From my perch on the roof of buildings two stories high, I could see for miles across Lake Michigan. Sunbeams were already clambering over downtown skyscrapers and glinted off windows as if they had been recently polished. Night fell quickly in Chicago's late springtime—as it does all too often these days —and one by one lights flickered on until this cityscape was glowing like a jewel box set against an indigo sky with just enough clouds to catch starlight when night fully settled upon us.