A friend calls before, nervous from Penn Station, the trains are not running to New Brunswick and I put her up for the night with the Omen cat. We walk through the snows together, her relief at having a place to stay is palpable. We walk in the middle of the street, there are some clear spots on the sidewalk, but immense drifts at the crossings because of the plows. Walking home alone, crunching down Amsterdam, a few people are out. There are almost no cars, a rare taxi or police car.
People howl in the streets to hear their echoes.
New York is blanketed in white. The snow tapers off the next day, and people venture into the roads cautiously but eagerly, sharing them with the plows. Everyone's a little giddy, a snow day for adults. They play like otters, pushing and skidding on Ninth Avenue. The snow is beginning to dirty in the roads today, the inevitable New York closure to a snowfall.