In Chap­ter 232 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” we fol­low Saint as she enters the Nix house using a key, feel­ing a deep void after recent events. The atmos­phere is heavy with nos­tal­gia as she observes the mut­ed glow of the orange land­ing light while search­ing the house for rem­nants of the man she revered. Despite her thor­ough search of var­i­ous rooms, she finds only mun­dane items: util­i­ty bills, insur­ance papers, and per­son­al effects like Advil and toi­letries, reveal­ing noth­ing about the pro­found char­ac­ter she once admired.

Reflect­ing on her last mem­o­ries with Nix, she recalls his calm accep­tance of death, dressed in slacks and a shirt after com­ing from the sta­ble. This evokes a deep sense of loss as she stands by the bed­room win­dow, con­tem­plat­ing the land­scape out­side, which seems over­shad­owed by the weight of the clouds.

Lat­er, as she walks toward the sta­ble, illu­mi­nat­ed only by her flash­light amidst the star­ry sky, she notes the hors­es have been moved. Upon enter­ing the sta­ble, she dis­cov­ers the space has been tidied, the hay neat­ly col­lect­ed. Seek­ing solace, she pulls a cord to illu­mi­nate the dark­ness, reveal­ing an attic space above.

Ascend­ing the lad­der, she uncov­ers a col­lec­tion of box­es and a soli­tary rock­ing chair in the loft. Tak­ing a seat, Saint begins to explore the albums, unveil­ing hun­dreds of pho­tographs doc­u­ment­ing Nix’s life. As she flips through the images—from his rook­ie days to more recent times—she is struck by the joy cap­tured with­in them; they rep­re­sent mem­o­ries shared by their fam­i­ly against the back­drop of the same beloved land.

One par­tic­u­lar mem­o­ry illus­trates a radi­ant day by the Mer­amec Riv­er, embody­ing the joys of Thanks­giv­ing, win­ter, sum­mer out­ings, and more. The pho­tographs depict a pro­found love and con­nec­tion that Chief Nix once articulated—an expe­ri­ence more valu­able than a thou­sand ordi­nary life­times. Ulti­mate­ly, as she explores the shelves, she finds a let­ter addressed to her, placed with care, sug­gest­ing that there are still secrets yet to uncov­er about Nix’s life and their rela­tion­ship.