February came in softer than January.
Not warm. Not close to warm. But the particular quality of the cold changed, became less absolute, the way winter changed when it had made its point and was beginning, very slowly and without announcement, to consider something else. The light lasted a few minutes longer each day. Not enough to feel significant on any single day, but accumulating over the weeks into something you notice without being able to say exactly when the noticing started.
Eli noticed before anyone else.
He announced one morning at breakfast that the light was different.
"It is the same light," Damon said.
"It is longer," Eli said. With the certainty of someone who had been tracking it.
"By how much?" Damon said.
Eli told him exactly. He had been counting, apparently. Min
