The next day I was woken up by Jessi waking me urgently.... “Come on. You’re missing stuff.”
“I’m missing sleep.”
“But…but…” Her voice rose into something dangerously close to a whine. “Niel.”
“What? This better be spectacular.”
Groaning, I allowed myself to be bullied out of bed. Where Jessi sprang over to the window and ripped the curtains open, revealing the dirty redbrick of the bar opposite and the wire curlicues around the car park—or parking lot, as I guess Americans would call it—all thickly sugared with…
“Snow!” I yelled.
“Yeah.” Jessi offered one of her rare, non-mocking smiles.
“I can’t remember the last time we actually had snow at Christmas.”
“Well”—she seemed to remember herself and shrugged—“give climate change another couple of years.”
“Oh, come on. You were excite
