New York City, June 13, 2017

★★★ The elevator was already full and sweltering before it stopped twice more to squeeze in sets of children and their grownup escorts. Out in the open, the sun pressed down and squeezed out sweat. Invisible rivers of different garbage smells flowed into each other on the air. The worst of the wrinkles in the lightweight cotton pants steamed their way out on the way to work. Jaywalking, it was hard to gauge speed and distance as slow-responding legs plodded in front of hazy traffic. The afternoon sky was so bright that the gray middles of clouds were blown out to nearly match the grimy blue around them. By late day, though, it was the clouds that were doing things to the sun, sending dark reverse glory rays up in the west. An ominous glow filled the vertical cleft between towering cloud masses, and from one of the piles a curling pseudopod extended itself.