City plows chugged steadily, in convoys and alone, trying to keep pathways open on the streets. The garbage had not been picked up. The plows shoved mounds of snow over dark plastic bags, burying them till something resembling a thaw came so that garbage trucks could make their way through hundreds of miles of slippery streets.

Four in the morning.

Mac Taylor turned to his left in bed. He had an alarm clock but never turned it on. He always awoke within a few minutes of four in the dark morning. For another hour he would put his hands behind his head and look up at the ceiling, watching the light from passing cars, stars, and the moon vibrate on his bedroom ceiling. Tonight there was no traffic, no stars or moon through the snowy sky. He looked up at darkness, reasonably successful at not thinking, knowing he would get up in an hour, hoping that hour would pass soon.

Stella Bonasera had a feverish dream. She had just fallen back to sleep after having gotten up to take two Tylenols and have a glass of microwaved tea. In her dream, the huge bloated body of a woman hovered above a bed like a Thanksgiving Day float. Stella felt it was up to her to keep the body from floating out of an open window nearby, but she couldn't move. She hoped the body was too large to fit through the window. Atop the woman's body sat a cat, a gray cat, looking solemnly at Stella. Then the dream was gone and Stella slept peacefully.

Aiden Burn had fallen asleep at about two in the morning trying to remember the name of her second-year high school math teacher. Mrs. Farley or Farrell or Furlong? She could see the woman's face, remember her voice. In what was a dream, or possibly just a reverie, Aiden heard the voice of that teacher reminding the class for the five hundredth time that it was the little mistakes that brought you the wrong answers. "You might see the big picture, but one small mistake, one careless moment, and everything that follows will be forever wrong." Aiden had remembered that more than anything else from any high school class. She had tried to live by it, but still it haunted her, especially when the wind tickled the windows and a deep chill overcame the hissing radiators.