From Antonina's POV, she follows the pregnant orange cat off the stage as gunfire and screams erupt in the Grange Hall. Through a window she sees a baffling sight: people streaming out have stopped dead, faces tilted upward toward the sky.

Art Cotter, a former loyal customer turned accuser, leads a mob of seven shouting that Antonina is a liar trying to flee with their deposits. Antonina scrambles through the window, losing Ania Oletsky's shoe, and Cleo helps her up. She hobbles toward Harp's truck on a bleeding foot.

Outside, Red Iscoe is dragging Dell toward a brown sedan driven by Jed. Red taunts Antonina, threatening her as a discredited Witch. Then a tremendous thunderclap booms, green-yellow lightning flashes between the silos, the sky darkens, and rain begins to pour, breaking the long drought.

The crowd freezes, mesmerized by the falling rain, ignoring Red's screams. The orange cat leaps from the car onto Red's face, claws extended. Dell breaks free and escapes through the passenger door. Together, Antonina and Dell run to Harp's truck while the Iscoe brothers stumble after them. The cat curls into the truck bed grooming herself.

As the engine roars to life, dust turns to mud everywhere. People who had been hostile moments before are now laughing, children running with tongues out catching rain. The chapter closes on the transformation of the town's mood under the long-awaited downpour.