Pokagon Township lies west of Dowagiac in long straight sections — farm roads, four-way crossroads, and a hall whose lot has to be open whenever the lights are on inside. Snow clearing out here is a night-and-early-morning business: the plow ahead of the first cars, the lot pushed back to its corners, the walk shoveled clean to the door. Storms cross this flat country fast, and the ground stays white a long while afterward. There is a plain satisfaction in a parking area cleared before anyone arrives, salt down, nothing left to navigate in the dark. It keeps the township's ordinary business moving.