In Chap­ter 154 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” Patch under­takes a mon­u­men­tal task of clear­ing out his moth­er’s belong­ings from their home as sum­mer reach­es its peak. Strip­ping off his shirt, he method­i­cal­ly brings furniture—sofa, book­cas­es, din­ing table, and sideboard—out to the front yard, each object imbued with mem­o­ries and scents of his moth­er’s pres­ence. He box­es kitchen uten­sils and drags the refrig­er­a­tor out­side, feel­ing the weight of the mem­o­ries tied to each item.

Upstairs, he con­tin­ues the emo­tion­al purge by bag­ging bed­ding, clothes, and var­i­ous per­son­al items. An acci­den­tal crash of a bot­tle sends a wave of rec­ol­lec­tion, fill­ing him with bit­ter­sweet nos­tal­gia. In the midst of box­ing up child­hood mem­o­ra­bil­ia, par­tic­u­lar­ly pirate-themed items, Patch reflects on his iden­ti­ty, acknowl­edg­ing the com­plex­i­ty of being a thir­ty-year-old with a crim­i­nal record, yet still har­bor­ing child­like con­nec­tions to his past.

Dur­ing lunchtime, he fetch­es Saint’s grand­moth­er, Nor­ma, who stands by as a van col­lects what can still be used. Their con­ver­sa­tion drifts towards hous­ing projects and char­i­ties, with Nor­ma light­ing a cig­a­rette while observ­ing Patch’s intense labor. Patch returns home, armed with a sledge­ham­mer, and unleash­es his pent-up frus­tra­tion on the house, vio­lent­ly tear­ing it apart. He demol­ish­es doors, rips out base­boards, and shreds car­pets, fueled by a chaot­ic mix of anger and grief, his mus­cles aching as he becomes enveloped in dust. An errant nail injures him, yet he per­sists, return­ing for anoth­er round.

That night, the old Macauley house becomes engulfed in flames as Patch sits on the rem­nants of the porch, wit­ness­ing the rem­nants of his past turn to ash. Misty and Char­lotte, joined by Sam­my with a drink in hand, watch from a dis­tance. Although Sam­my offers slugs of wine, Misty inter­venes, insist­ing on the need to pro­tect Char­lotte. As flames con­sume the struc­ture, Patch’s gaze drifts to his daugh­ter, rec­og­niz­ing that the warmth he feels is not just from the fire, but from the deep­er con­nec­tion and resolve with­in him­self. The chap­ter encap­su­lates the raw and cathar­tic expe­ri­ence of destruc­tion inter­twined with mem­o­ries and fam­i­ly dynam­ics.