; sometimes it didn’t. A bubbly scum of algae floated on the fountain, giving off a stink in the humid air.