This week in the saga

The chapter's finale runs on two clocks. Tuesday in Washington the appeals court hears the immunity question, and he takes the courthouse hallway like a stage — no immunity, he warns, and the floodgates open on every president to come. That same night the winter takes from the family again: his wife's mother dies, and the loudest voice in America goes quiet for one panel. Thursday he rides downtown one more time for closing arguments in the ledger case, shouting interference from the courthouse steps. And then Iowa, where the blizzard of the decade has buried the state in white and dropped the cold to killing depths — and he tells them to come anyway, be on the lookout for dirty tricks, the caucus is on under any circumstances. Monday night they come. Ninety-eight of ninety-nine counties. The primary is over the night it begins, and the winter that spent ten weeks trying to erase his name watches Iowa write it in the snow. CHAPTER 47 CLOSES.