CHAPTER 36: AFTER THE SKY CLOSED
The world did not celebrate when the sky returned to normal.
It adjusted.
That was what cities like Chicago did best, not healing in dramatic bursts, not remembering in clear lines, but adjusting around trauma until it became part of the background noise of existence. Three weeks had passed since the sky had split open, since the Order had descended in impossible geometry and judged a world that refused to be simplified. Three weeks since Kevin had stood on broken ground with Rwanda beside him, and Rowan’s voice had bent reality itself long enough to delay cosmic correction. Now, life had resumed its familiar rhythm. Trains rattled across elevated tracks. Cafés reopened their doors with tired resilience. Construction crews rebuilt sections of streets th
