New York City, October 11, 2017

★ There was a thinning bluish patch in the sheet of clouds over the schoolyard but there were also fair-sized, widely dispersed raindrops scattering down. The cloud cover remained inconclusive; more raindrops fell from a half-bright noon sky, almost enough to count as a shower. A spell of clear, emphatic sunlight appeared, but it proved as unstable as everything else. The approach of evening concealed the fact that it had begun fully raining. The rain jacket, forgotten on its hook on the third floor, had to be retrieved. The rain wasn’t a drenching one, but people stood under scaffolds and overhangs, unprepared to deal with it. Garments went over heads and faces looked chagrined. An hour into it, there were still new people being caught unawares. Nothing before had lasted, and now there was this.