Reader's Almanac

trumansburg--

He wore a heavy, ugly wool sweater and fortified himself with thermoses of tea. He looked and felt ridiculous. Suffering had made him ineffectual. Outside the window the campus trees went from vivid color to rags of leaves to bare branches filled with ice. Students hurried along the sidewalks, intent on their own urgencies. The air in his lungs felt frosted. "This place will be the death of me," he said aloud, since there was no one there to hear him.

-- "Soldiers of Spiritos" in Do Not Deny Me by Jean Thompson