Good fun

Friday afternoon I poured out of the subway door, full of expectations raised by newscasters predicting a warming pattern for the weekend. The warmth had stubbornly dragged its heals, and I braced myself as I stepped onto the street. Beside me walked a father and his toddler son, packaged in an oversized bubble coat. The toddler pointed across the street and yelled, "Look: Mom!" The father swerved as if caught tramping mud across a freshly clean floor, and directed his eyes to the empty sidewalk across the way. The toddler skipped away, looking over his shoulder and giggling at his gullible father.