October light in Middletown comes in low and gold across the open fields on the Durham line, and the maples along those back roads go over all at once. Prime Property Maintenance LLC is on the properties as that year turns — grass still growing into the cool weeks, then the first hard morning when the work changes over entirely. Lawns cut on a rhythm all summer; paths and drives cut open once the storms start: two halves of holding one address in order. What stays with a crew is the ordinary proof of it, a straight edge along a July walkway and a way to the door in a January dawn. Middletown and the towns beside it are the map, and the calendar sorts out the rest.