Harp Oletsky stands frozen on the Grange Hall stage as a second shot rings out, realizing someone is trying to kill him. The crowd panics, trampling each other toward the exits, and amid the chaos Harp glimpses a wailing child abandoned in the center of the hall before he is knocked down and loses consciousness beneath the Founder's Day table.

When Harp comes to, the hall is empty and littered with shattered punch bowls, soiled linens, and scraps of the prophecy slips that had exposed the town's secrets. His head throbs and his left eye is swollen, but he has survived unnoticed. Thunder rattles the windows, drawing his attention outside.

Stepping into the yard, Harp witnesses the drought-breaking rain that has transfixed Uz. The same neighbors who moments earlier had wanted him dead now stand in silent awe, catching raindrops on their tongues, weeping and applauding as water returns to the parched land. Standing anonymous among them, Harp feels something break loose inside him and reflects that the mob has been snuffed out like a candle in the rain.