In Chap­ter 155 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” Patch takes dras­tic steps to cope with his cir­cum­stances. He uses a large track exca­va­tor to demol­ish the rem­nants of his past, reduc­ing his for­mer home to rub­ble in a pub­lic dis­play observed by curi­ous neigh­bors. After the demo­li­tion, he uti­lizes a bull­doz­er to strip the land. Amidst this chaos, Patch finds him­self liv­ing a tran­sient lifestyle, sleep­ing in his car, lack­ing basic hygiene, and shar­ing meals with Saint and her grand­moth­er.

Dur­ing one meal, Saint inquires about his future plans, prompt­ing Patch to declare, “I build.” This state­ment is met with skep­ti­cism, as he refus­es to hire an archi­tect and instead relies on his past mem­o­ries and paint­ings that influ­ence his designs. Despite the deliv­ery of wood that dis­turbs the neigh­bors, Patch promis­es to host a par­ty once his con­struc­tion is com­plete.

Patch’s build­ing efforts face skep­ti­cism from Sam­my, who jokes about the struc­ture’s insta­bil­i­ty, and the sit­u­a­tion wors­ens when funds dimin­ish. In des­per­a­tion, Patch sells paint­ings to finance his project, each sale feel­ing like a loss of con­nec­tions to his pre­vi­ous life. His inter­ac­tions with Misty and Char­lotte pro­vide brief com­pan­ion­ship amid his iso­la­tion, although Char­lotte per­ceives his sit­u­a­tion as “bat­shit crazy.”

As he digs foun­da­tions man­u­al­ly, Patch grap­ples with sleep­less nights, frus­trat­ing neigh­bors, and build­ing inspec­tors who ques­tion his non-com­pli­ance with codes. He appeas­es the inspec­tor with the poignant sto­ry of his strug­gle, result­ing in a few amend­ments that allow him to resume work with­out major penal­ties.

The harsh win­ter brings work to a stand­still, com­pelling Patch to wear a wool hat gift­ed by Char­lotte. He rec­i­p­ro­cates by paint­ing a por­trait of her with her moth­er, cap­tur­ing a moment in time that con­nects him to the past. Despite feel­ing the emo­tion­al dis­tance from her moth­er, he remains con­nect­ed to Char­lotte through these shared expe­ri­ences and per­for­mances, such as attend­ing her piano recital. His resolve is also evi­dent as he under­takes late-night jour­neys to seek answers about his lost past, demon­strat­ing his unwa­ver­ing deter­mi­na­tion to reclaim a sense of nor­mal­cy and clo­sure despite the tur­moil.