In Chap­ter 150 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” Patch embarks on a long dri­ve that stretch­es for sev­en hours. Fatigue near­ly dri­ves him off the road, prompt­ing him to open the win­dow to the humid air, try­ing to shake off the weari­ness. He clutch­es an old ordi­nance map, though its use­ful­ness is lim­it­ed due to the numer­ous marks he’s drawn upon it. Dur­ing a brief stop to glance at a riv­er, he is filled with dis­ap­point­ment; it holds none of the trea­sures sought by the old miners—only a silt­ed reminder that his quest for Grace may end in despair. The absence of glit­ter sig­ni­fies the harsh real­i­ty that if his jour­ney con­cludes, it won’t be in the hope­ful reunion he desires.

As he approach­es Mon­ta Clare, an omi­nous feel­ing envelops him, and mem­o­ries flood back as he dri­ves past Rose­wood Avenue toward Parade Hill. Leav­ing his truck behind, he walks to see Misty, where old emo­tion­al wounds resur­face. He acknowl­edges he missed a movie she ref­er­enced, but feels sor­row at their con­tin­ued dis­con­nect. Misty’s nod sug­gests under­stand­ing; years of his short­com­ings have led her to low­er expec­ta­tions of him. Patch sug­gests they go some­where togeth­er, hop­ing to con­nect, but she insists she can­not con­tin­ue on that path, leav­ing him momen­tar­i­ly lost.

Before depart­ing, Misty leans in to kiss his cheek—a ten­der ges­ture that seems to car­ry more sig­nif­i­cance than he rec­og­nizes. As Patch pre­pares to leave, he spots a dis­card­ed yel­low hair­band in the bush­es, trig­ger­ing old mem­o­ries from their past. Com­pelled by nos­tal­gia, he picks it up, pon­der­ing how to express his feel­ings, yet uncer­tain of the right words. How­ev­er, just as he is about to knock on her door, a light flick­ers in the win­dow next to him. His heart sinks as he sees Misty with some­one else, abrupt­ly dis­man­tling the hope he had clung to and rein­forc­ing his sense of iso­la­tion as the world around him con­tin­ues to move for­ward, indif­fer­ent to his plight.