New York City, December 8, 2016

★★★ The gray was heavy but unmenacing; the chill was real but painless. The Batman hat with the ears had been dug out of storage at the five-year-old’s request, but wearing it he began to fret that the other children hadn’t been wearing superhero gear. By morning’s end a very pale blue had begun showing itself uncertainly on the horizon. The northwest cleared by afternoon, but the light that came through was already aged to goldenness and slipping away.