THE WINTER COATS had come back out again. The early sun was being choked off in stages, as the clouds closed from glowing white on bright blue to dull gray on dull white. Someone was wearing a knit hat with a giant furry pompom. The wind gathered strength out on Amsterdam Avenue. The glasses place failed to open on schedule at noon, and it was too cold to wait around and see what would happen. By afternoon the sky was just flat gray. A tiny, lone pale blossom trembled in the wind among the closed buds in the top of the dogwood. The white things blowing by the windows were snowflakes.
