In Chap­ter 109 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” Patch finds him­self pulled out by younger crew mem­bers to expe­ri­ence the nightlife after two weeks of seclu­sion. They trav­el in an old camper, a mix of cheap cologne and des­per­a­tion fill­ing the cab, while they share a bot­tle of Jim Beam and debate the appeal that real men have for col­lege girls. As they approach Boston, the antic­i­pa­tion grows.

Once they arrive, Patch, clad in his fad­ed jeans and leather boots, notices the live­ly atmos­phere of the bars on JFK Street. In a crowd­ed Irish bar, he feels the fleet­ing excite­ment as a girl approach­es him, engag­ing in casu­al con­ver­sa­tion, her laugh­ter lin­ger­ing in his mind. This light-heart­ed inter­ac­tion is soon over­shad­owed by thoughts of Grace, as he reflects on her absence and won­ders if any of the girls in the bar could remind him of her.

At the Boat­man bar, Patch sits alone, observ­ing the crowd and feel­ing a sense of iso­la­tion. Among the bustling bod­ies, he wit­ness­es a tense scene between a blonde girl and a man, who appears to be over­pow­er­ing her while her attempts to resist are met with laugh­ter from his friends. As the sit­u­a­tion esca­lates, Patch feels a surge of pro­tec­tive­ness and with­out hes­i­ta­tion, he inter­venes, land­ing a punch that puts the aggres­sor on the floor.

The after­math is swift; Patch catch­es the girl, Misty Mey­er, as she stum­bles away from the chaos. Their eyes meet, and for a brief moment, Patch feels a con­nec­tion. As the crowd takes notice of the con­fronta­tion, ten­sions rise with bot­tles fly­ing through the air. How­ev­er, Patch’s focus remains on Misty, and he scoops her up, car­ry­ing her out of the chaot­ic bar and into the cool night air of Boston, leav­ing behind the com­mo­tion and embrac­ing the fleet­ing moment of con­nec­tion amidst the tur­moil.