Chapter Sixty One– The Long Stillness
The city has changed. Not dramatically cities never do all at once but in increments so subtle that only the years can measure them. A new row of buildings rises where the old tram depot used to stand. The riverfront has been paved over and lined with benches and lamps that glow a soft amber after sunset. Even the air seems different thinner, sharper, threaded with faint traces of electricity from the new grid that hums unseen beneath the streets.
Barb walks those streets most mornings now. He’s older; his hair gone silver at the edges, his movements slower but deliberate. He retired last winter, quietly, without ceremony. The firm sent him a card, a watch, and a few polite messages that read Enjoy the next chapter, as if life could be divided so cle
