Snow on a barrier island is its own animal: it comes in wet off the water, freezes at the edges, and turns a flat driveway into something nobody wants to cross. OC Derek works those nights in Ocean City, headlights on the pavement, pushing back the storm while the streets are still empty and the ocean is a sound rather than a view. The aim is simple and it is the whole job — the drive open, the walk down to concrete, the car able to leave before the bridge traffic starts. There is a specific quiet at three in the morning here, broken only by a blade scraping, and something honest about being the reason a morning goes easy for somebody else. When it's finished, the street looks like the storm politely skipped that one house.