In Chap­ter 110 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” Misty leads the nar­ra­tor through a live­ly sec­tion of the city, where they find a warm and wel­com­ing atmos­phere. As they walk past the Brew­er Foun­tain, Misty recalls the his­to­ry of pirate exe­cu­tions at the Great Elm, to which the nar­ra­tor responds light­ly, dis­miss­ing the grim imagery. Lost in the vibran­cy of Chi­na­town’s sights and smells, they set­tle down on upturned crates to share warm sake, the inti­ma­cy of their inter­ac­tion high­light­ed by Misty’s play­ful gestures—the way she dons his cap and teas­es him about his appear­ance.

Misty’s new­found sophis­ti­ca­tion shim­mers beneath her casu­al attire as she dis­cuss­es her stud­ies and ambi­tions, reveal­ing deep-seat­ed ten­sions with her father and the dis­ap­point­ment of pur­su­ing a less con­ven­tion­al path. The nar­ra­tor silent­ly wish­es not to feel pres­sured to respond to her mus­ings on pol­i­tics and eco­nom­ics, appre­ci­at­ing her intel­lect with­out feel­ing required to match it.

Amid this live­ly exchange, they divert to watch a busker, cre­at­ing a roman­tic moment where they share a dance. Misty’s emo­tion­al vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty sur­faces when she con­fronts their past rela­tion­ship, admit­ting the heart­break of his pre­vi­ous choic­es. The con­trast of their joy in the city sets a bit­ter­sweet back­drop, with the lights and sounds ampli­fy­ing their con­nec­tion.

As they share this moment, Misty express­es her strug­gle to for­get him, her words embed­ding them­selves in the nar­ra­tor’s mind. He gen­tly reas­sures her that with time, she will move on, engag­ing with new ideas and friend­ships that will help her heal. How­ev­er, her poignant rejec­tion of his com­ment high­lights a painful truth—Misty’s unwill­ing­ness to accept that their his­to­ry can be eas­i­ly set aside. Their dance con­tin­ues to draw atten­tion from bystanders, under­scor­ing the inten­si­ty of their moment amidst a bustling city, all while he grap­ples with the bit­ter­sweet real­i­ty of their past rela­tion­ship and the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a future apart.

The chap­ter encap­su­lates a fleet­ing yet sig­nif­i­cant moment of con­nec­tion, fraught with nos­tal­gia and unspo­ken sen­ti­ments, as both char­ac­ters nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of love and loss.