He enjoyed the soft sound of night wind and the knowledge that he was the only boy -- perhaps the only human being -- out there in the dark on the windy, frozen-grass meadows on this night that smelled of coming snow, alienated from the lighted windows and the warm hearths, very aware that he was of the village but not part of it at that moment. It was a thrilling, almost erotic feeling -- an illicit discovery of self separated from everyone and everything else in the cold and dark