New York City, January 22, 2017

★ Outside the window was near-blank fog, with only the vague outline of the apartment slab across the avenue showing. The gray smothered morning plans and left most of the family torpid in their beds. For a while the fog lifted and there was a strengthening brightness. It was pleasant enough to duck out to the hot-dog place, with children hopping and darting around, past a shrub full of shrieking little birds. A new gray came on soon, though, not as solid as the fog but insinuating and darkening. People got into one another’s way. An errand meant to beat the rain led out into an intensifying drizzle, strengthening smoothly into a shower, dappling the blue shoulders of the younger boy’s blue coat.