LEFTOVER RAIN BEADED on cars in the clear morning light like they’d just pulled out of a carwash. A starling darted across the avenue, wings pulled tight, not fluttering till it arrived at the opposite roofline. Green buds were swelling in the knobby branches of a sidewalk tree. The listed temperature meant jeans should still be fine but out in the bright morning—too early, it turned out, for the bubble tea place to be serving customers—the denim was too heavy to continue with through lunchtime. As spring officially arrived, though, clouds closed off the light and warmth until the new change of clothes was suddenly too light for the gathering chill.
