New York City, April 9, 2015

★ The hallway air was damp. The sky gave no hint of in which direction the sun might be. The midday gloom was almost twilight; birds had tempered their singing. At least, and at most, it wasn’t raining. A child rolled by in a stroller, a blanket across its lap, leaning avidly ahead so that the peak of its hoodie pointed straight up. The phone protested the chill by going back to its winter malfunctioning, shutting down with the battery just below 40 percent.