In Chap­ter 204 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the town of Mon­ta Clare is engulfed in mourn­ing as the com­mu­ni­ty pays trib­ute to one of their own, Nor­ma. As Saint walks along Main Street, she observes store­own­ers stand­ing solemn­ly at their door­ways, a poignant tes­ta­ment to col­lec­tive grief. The atmos­phere is heavy, espe­cial­ly at St. Raphael’s, where the con­gre­ga­tion gath­ers not just for a ser­vice but to recon­nect with their shared loss. Saint, who plays Chopin on the organ, is struck by the grav­i­ty of the cer­e­mo­ny and the mem­o­ry of Nor­ma’s life, filled with both sim­plic­i­ty and pro­found endurance.

As Saint nav­i­gates the crowd, she notices famil­iar faces—some from near­by and oth­ers who trav­eled long dis­tances for the occa­sion. In the back, Nix offers a bit­ter­sweet smile, reflect­ing a deep sad­ness evi­dent in his eyes. Sam­my, dressed sharply in pin­stripes and a pink cra­vat, sits near­by, his cane lean­ing against the stone, sym­bol­iz­ing a need for sup­port amidst the emo­tion­al weight.

Sain­t’s thoughts drift to Joseph Macauley, who sent her a sim­plis­tic yet mean­ing­ful card fea­tur­ing a win­ter scene, cap­tur­ing the essence of their shared mem­o­ries, though he him­self is not present for the grave­side ser­vice. The day pro­ceeds as they lay Nor­ma to rest in the warmth of the sun, hon­or­ing her wish to remain near the tall house filled with cher­ished mem­o­ries rather than return to the city where her hus­band and daugh­ter lay.

After the bur­ial, the towns­peo­ple gath­er for sand­wich­es on a small lawn, orga­nized by Mrs. Mey­er, with Lacey cater­ing and Char­lotte pro­vid­ing a selec­tion of cakes. Saint moves through the crowd, exchang­ing pleas­antries while fend­ing off hugs, and search­ing for famil­iar faces. Find­ing Sam­my again, she hes­i­tant­ly accepts a drink from his flask but quick­ly regrets the deci­sion.

As the day draws to a close, Char­lotte immers­es her­self in read­ing on the porch while the kitchen neigh­bor­ly silence is bro­ken by a ring­ing phone. Saint, stand­ing in the kitchen alone, becomes numb as she lis­tens to Sis­ter Cecile’s voice, reveal­ing unset­tling news: “Eli Aaron just vis­it­ed here.” This abrupt inter­rup­tion promis­es to draw Saint back into the com­plex­i­ties of life beyond her grief, sug­gest­ing that the chap­ter’s con­clu­sion opens a new nar­ra­tive thread for her to con­front.