THE WINDOW, LEFT open to the warm, tropical evening, let in the newly arriving cold air in the middle of the night. A layer of chill sat above the floorboards in the morning. Yellow-green leaves wiggled and flashed when the sun cleared the buildings to reach them. The wind and sun came in clean and unimpeded, under a totally cloudless sky. The flat upper surface of the basketball court was bone dry, but the cracks and depressions still held water, trapping and holding the ginkgo and plane tree leaves that had blown into them. Pigeons veered and clattered against the even blue overhead. A Pepsi can rolled all the way across the court behind the baseline, with an accelerating, chiming rhythm, then passed behind the bleachers to swirl around in the vortex of leaves there. Gusts caught the ball on the way to the hoop and sent it off target.