In this chap­ter from “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” Patch shares his reflec­tions on Grace’s danc­ing, tak­ing the time to describe her movements—from sauter to tourn­er, gliss­er to élancer—capturing the essence of her art. His excite­ment catch­es the atten­tion of the oth­er men, allow­ing him to bring some vibran­cy to their oth­er­wise monot­o­nous envi­ron­ment. Although Tooms does not join them, Patch finds a way to reach out by sneak­ing in a copy of “The Raven,” along with a let­ter filled with his per­son­al thoughts and unful­filled aspi­ra­tions, lament­ing that he won’t wit­ness his daugh­ter grow up into a woman resem­bling her moth­er.

Patch finds him­self seat­ed on the con­crete floor, his back against the bars, while the oth­er men grad­u­al­ly lose inter­est in his inter­nal mus­ings. A moment of somber reflec­tion emerges when he express­es his sor­row over Tooms’ moth­er, reveal­ing a soft­er side of their harsh exis­tence. Tooms, posi­tioned sim­i­lar­ly with his back against the bars, acknowl­edges Patch’s sen­ti­ment, but a deep­er con­ver­sa­tion unfolds regard­ing life’s dis­ap­point­ments.

Their exchange rais­es the poignant ques­tion of why some indi­vid­u­als fall short in life, to which Tooms sug­gests that it large­ly depends on one’s mea­sure­ments of suc­cess. Patch watch­es a rat scur­ry in the dis­tance, feel­ing the weight of fear and uncer­tain­ty surge through their dia­logue. When Patch inquires if Tooms feels afraid, the answer, “Yes,” res­onates with a shared under­stand­ing of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty.

The con­ver­sa­tion shifts towards the cir­cum­stances that land­ed Tooms in this bleak sit­u­a­tion, with Patch jok­ing that he has more time than Tooms to hear the sto­ry. The play­ful exchange momen­tar­i­ly alle­vi­ates the grav­i­ty of their sur­round­ings, as they both share a laugh, reflect­ing a fleet­ing con­nec­tion amid the despair. This moment cap­tures the essence of their shared human­i­ty, illus­trat­ing the desire to find solace through com­pan­ion­ship, even as they nav­i­gate the dark­er aspects of their exis­tence.